se,

•

Vaxa

In Europe and throughout the world, disease Raisins and Almonds
was rampant at the end of the 19th century and
robably the most famous Jewish lullaby
well into the 20th. Fortunate was the child who
ever written is "Raisins and Almonds," the
even survived to hear a lullaby or watch the in-
story of a little boy, a white goat and a moth-
sects. In 1891, Dr. E. Harris Ruddock of Great
er's
hopes
for the future.
Britain published a book detailing diseases, usu-
The most recent version of this song was by Abra-
ally resulting in fatality, prevalent in infants and
children. They included smallpox, measles, chick- ham Goldfaden, a 19th-century poet and playwright
A ntinber of tapes and CDs are available that feature these
en pox, typhoid, diphtheria and mumps. About 50 best-known as the father of the Yiddish theater.
Jewish lullabies and others.
He was born in 1840 in Staro Konstantinov in
percent of all babies born at the time died in their
One;of the best, though it can take some searching at Jew-
the
Ukraine,
and
as
a
youth
studied
Russian
and
first years of life.
German.
At
15
he
went
to
learn
ish
bookstores to locate, is Yiddish Lullabies (produced in 1991
The typical Jewish father in
YIVO INSTI TUTE OF JEWISH RESEARCH
with Abraham Baer Gottlober, a
Eastern Europe worked in a small
in Israel by Israel Music).
19th-century Talmud instructor
shop, with one or two other men.
s wonderful collection features original recordings of
and author of Hebrew and Yiddish
Mothers cooked and cleaned and
eat4:4STossele Rosenblatt (singing "Sleep Quietly"),
books and poems. For a time Gold-
sang to their children of how good
e Malaysky family and Pinchas Borenstein. Everything is
faden
attended
a
government-ap-
boys grow up to be talmudic schol-
proved rabbinic seminary (which
sung in Yiddish, and the music has the distinct sad, tender
ars, and girls marry kind, wealthy
closed in 1885) in Zhitomer in the
,sound ofscings from long ago.
husbands.
Ukraine, home to a Jewish com-
In "What Do You Want, My
munity of almost 10,000, inclu •
ish Lullabies for American Mothers (On-Hold
Child?" a mother asks her daugh-
many leading Chasidim.
ter whether she will she wed a tai-
tions, 1991) includes
Goldfaden's writing ca-
lor, a shoemaker, a blacksmith, a
"Raisins and Almonds,"
reer began in 1862 when a
baker? No, the girl says again and
"Yankele" and "Song of
collection
of
his
poems,
again. She wants a merchant who
written
in
Hebrew,
were
the Babysitter." Sung
"buys goods, and kisses his wife
published in the journal
by Elizabeth Gelman,
like the Bible."
Ha-Meliz. One year later
Of course, by the time these
the tape was designed
his first Yiddish poems
children reached their teen years,
to "instruct mothers
were printed in Kol
they learned that life was any-
and mothers-to-be to
followed
in
1866
Mevasser,
thing but a song. This revelation Abraham Goldfaden: A new twist on an
his
first
Dos
Yudele,
with
learn
Yiddish lullabies."
became the basis of a popular lul- old favorite.
collection of Yiddish songs.
Side A has vocals; Side
laby called "Song of the Babysit-
In the 1870s Goldfaden
ter."
B is instrumental only
Though copies are available from as early as moved to Romania, where he met the
so mothers can sing
1888, "Song of the Babysitter" was not published Broder Singers. Despite their name, they
along.
weren't
a
precursor
to
the
Barry
Sisters
until 1928, when Y.L. Cahan (1881-1960), the
or
even
the
Osmond
Brothers.
The
term
Russian-born Hebrew poet, included it in a col-
* A Legacy of Lullabies
"Broder Singers," in fact, comprised nu-
lection.
merous
groups
of
men
who
performed,
usu-
(DreamSong Record-
"Some girls go dancing and have fun," the singer
ings, 1993) features tra-
wails. "I have to sit here and sing this baby to ally in improvisation, Yiddish songs and
skits at small clubs throughout Galicia,
sleep. Some girls sit around and have candy, but
ditional lullabies in
