Yiddish Curiosities: a library of wonderful but forgotten Yiddish songs from the late 1920s and after (includes Polish Jewish Cabaret). Have a listen!

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

A badkhn-lid (Jewish wedding song of long ago)

UPDATE: I first heard this song long, long ago when I was recording for Sheva Zucker's set of Yiddish language cassettes. I did half the songs and Sender did the other half and he sang this song, but I really liked it, so in 2014 I recorded it in my living room and put it on this blog.

This blog was recently hacked and I spent spent a couple days going through all the posts to extinguish links to the Malaysian gaming site that had gotten hold of it. So when I got to this song, it turned out the soundcloud link was dead. Why? I don't know. So then I thought, no problem, I'll just find it on my computer and put it up on youtube. Except I couldn't find my recording. It wasn't on my computer, or on my hard drives or flash drives. It was just gone.

So, I recorded it again a couple weeks ago. I asked Sheva where she had gotten the song, and she said it was at Josh and Reyzl's wedding, and I wrote to Josh to ask him where HE found it, but he didn't answer, so I can't tell you.

Back in the old days, the crying at weddings was not just from joy. Marriage wasn't easy, especially for the new wife. The wedding entertainer or Master of Ceremonies, the badkhn, was tasked with reminding the assembled multitude that with life as well as with dinner, it's often not very good and the portions are always too small.

English translation of the Yiddish after the jump:

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Labels: battle between the sexes, making a living (poverty), nostalgia, weddings

Monday, January 19, 2026

Index to all the songs on this site

Saturday, December 17, 2022

Ver ken di libe fun a heyliker mame farshteyn? Fabulous Yiddish tango from "Bandit Gentleman"

UPDATED to include a link to the Olga Mieleszczuk I just found on youtube: Heyliker mame.

And here is my singalong video (with the transliterated Yiddish text and translation):

Or click on the long-suffering mother (right) to listen to and/or buy this track from our Lebedik Yankel cd.

In Itzik Zhelonek's collection he references this song as being from BenZion Witler's show "Bandit Gentleman" - I couldn't find the recording by Benzion Witler until I wrote to Karsten Troyke, who has recorded the song as "Ver ken di libe," and he kindly pointed me to the Witler 78 - it's hiding on Youtube under the name Der ken di libeh.

Since I hadn't been able to find that version, I had already transcribed the song from a Herman Fenigstein recording found at europeana.eu - and here's our version of the song and the sheet music with translation, transcription, chords, etc:

Here's our Yiddish music video with captions from a 2013 concert:

Troyke's version is faster and has the authentic rhythm from the Witler recording. Ours is more like the slower Fenigstein version. It's a great song either way. Note bene, the song has also been found under these transliterations: Ver ken du liebe and Wer, ken du liebe.

Lyrics and translation after the jump:

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Labels: mother, nostalgia, songs for sale, tango

Friday, October 28, 2022

Lo lanu di naye (Yiddish theater song) (Lo Lani)

UPDATE: Reposting to add the animated video I did today. Nobody ever listens to the automatic videos created by Routenote of the songs from our cds so I thought I'd make one today and see if it gets some listeners:

Here's something very interesting about the fellow I called here (in the second verse) "Vayzote" but who, it seems, is called in Yiddish Vayzuse and whose name is also used for "idiot." He was Haman's youngest son. You can read a great blog article about him, from the Mayrent Institute blog, here: Vayzuso. And there is a wonderful recording from way back in 1901 made by Dave Franklin, "the king of comic singers." A great song and a great read!

Click the picture to listen to and/or buy this track, Di naye lo lanu, from our Lebedik Yankel cd. Aviva Enoch plays the piano on the cd.

(Picture: Mordechai on his horse, as mentioned in the song!)

And here is a live concert version with Roger Lynn Spears playing piano:

This song was printed twice in the collection (once in 1929 and once in 1934) which indicates it must have been pretty popular! As with "Di Naye Al Chet" and "Me Shoklt Zikh," the song begins in a religious setting (pious Jews praying at Sukkot and waving their lulavs). It plays with the line from the Halleluja, "Lo Lanu" (not for us but for you, God) and the similar "lo eleinu" which means more or less, "let it not happen to me/us!" Having set the proper context, it then wanders off and applies the concept in a more secular context.

Aviva and Roger both do a great job of interpreting the accompaniment as heard on the Herman Fenigstein 78 found at Harvard's Judaica Collection. (Fenigstein sings the same first verse as noted in Zhelonek's book, but his second and third verses are different.) Although ordinarily I adapt lyrics to standard Yiddish (because that's what I know), in this case many of the rhymes won't work unless one sings "Lo lani" (what he sings sometimes sounds more like "Loy lani") so that's what I did.

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Labels: battle between the sexes, der rebbe, humor & satire, love, making a living (poverty), modernity, nostalgia, religion, songs for sale

Sunday, July 3, 2022

Yosl un Sore-Dvoshe: a tale of a lover's spat which culminates in a noisy trip to the theater

UPDATE to add video from our May 2022 concert at the Shadowbox. We just did the first two verses and went out with a bass solo.

This is Kasriel Broydo's send-up of Fanny Gordon's tango Milosc cie zgubila.That's Fanny in the picture. She was the only female composer I know of working successfully in the Polish cabarets and nightclubs between the World Wars.

This Yiddish version was sung in Europe by Mina Bern and Joseph Widetzky.

I love how the loving couple displays behavior that must have been so aggravating to the singers: they sneak into the theater for free, they snap and crunch sunflower seeds and cookies in the front row and they even eat fruit compote and nudge around with their pal Velvl.

You can listen to or buy the cut from our album here: Yosl un Sore-Dvoshe on Cabaret Warsaw: Yiddish & Polish Hits of the 1920s - 1930s by Mappamundi

Here's my translation from the Yiddish:

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Labels: battle between the sexes, humor & satire, love, making a living (poverty), songs for sale

Email me (Jane Peppler) or call 919-606-2122

This blog focuses on Yiddish songs from the 1920s and 1930s (and sometimes beyond), especially songs published 1929-1934 by Warsaw book and record seller Itzik Zhelonek. See also:

My blog for earlier Yiddish music, mainly published in New York 1895-1920: Yiddish Penny Songs;
Our Yiddish song videos (with English subtitles)
The Yiddish Emporium: Yiddish books, cds, songbooks

Click the picture to hear my talk at the Library of Congress on finding and reviving lost pre-war Yiddish cabaret songs, "Yiddish Songs of the Jazz Age":

The Yiddish Songs from Warsaw songbook, click for more information:

Our companion cds to the Polish Jewish Cabaret project:

Skylark2.com (Skylark Productions) sells cabaret, British Isles, World music cds and songbooks. It's a cottage industry!
After three years of research I have managed to find melodies for 106 of the 126 song lyrics found in record store owner Itzik Zhelonek's seven books of "Famous theater songs" - there are about 20 to go, perhaps they'll never be found.

If you have more information on any of this music, or want to ask a question or just say hi, please contact me: Jane Peppler

2. Link to songs for sale

3. Click here for our music videos of Yiddish songs with English subtitles (mainly post-1925)

4. List of the still lost songs. Do you know any of them?