Mattityahu, Shelem, (Weiner)

SHELEM (Weiner), MATTITYAHU (1904–1975), Israeli composer. Born in Zamoscz, Poland, Shelem went to Palestine in 1922, worked in agriculture and road building and in 1927 joined kibbutz Bet Alfa. For a time he was a shepherd, and the shepherds' and shearing festival songs which he composed at that time were his first popular works. In 1940 Shelem joined kibbutz *Ramat Yoḥanan. From 1944 onward Shelem was chiefly active as a teacher and *Youth Aliyah instructor in his kibbutz. In 1958 he founded an archive there (Makhon le-Havai u-le-Mo'ed) to collect the documentation on the development of the forms of festival and holiday celebration in the kibbutzim.

Shelem's songs, to which he always wrote the words, were created for the immediate needs of kibbutz life – from kindergarten to communal celebrations. The following list contains Shelem's best-known songs in approximate chronological order.