God Bless America an example of Berlin's "habit of interpolating bits of half-remembered songs into his own numbers." Berlin, born Israel Baline, had himself written several Jewish-themed novelty tunes. In 1938, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Irving Berlin, who was Jewish and had arrived in America from Russia at the age of five, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song," and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show. Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, "to the right" might have been considered a call to
God Bless America the World" in 1985. Dion's version also received enough radio airplay to reach No. 14 on "Billboard"'s Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The music video was made and aired in September 2001. Dion performed the song also a few times during 2002. In 2003, she performed it at Super Bowl XXXVII. She sang it on July 4, 2004 in her "A New Day..." show as well. "God Bless America" performed by Dion exists in two versions, live and studio. Both included on collections to gather funds for the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their families.