south Russia and Romania. They took their
I wash the baby's diapers."
Yiddish,
Ladino and
In other lullabies, a woman sings of lost love to name from their founder, Berl Broder, and
Hebrew. Sung by Tan-
attracted
a
number
of
future
stars
of
the
her infant. One of the oldest-known Jewish lulla-
ja Skolnik, the songs in
bies is "He Promised Me," in which a woman be- Yiddish theater.
By 1876 Goldfaden had organized his
"Sing, Birdie,
moans the man who left her for another (when "he
promised to marry me"). What, she asks, is she to own Yiddish singing and acting troupe. Af-
Sing," "Raisins and Al-
ter expanding the entourage, he took it on
do with the silk dress she had for the wedding?
monds" and "Laila,
the road, so to speak, to Bucharest and
She doesn't sit weeping for long, though. God,
Laila."
Odessa.
The
traveling
theater
was
ex-
she tells the child, should punish the cad for his
tremely
successful
and
halted
only
"false love."
* Jewish Lullabies
Similarly, "Lulinka" begins happily enough when, in 1883, the Russian govern-
ment
called
an
end
to
all
public
per-
(Brentwood Music,
with a Jewish king, but ends with a death and a
formances in Yiddish.
lonely young woman abandoned by her love.
1 1992) also features one
Many of the Yiddish theater per-
In "Lulinka," the singer refers to her child as
side of vocals, another
AN
a "little bird" — a creature that makes frequent formers chose to emigrate to Paris,
with
instrumental only.
appearances in Jewish lullabies, such as Wig Lid" New York and London, where Gold-
Vocal soloists are Eliz-
faden
continued
to
direct
and
produce
(Cradle Song) by I.L. Peretz.
abeth Zoller, Paula
Peretz (1852-1915) was a Yiddish and Hebrew their shows. In 1903 he settled in the
Ramsey and Karen
poet who began writing only after his career as United States, living here until his
death in 1908.
a lawyer ended. In Wig Lid," he tells of an apple
Taylor-Good. Among
Goldfaden showed a remarkable
tree on which "the mama bird sings her little ones
the songs on the tape
talent for diversity: he could write
to sleep."
are "Raisins and Almonds," "Numi, Numi"
his
Ben
Ami,
high
drama,
such
as
Why so many birds? Perhaps it is because they
and "Yankele." This is nice and gentle lis-
are the only ones to share with humans a certain adaptation of George Eliot's Daniel
tening for tiny souls who need some sleep.
skill. In Althea Silverman's children's book Habibi Deronda, or comedy like Shmendrik,
and Yow: A Little Boy and His Dog, Habibi tells or tragedy, including Doctor Al-
Especially pleasant are the "Ancient Lulla-
Sung in English
mosado, written in response to the
his canine pal: "Do you know that we owe very
interwovizil witti Yiddish
by"
and "Lullaby's Arch."
much to the birds? If it were not for the birds, man anti-Semitic pogroms of 1881.
The
lullaby
for
which
Goldfaden
is
would not know how to sing ... Of all the animals
* "Birds Are Dreaming" (under the title "Vig
and all the creatures, birds are the only ones that best remembered comes from his
a
tragicomedy
which
takes
Lid")
can
be
heard
on Songs of the Vilna Ghetto (CBS Records,
Shulamit,
1880
operetta
sing. Man has learned song from the birds."
Ltd.)
Like the little birds in Peretz's "Vig Lid," chil- its name from a dancer in Song of Songs. There
were numerous American productions of the work,
dren find nothing more comforting than a song to
* 'Wings of Love" (sung by the composer) can be found on Safam
hold them as they fall asleep. Here are the faces including one in 1925 at the Circle Theater on Hast-
albums and on Rosalie Gerut's Sleep, My Child.
and stories behind some of the most famous Jew- ings Street in Detroit (starring Detroit's own Mis-
cha Fishzon, the "Jewish John Barrymore" and son
ish lullabies, which have soothed the souls of Jew-
of Abraham Fishzon, who founded the Yiddish The-
ish children throughout history.

fo

Recommended
ening

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