Echoes of song, fragments of emotion, wisps of memory. It’s a melody that still replays in your mind, years after its chorus first captured your heart.

What’s that tune that, when you hear it, brings you back to another place, time, and association? Or perhaps it’s an old, long-forgotten Jewish song, maybe one that never conquered the limelight but conquered your neshamah?

We asked readers and public figures to share some of those memories intertwined with old and forgotten songs — because when it comes to a niggun, past and present merge into a timeless inspiration

S.G., Lakewood, NJ

Song of My Heart: “The Return”

Album: No Jew Will Be Left Behind (Avraham Fried)

There’s a beautiful Fried song that never seems to have gotten publicity. It has a haunting instrumental intro and emotional lyrics and melody, and I’ve loved it since I was a kid: “The Return” — featured on his first album. (“Open your heart, Hashem awaits to enter… His helping Hand will bring you ever higher, and lead you on the road to your return…”) I recently found out that the composer was a good friend of Avraham Fried, Shmuly Goldman. It’s baffling that people don’t know this song.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 710)