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

UPDATE: Reposted to add the new singalong Yiddish music video, part of my campaign to get other people to sing these songs:




Or visit to the whole track from our cd of the same name: Lebedik Yankel.

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This is yet another song about a guy who is not supporting his family because he's too busy praying. Well, he does have an occupation of sorts: he repairs crummy old shoes. (This guy doesn't look very lively, does he!?)

Itzik Zhelonek labeled it "folk song sung by Herman Fenigstein." Morris Rund, however, copyrighted the lyrics and credited Aaron Lebedeff (or Lebedoff as it says on the card in the copyright office card catalog) as composer of the music. For the sheet music I transcribed an older recording of this song sung by Aaron Lebedeff, but that cut was taken down. If that was for copyright reasons, it was unnecessary, as Lebedeff never renewed the copyright and the song is now in the public domain. Luckily somebody else has posted a newer version by Lebedeff (it desn't have the chorus members who were on the previous recording): Aaron Lebedeff's Lebedik Yankel.

I found the last verse not on the recording or in the Zhelonek collection, but online.

I chose this as the name of the second Itzik Zhelonek cd because it was one of the few titles I thought everybody would pronounce. I didn't use the YIVO-sanctioned spelling of "Yankl" because it would worry English speakers.

This song contains the worst tongue-twister I've ever encountered in my life - "zorg zikh nisht mayn vaybl, zorg zikh nisht mayn taybl." I practiced it over and over and still couldn't get it. I was tempted to substitute something that's easier to say.

When Randy came up from Florida, he added the chorus and I added some oom-pah on fiddle and viola.

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Translation of the Yiddish lyrics:

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Labels: battle between the sexes, klezmer, making a living (poverty), religion, songs for sale

UPDATE: Reposted to include my recording on Youtube with text and translation so you can sing along!:


To hear (or even buy) the whole song visit our cd at Bandcamp: 'Oy mame shlog mikh nisht' on Lebedik Yankel

Morris Rund copyrighted the lyrics, crediting the music to Aaron Labedoff (Lebedeff). I found this song on the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archives site. Lebedeff's Vocalion recording is Oi Mama Shlog Mich Nit. There is also a wonderful version by Nechama Lifschitz on her "In Concert" album (see Mamme Shlog Mich Nit) and you'll also find it as "Oy mame shlog mikh nit."

This song is about, I think, a modern fad which was at that time making its way into the villages: marriages made by the young couple without benefit of matchmaker. "You, mom, are the only one who didn't know he loves me and wants to marry me." They sealed the deal in the usual way and now there is no point in getting on the girl's case - it's 'too late.' That was not the shtetl way, but there was no stopping it...


My translation of the Yiddish lyrics:

Oy mame, don't beat me, hear me out. Yankl the furrier (or
cap-maker) came in my house. I got so confused, and
meanwhile he stroked me and kissed me.

Oy mame, don't beat me, don't plague me,
You're my protection in such an hour
I said no, he said yes. Oy mame, it's too late already.

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Labels: love, modernity, mother, songs for sale

UPDATE:I've put this version on youtube with singable transliteration and translation.


Click the album cover to hear and/or buy the song from our Lebedik Yankel cd, with Randy Kloko singing the guy who just can't get a break no matter how many jobs he tries. (The picture is one of the few I could find of a YOUNG man in a shtetl: I figured the narrator must be relatively young since he isn't "lacking for girls"...)

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The song was sung in Kalmanovitsh's 1924 show 'Dem tatn's zundele' and Zylbercweig credits Peretz Sandler as lyricist. In the manuscripts of the Hebrew Actors' Union housed at YIVO, "Dem Tatns Zindale" is credited to lyricist Oscar Ostroff and composer Ilia Trilling. However, in the Library of Congress one finds the song copyrighted in 1928 by lyricist Morris Rund and composer Herman Wohl. Morris Rund registered a tremendous number of copyrights of Yiddish theater songs - did he actually write them or were his claims false? How can we ever know?

This song is only hard to find because of the weird ways the title is spelled. For instance, it was copyrighted in 1928 by (lyrics) Morris Rund (melody) Herman Wohl, spelled: "Asach meluches in weinig bruches" ...

... and a youtube video: Aaron Lebedeff's "A sach Meluches wenig Bruches"

But it appears on another Aaron Lebedeff (Lebediev, Lebedev, Lebedef) recording (available at Amazon for a buck!) as A Sach Meluches Veinig Bruches.

Until YIVO created a "standard Yiddish transliteration" there was no system, everybody spelled Yiddish in English differently -  many people still resent the standard system of approximating Yiddish sounds and refuse to use it.

The reason this matters is that search engines can't find references to Yiddish words phonetically, you have to guess what spelling the content generator used.

The song was sung in the show 'Dem tatn's zundele.' Some cite Peretz Sandler as having written the words though Morris Rund cited himself as lyricist in the copyright. Morris Rund has a tremendous number of copyrights of Yiddish theater songs - did he write them or merely claim them falsely? How can we ever know?

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Here's my translation:

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Labels: klezmer, making a living (poverty), modernity, songs for sale

UPDATE: Reposted to add a new youtube version of this song with text and translation:

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Now that I have my own copy of Heskes, I see that she references quite a few songs called "The New [name of some prayer]." I assume they follow the form of this one and the other I've posted, "Lo Lanu (Loy Lani)" - they start in the synagogue, assuming the audience knows the context of the prayer they cite, and then go on to put the concept into more secular situations.

In this case: singing a smidgen of Al Chet (the Yom Kippur prayer which lists our sins), each character in his/her own verse grudgingly admits wrongdoing and asks forgivenness (and a good year).

This one: copyright 1928, words by Morris Rund, music by Sholom Secunda. It's a strange tune. Aviva Enoch is playing piano, thanks, Aviva. Randy Kloko sings bass on the chorus.

There are three verses in Zhelonek; the Pesach Burstein version, from which I transcribed the melody, also has three verses, completely different. The first verse I sing is the second Zhelonek verse. Burstein's first is: "On Yom Kippur God forgives all Jews for their sins. We beg, with fear and terror, that the Creator will provide happiness, health and livelihood. For the sins we have committed before Thee... The old Reb Zishe prays to God: "Maybe I sinned before you because I looked at another woman."


Here's my Yiddish translation of the version I sang:

Labels: humor & satire, making a living (poverty), modernity, religion, songs for sale

UPDATE: Reposted to add a full-length youtube video I made with text and translation, because I hope other people will sing these songs!



You can buy it at bandcamp: Oy vey me shoklt zikh on "In Odess".

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This is another of those great songs which start out in the synagogue and leave by the back door. From Wikipedia:

Shuckling (also written as shokeling), from the Yiddish word meaning "to shake", is the ritual swaying of worshipers during Jewish prayer, usually forward and back but also from side to side. This practice can be traced back to at least the eighth century, and possibly as far back as Talmudic times. It is believed to increase concentration and emotional intensity. In Chassidic lore, shuckeling is seen as an expression of the soul's desire to abandon the body and reunite itself with its source, similar to a flame's shaking back and forth as if to free itself from the wick.

Boris Rosenthal wrote this song in 1923 and he called it Men Schokelt Sich but on his own recording it's spelled Mi Shokelt Sich. The lyrics are by Jacob Jacobs. The song was featured in the Joseph Rumshinsky operetta "Mazel Tov" but Zhelonek heard it in Nellie Casman's hit show "Der Khasndl."

Ken Bloom played guitar on this cut and gave it a nice French gypsy beat.

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My translation of the Yiddish text:

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Labels: battle between the sexes, fun, humor & satire, klezmer, love, songs for sale, vaudeville