Introduction to Yiddish Music Playlist

Music Playlist Compiled by Sadie Gold-Shapiro
This playlist includes the music video clips Sadie shared on Day 3 of "A Bisl Yiddish", plus additional clips. Taken as a group, they give an overview of the development of the genre from the early 20th century to present day.

Yiddish version of Leonard Cohen's song, "Hallelujah."

Translated into Yiddish and sung by Daniel Kahn.

Burikes perform Di Tsukunft (The Future) February 2020/Shevat 2780. Yiddish text by Morris Winchevsky. English translation by Adah Hetko.

Burikes
The Facebook page for the Burikes Klezmer band.

Jewish Labor Movement Songs

From Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird's album "Lost Causes" www.paintedbird.net. Original Yiddish song by Mordechai Gebirtig, written ca. 1930 in Krakow. English by Daniel Kahn, 2009.

March of the Jobless Lyrics
This page from Yidlid.org has the lyrics to this workers song in the original Yiddish, transliteration, and English. There is also a vocabulary list of the lyrics, and links to performances of the song..

The Victory of the Cloakmakers (1910)

A year before the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (March 25, 1911), the Cloakmakers went on an 8-day strike, which, in combination with other labor action in 1909 resulted in union recognition. This rendition of the song is performed by Jane Peppler. http://www.yiddishpennysongs.com/

Modern Klezmer Bands

Online Yiddish/English Dictionaries

Yiddish/English Dictionary
This is an interactive dictionary where you can search or input words or phrases to generate the translations. From the University of Kentucky College of Engineering.
YIddish Word Lists
Yiddish words with the English translations are grouped according to categories. For example, Around the House, Clothing, Animals, Birds, Legal Terms, Colors, etc. From https://derbay.org/

Sound Archives

Jewish Music Web Center
An online bibliography of Jewish Music. Thousands of websites and many more academic sources of Jewish music interest are linked through this site.
The Miklen Archive of Jewish Music
The Milken Archive contains over 600 pieces of music by roughly 200 composers. The Archive has also documented the history of Jewish music in America through more than 180 oral histories with composers, cantors, educators, and performers, and invested heavily in the creation of comprehensive essays and liner notes that examine the cultural and historical contexts in which this music has been created.
The Ruth Rubin Legacy Archive of Jewish Folksongs
This archive contains over 2,000 Yiddish songs performed by some of the most extraordinary traditional singers of the 20th century. Browse this collection by the following options: Title, Performer, Genre, Tape, Location, or Playlist.
YIVO Sound Archive
Over 15,000 recordings of Jewish songs and music The collection includes both music and spoken word recordings, and also contains record catalogs, and other materials related to the history of recorded Jewish music. The earliest item in the collection is a wax cylinder, dating from 1900.
Shloymele/Malkele Song
This is a link to a video of a performance by other artists of the song Sarah Mlotek sang in one of our sessions. The video is from the Milken Archives.

Bay mir bistu sheyn

Bay mir bistu sheyn - To Me You Are Beautiful
An article with audio of the song from the Milken Archives about the creation and performance of this iconic Yiddish song composed in 1932 by Jacob Jacobs and Sholom Secunda for the Yiddish musical comedy M’ken lebn nor m’lost nit (One Could Really Live, but They Won’t Let You). The article includes transliterated Yiddish lyrics and the English translation.

Original 1932 poster: http://nonblog.typepad.com/the_nonbloggish_blog/2006/04/in_1938_bei_mir.html

"Bei mir bist du schon" (בײַ מיר ביסטו שיין‎) is a popular Yiddish song composed by Jacob Jacobs (lyricist) and Sholom Secunda (composer) in 1932. The Andrews Sisters recorded the song in 1937 and it became their first major hit, earning them a gold record, the first ever to a female vocal group. It was also a worldwide hit.

Choose Your Own Yiddish Adventure

The Ruth Rubin Legacy: Archive of Yiddish Folksongs
Take 20 minutes to explore this sound archive of Yiddish folksongs. The archive offers several ways to search. By Title, Performer, Tape, Genre, Locations, Playlists. If you find a song you particularly like, please share it with our group.

"Coney Island:" A Dadaist sound poem by Victor Packer
Listen to this Dadaist Sound Poem by Victor Packer, translated by Henry Sapoznik. "Coney Island” is one of a series of ritmish retsitatsye (rhythmic recitation) poems written by Victor Packer and performed by him live on New York radio station WLTH in the late 1930s.
Vocaroo Sound Recorder
Create your own sound poem using some Yiddish words. You could use the vocabulary list below to choose words for your poem. Or use the online dictionaries posted on this page. The Vocaroo sound recorder is a very easy free podcasting tool if you'd like to record your sound poem.

Yiddish/English Vocabulary List

A Bisl Yiddish: Day 3: Music