‘I Have No Other Country’

The Fellowship  |  June 8, 2018

Ehud Manor

Lived: July 13, 1941 – April 12, 2005

Why you should know him: An Israeli TV and radio personality, Manor wrote over 1,250 Hebrew songs, including “Ein Li Eretz Acheret (I Have No Other Country).”

Born Ehud Weiner in Binyamina, Israel, Ehud was married to Israeli actress Ofra Fuchs for 40 years. The two had three children: Gali, Libby, and Yehuda, who was named after Ehud’s brother who was killed while serving with the IDF during Israel’s 1968 war with Egypt, Jordan, and the PLO.

Ehud began working as a musical editor for Israeli radio in the 1960s, and changed his last name to Manor, as it was customary then for radio personalities to use Hebrew names. Throughout his career, Manor wrote more than 1,250 songs, including “Ein Li Eretz Acheret (I Have No Other Country),” “Brit Olam (Everlasting Covenant),” the 1978 Eurovision-winning “Abanabi,” and “Ahi HaTza’ir Yehuda (My Younger Brother Yehuda).”

Manor was also a busy and successful translator, translating over 600 works into Hebrew, including Broadway shows Cabaret and Les Miserables, and the songs for the Israeli version of beloved children’s television show Barney.

Manor’s songs are the most played on Israeli radio, and shortly before his untimely death from complications due to cancer, he received an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University for his prolific career.

He also received the Israel Prize in 1998, with the committee who awarded him saying, “For the past 30 years, he has expressed our mood through the hundreds of songs he has written together with the finest composers. The man who declared that he had no other country is the laureate of the Israel Prize.”