 for all those who were looking for a path to resistance. In the following years, when the Nazi boots walked over the Polish towns and villages, and the Jews were closed in crowded ghettos, the song “Undzere Shtetl Brent” became a signal to the fight and a call to the fighters in all the resistance groups in the camps and forests: it became a hymn. And thus the former romantic and dreamer, extoller of the twilight voices and eternal consoler, turned into a caller to revolt and revenge; a popular poet who stirred up the Jews of Poland.
The Thematics of Gebirtig’s Songs
If you want to learn about the life of the Jews in Poland – go to the songs of Mordechai Gebirtig. There was no tiny corner in the life of every Jew which Gebirtig would not meticulously look into and later describe in his works. The everyday worries of the simple Jewish people, their desperate, harsh struggle for existence and earning, the simple everyday moments of joy and sadness during work hours, breaks and free time after work, the continuous efforts of parents to provide for their children more than they had for themselves, the regular worry of raising children and hopes for the children’s happiness, the efforts of parents to give their children an education, and the apprehension that they might depart the straight and narrow – all these became topics of Mordechai Gebirtig’s songs.
He sung about Jewish life from its beginning to the end. Often, even before the child was born, the parents argued about its name. Such a case Gebirtig had shown with his good-natured example:
So why argue now
And waste words –
May be there will be twins –
And it may happen – two girls.
And how does Mordechai Gebirtig put Jewish children to sleep? First of all he taught them not to cry from hunger. It did not fit a Jewish little one not to be able to control his instincts:
So sleep, my poor little girl,
Because the sleep soothes the need,
Your doll is also hungry,
Still it does not cry and demand bread…
It was easy for him to write this way while his father went far away looking for work and his mother stayed behind helpless with her little chick. He found convincing arguments for her, and this is what he put in her mouth:
“Sleep, my solace, my dear little Kiva,
Hush, be quiet, what is the matter with you today?
It came today a letter from your father,
He is writing we are going to join him.”
Mordechai Gebirtig brightened up when he allowed his little Kivas, Motls and Nochemls to play. Often they became mischievous, and more than once shortened the life of their kheder teacher. When such a little urchin went above the measure, Gebirtig at once caught his hand and punished him. Such a Moyshele started making excuses to his father and stammered in tears:
Daddy, I did not want to play with him,
But he gave me his grandpa’s glasses,
Then I presented him
With the little violin, that you once
Brought for me to play with”.
Strict and reproving was Gebirtig when it came to Torah study. A Jew must study the Torah. When he met a little brat who did not want to take this responsibility on himself, Gebirtig instead of a smile put a serious expression on his face and, with fatherly worry, began scolding him:
A Jew should study the Torah with great joy,
Not be distracted with silly games –
Fine is a man, who is decent and follows God,
And who is studying well and makes good living.
Who suffered more from hunger than Mordechai Gebirtig?! One had to know hunger, not just the father and the mother, but the baby in his cradle and even the kitten in the house, too. The best way to bring out laughter was “A bun with butter." In this song he portrayed how Jewish children yearn for “beans with noodles” with their mouths watering and, meantime, must satisfy themselves with garlic-soup:
“What do we have for supper tonight?”-
Yosele asked his mother.
“I very much would like to eat
Potato mushroom soup!”
See his chutzpa, he demands
Potato mushrooms soup!
Today I cooked a garlic-soup,
God forbid, you won’t be poisoned by this!
Mordechai Gebirtig lived in a time when separation between boys and girls