Discover the Music

From the poem by the Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). One version published in 1932 by A.Z. Idelsohn; another in 1946 by Ben Yomen.

Song by Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908), founder of the modern Yiddish theatre, for his operetta Doktor Almasado, 1882. The song was printed in a choral arrangement by Ephraim Skliar by the Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. Petersburg in 1909. It was also published in sheet music by S. Schenker, N.Y., 1916, bearing the title "A yid bistu, gey vayter, gey" (You are a Jew, move on, move on). In Alexander Harkavy's English translation, it was called ''The Wandering Jew." Later Isaac Reingold wrote a parody "A tremp bistu, gey vayter, gey'" (You're a tramp, move on, move on). In the 1890's Yiddish sweatshop poet, Morris Rosenfeld, wrote a poem about Castle Garden using this song's melody. Over the years numerous variations of the original melody were published. The version presented here duplicates the 1916 corrected song sheet of Sholom Secunda's arrangement and the recording by opera tenor Richard Tucker.

Words and music by Aliza Greenblatt (1888-1975). Published in the poet’s collection Tsen lider. Popular in the 1930’s in Europe and the United States. See “Du, du”.

Folk song, published by M. Beregovski and I. Feffer in 1938. A song of the Jewish soldier, contrasting the bitter life in the Czarist army with home.

The song was published in sheet music in this country in 1905, without accreditation to any author or composer, simply that it was sung by Rosa Klug. Theater historian Sholem Perlmutter writes that the song was written by the Galician Jewish composer Khone Wolfsthal (1851-1924). Although Wolfsthal never came to this country, many of his songs were adopted here and credited to others. It was sung in the musical The Golden Land by Bruce Adler.

Folksong. Published by the St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music in 1909, in the arrangement of Ephraim Shkliar; also by Henry Lefkowitch in this country in 1915. The interpretation of the vocables expresses the meaning of the question and reply. The song entitled “L’enigme eternelle” was treated to an artistic setting for voice and orchestra by Maurice Ravel in: “Deux melodies hebraiques.” In her book Vagabond Stars Nahma Sandrow cites the singing of the motif by the famous Soviet Jewish actor and director Solomon Michaels: “In the. last month of 1939, in the face of [this] oncoming destruction and in symbolic resistance to it, Mikhoels played perhaps his greatest role, in a play commemorating Sholem Aleichem’s eightieth birthday. A motif for the production was the folk melody that Tevye hummed as he left the town: ‘Fregt di velt an alte kashe’ . . . “

A song of the Vilno ghetto by Shermke Kaczerginski (1908-1954) written after the death of his wife in April, 1943. It was first sung in the theatre revue Di Yugenish In Fas. Later it was sung in other ghettos and concentration camps. Kaczerginski joined the partisan forces following the liquidation of the ghetto in September, 1943. After the war he compiled a collection of several hundred ghetto songs. He survived the war to meet his death in a plane crash. Music is by Abraham Brudno who, following the liquidation of the ghetto, September 1943, was deported to a German concentration camp in Estonia where he died.

This song was written by Kariel Broydo while in the Vilno ghetto (see note about author in Geto). Composer unknown.

The song refers to the towns where Reb Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), founder of the Hassidic movement, lived. Collected by singer Masha Benya Matz from Mordecai Kosover and transmitted to Sidor Belaraky. The second stanza does not appear in Belarsky’s Songbook.

Folk song, textual variant published in 1901 by S. Ginzburg and P. Marek; text and music published in 1927 by Y.L. Cahan.

Words are by Mordkhe Gebirtig Gebirtig (see note about author in Es Brent), who wrote the poem in Lagevnikiin May, 1941. Music is by Emil Gorovets (b. 1926), Soviet Yiddish singer and composer who emigrated to the United States in 1974.

Song written in the Vilno ghetto by Kasriel Broydo (1907 – 1945), author and director of theater revues and concerts in the ghetto. He was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to a Latvian concentration camp. In January, 1945 he was transferred to Germany and was forcibly drowned in the Baltic Sea near Konigsburg together with hundreds of other Jews. Composer unknown.

Words by Peretz Hirshbeln (1880-1948); music by Lazar Weiner (1897-1982). Published under the title “A maysele” (A story) by Jibneh Verlag, Vienna, 1936. The song is based on one of the Sabbath zmires (table songs) that describe the wonders of Elijah the Prophet.

