On yomazi karon, which is israel's remembrance day, a siren just went off across the country. And everyone was very surprised, because there had been no indication that anything was coming. The radios come back on, but suddenly the radios start broadcasting again. That's when people start understanding that something very bad has happened.
In October 1973, an unhappy Leonard Cohen was listening to the radio on his Greek island home when he heard that Israel was at war. He headed to Tel Aviv, exchanging a personal and creative crisis for a national one. Absent a plan and even a guitar, Cohen wound up serenading Israeli soldiers at the front. Journalist Matti Friedman talks about his book Who by Fire with EconTalk host Russ Roberts and explains how a songwriter and a nation were transformed in the crucible of war.