Bar-Nash (Noah Shapiro)

Born Noah Shapira in Kishinev (today Chişinău, Moldova), Bar-Nash grew up in a Hasidic family who encouraged him to pursue both traditional and secular education. An early member of the Ḥoveve Tsiyon movement in Kishinev, he immigrated to Palestine in 1890 and was a pioneer in Zikhron Ya’akov, Rehovot, and Hadera. His work in the fields inspired many of the songs he would publish, in Hebrew newspapers, under the pseudonym Bar-Nash, the most famous being “Shir avodah” (Worker’s Song, 1895), also known by its refrain, “Yah ḥai li, li-hah-‘amali!” (O I have my life and my labor!)