Folk song, published in Ost und West, in 1905. A very similar theme can be found in the German folk song, “lch ging ein Mal spazieren.”

This song was sung by the deported Jews of Cracow in Miedzrych Podiaska and in the Bochnia ghetto in 1941.
Author and composer unknown.

Words by Louis Gilrod (1879-1930); music by David Meyerowitz (1867-1943). Published in sheet music by A. Teres, N.Y., 1921. The song was written for Z. Libin's play Di gebrokhene hertser (The Broken Hearts), 1903, where it was sung by the famous actor Jacob P. Adler. Theatre authority Sholem Perlmutter notes: "Which Jew who has some contact with the Yiddish word did not hear himself sing this song? … It was sung in all Yiddish theatres throughout the world." In the ghetto the song assumed a negative meaning with the words: "Di geto hot a batayt/ Fun a moyredikn sof / Far a folk vos shtendik hot zayn shtrof/ Azoy batlonesdik farshvekht/ Mit 'got un zayn mishpet iz gerekht." (The ghetto signifies a terrible end for a people who always accepted its punishment so foolishly with "God and His Judgment are right"). Dos geto-land, in S. Kaczerginski. The song was revived in the Off-Broadway musical The Golden Land (1982-87).

The words and music were published in Shmerke Kaczerginski’s Lider fun di getos un lagern. Kaczerginski surmises that the song was written in the Lublin region, where many Jews of Poland and other occupied countries were herded together. He notes that the text of the song is unique in the subject matter of ghetto and concentration camp songs. The song was also published in English translation in Lucy S. Dawidowicz’ A Holocaust Reader, N.Y., 1976.

Folksong about the Jewish underworld in Warsaw. Collected from Alexander Erlich (New York City) and published in Yidisher folklor, 1954. The melody of the refrain is similar to the song "Mir zaynen nikhter" (We are sober). The song was based on a true incident. According to Bernard Goldstein in Tsvantsik yor in varshever bund, 1919-1939 (Twenty Years in the Warsaw Bund), Harshl was an extortionist and leader of the Jewish underworld in Warsaw. Meyer-Tshompl, a coal deliverer, was a leader of a group in a different section of the city; he "dethroned" Harshl and took over his territory on Szwientojerska Street. Goldstein wrote: "This created such a furor in the underworld that a song about this incident arose and spread outside the confines of the Warsaw underworld."

This popular folk song (textual variant published 1901 by S. Ginzburg and P. Marek); text and music published in 1905 in Ost und West has parallels in other cultures.

Published in Shmerke Kaczerginski’s collection Lider fun di getos un lagern. The song was sung in the ghetto of Oszmiana (a town near Vilno). The words were sung to a popular Polish melody. According to Aleksander Kulisiewicz in Polskie Piesni Obozowe 1939-1945, 1975 (unpublished), one song with this melody was the Polish ghetto song Elzunia (There once was a little girl Elzunia. She is dying alone, for her father was in Maidanek and her mother in Auschwitz). The words, written by a nine-year old girl, were found sewn in her shirt. Below the text was written with crooked letters: “I sang it to the tune of the lullaby. ‘Na Wojtusia z popielnika iskiereczka mruga (From the oven little sparks blink). I am grateful to Dr. Bret Werb of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for this information. The melody was also used for two other Yiddish songs: one of the many melodies of Sholem Aleichem’s famous lullaby Shlof, mayn kind (Sleep, My Child) and Dos kranke yingl (The Sick Boy), both published in Bine Shteinberg’s Undzer gezang.

An unpublished song by popular Yiddish folk poet Mordkhe Gebirtig (1877-1942) kllled by the Nazis. The text is from a manuscript in the YIVO Archives. Gebirtig was the author of many song favorites like “Reyzele,” “Yankele.” “Moyshele, mayn fraynd” (Moyshele, my friend), “Dray tekhterlekh” (Three daughters). The song is in the repertoire of singer Mina Bern.

Words by H. Roisenblatt (1878-1956) with music by Isaac Pirozhnikoff (1859-1933). Previously published by Samuel Bugatch in 1951.