Music in Poland between the World Wars"
Tel Aviv, 1992 (Hebrew)
Mordechaj Gebirtig (Bertig)
Mordechai Gebirtig (Bertig)
(4.5.1877 - 4.6.1942)
Translated from the original text in Yiddish by Berta Kipnis* and Ralph Wittcoff* January 2013
Edited by Ada Holtzman (from the Hebrew text)
Among the musical treasurers of every nation, there are songs which, even in the composer’s lifetime, are accounted for folk songs. These songs, with their content and melody, express the heart and soul of each person, and at the same time reflect the feelings and striving of all of them together as a people. The songwriters and composers of these songs were lost in time, but their creations turned into folk songs. Nobody remembers the French folk singer Pierre-Jean de Béranger anymore, but his songs are still being sung until now (“La Grand-Mère”, “Le Vieux Sergeant”); the Russian Alexander Warlamow (1801-1842) left his people more than 200 songs which are popular even now among the masses, for example, “The Red Sarafan (The Red Dress); Also Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (the free shooter) songs in Germany (1786-1826) and Alexander Alyabyev’s (1787-1851) in Russia also continued to be very popular in their native lands.
We Jews also have had our own national poets and folk singers who, at different times, sang about everything troubling our people. Their heritage stretches from middle ages. One of the prominent figures was the Minnesinger - similar to the troubadour in France - Ziskind - “the Jew from Trimberg” (lived in the thiirteenth century). He was one of the wandering singers - like the provincial troubadours - who, instead of becoming famous at the royal palaces and singing about the love of knights for their imaginary noble ladies, sang about the suffering and the modest Jewish "woman of valor." Maybe that was the same Jewish woman who, centuries later, become crowned as the “Yiddishe Mama”.
Another professional folk singer who appeared later, was R’ Yehuda Leib Zhelechover (lived in the seventieth century), born in Poland, who wandered over Germany and Holland, and acquired a reputation with his moral songs. Also very popular was the comedian and famous founder of the “Broder singers," Berl Margolis, who used the name of Berl Broder (1817-1880).
A noticeable place in the folk music belonged to Benjamin-Zev Erenkrantz, known by name Velvel Zbarjer (1826-1883). He was an excellent improviser who, in front of the audience, improvised and created actual texts and melodies according to the audience. His songs mourned the sad fate of the poor and thundered against the “fine Jews” and leaders of the community who exploited the common people, the people of the scissors and iron.
The most popular of our troubadours was Alikum Tsunzer (1836-1913). His numerous songs, which described all aspects of the Jewish life, were of an instructive character and allowed him to become the first who touched the national point. The first Zionists (Hovevei Zion) sang his lieder and spread them as nationalist songs. The musical quality of his works was remarkable. The melodies were sweet and contained Hassidic elements, cantorial prayers and Slavic dances, - all the motifs that touched the hearts of the East-European Jews.
The most indigenous of all folk singers was the talented Mark Warszawski (1848 -1909). As an insightful poet, he sang about the Jewish child and about the Jewish family, about the sorrows and the future of the Jewish people. For him it happened as Sholom Aleichem, his closes friend, foretold: “I am sure that it will not take long and Warszawski’s songs will become folks-songs." In 1911 Yaakov Fichman wrote: “I love Warszawski, while I feel that the emotions in his songs are stronger and more beautiful than his rhymes, - that is what I find in any real folk songg”.
And thus stretched the line to the last, the greatest of the Jewish folk troubadours in Poland before the War (WWII), singer and mourner, critic and encourager, dreamer and inspirer, the devoted son of the Jewish People, the gifted and blessed by G_d: Mordechai Gebirtig.
Un