This past semester (Fall of 2025), I got the opportunity to spend time working at YIVO through the Irene Kronhill Pletka YIVO Research Fellowship. Having started studying Yiddish just one year prior at Columbia, I realized just how far I have come in not only my Yiddish skills, but my engagement with the academic and cultural Yiddish world. I hope to continue working on my Yiddish and being an active member of \u201cYiddishland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to the mentorship of Stefanie Halpern and Tom Tearney, I was able to get first-hand experience working in the archival world, something I had never done before. After discussing my interest in Yiddish Theatre with Stefanie, I was given the responsibility of reorganizing YIVO\u2019s Folksbiene collection. The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, formerly the \u201cFree Yiddish Theatre\u201d (Fraye Yidishe Folks-Bine) produces Yiddish Theatre to this day. The Folksbiene was founded in 1915 under the Arbeter Ring, but separated from them in 1998. As such, the Folksbiene is the longest consecutively running Yiddish Theatre, a feat that was met with many challenges over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had already been acquainted with the Folksbiene, through their blockbuster production of \u201cFiddler on the Roof\u201d in Yiddish, as well as having worked with the theatre\u2019s artistic director, Motl Didner while I was the Outreach Coordinator for Columbia University Players\u2019 production of \u201cIndecent\u201d by Paula Vogel in March 2025. But working on YIVO\u2019s collection (RG 512) gave me the opportunity to deeply engage with the Folksbiene\u2019s history through its material memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My task for this collection was twofold: out of the 12 boxes of the collection, only 5 had a dedicated finding aid, entirely in Yiddish. I spent part of my time translating this finding aid and making sure that it was accurate to the physical material that it was describing. The bulk of the project, however, was in organizing the final 7 boxes of the collection. As there was no finding aid, we were not entirely sure of what we would find in the boxes. In my work on this project, I turned this collection from an assortment of 12 boxes, to a unified and streamlined collection that I believe will be much more accessible to researchers. After combing through the remaining boxes and writing down what each one held, I was faced with an intellectual dilemma on how to organize the collection: I could either file materials by scope (that is what kind of material a document is) or thematically. Organizing by scope would mean putting all of the newspaper clippings together, for example. Organizing thematically, which is what I ended up doing, meant putting all the materials pertaining to a specific production together. In doing so, I built an almost complete chronology of the Folksbiene\u2019s production history (from the 1940s to the late 1990s). I was able to read through reviews of productions, especially ones in Yiddish, recognize recurring actors by looking through photos, and comb through many manuscripts and headshots of aspiring writers and actors, giving me a glimpse into the lives of people that otherwise might be forgotten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was most interested to learn how the organization adapted to the rapidly changing market for Yiddish theatre. The Folksbiene faced significant challenges in retaining audience engagement as there were less and less native Yiddish speakers, especially after the Holocaust. The collection included letters, research, photographs, and articles pertaining to the company\u2019s switch to live infrared translation technology, in the 1980s. Non-fluent Yiddish speakers would wear a headset through which someone backstage would live-narrate the show into English. This technology, although expensive and difficult to implement, was instrumental in keeping the Folksbiene afloat. Another fascinating part of the collection was the vast amount of newspaper clippings. Although seeing production stills and programs from productions is fascinating, reading how the productions were received was essential in understanding the success of the Folksbiene. English and Yiddish newspapers alike admired acting skills in both new and seasoned actors, like Zypora Spaisman, and embraced the Folksbiene\u2019s commitment to production of Yiddish theatre, especially as other Yiddish-language theatres shut down. These clippings demonstrate the Folksbiene\u2019s long-standing place in the New York theatre industry \u2013 not just in Yiddish world, but in the English world as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Working on RG 512 gave me a deep dive into the history of the Folksbiene, something I would not have thought to do on my own and hopefully will give future researchers the tools they will need to research more into the Folksbiene\u2019s history, but also specific productions or eras. As for my personal research, I wanted to look at the landscape of folk music and song ethnography \u2013 specifically through the lens of how folk song ethnography fits into the wider Yiddish scholarly world. In doing more research, I decided to focus on how accessible Yiddish folk songs have become more available to a wider audience \u2013 and what still needs to be done for this accessibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, I wanted to learn more about the history of ethnographic recordings to get a better sense of how we\u2019ve come to where we are today. S. Ansky, the author of the play, The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds was a seminal figure in the field of ethnographic research. He led an expedition into the Pale of Settlement from 1912 to 1914, sponsored by the Jewish Ethnographic society. He said, \u201cI will try to get the Jewish Ethnographic Society to send me around Russia to gather folk songs, sayings, stories, spells, and so on, in short, folklore. If this works out, I will willingly dedicate what remains of my life to it. It is worth it\u201d (Deutsch, 10). Indeed, this expedition did \u201cwork out,\u201d and his contributions to understanding the life of the shtetl were instrumental. Ansky\u2019s interest in collecting folklore was out of a desire for Jews \u201cto have a deeper knowledge of folk traditions and be able to reinvigorate folk traditions for new cultural creations like museum exhibitions, theatre, compositions, art, and literature.\u201d (Deutsch, 11). Ansky\u2019s expedition was future-driven. I found this idea very pertinent to what I see as an essential reason in why I personally enjoyed this archival work at YIVO. Understanding the past allows us to bring Yiddish into current and vibrant cultural settings. In understanding our folklore, we too can engage in the practice of keeping our folklore alive, as well as creating new folklore. Folklore itself fascinates me in the way in which it is ever-changing, malleable, and entirely dependent on the people who keep it alive. In the folk song collections I explored, most notably Ruth Rubin\u2019s archive (RG 620) and YIVO\u2019s folksong project (RG 2299), what is striking is not only the amount of informants (people interviewed), but their relative anonymity, especially in Rubins\u2019 collection. These were regular people who had songs to share. It is sometimes easiest to learn history from a zoomed out lens: learning about influential political figures, for example. But listening to individuals\u2019 voices and experiences, especially through music, provides an incredibly intimate view of history that shows the nuances of past societies. Rubins\u2019 research was so revolutionary, in particular, because she was one of the first female ethnographers. In prior fieldwork, female informants were more hesitant to sing in front of male researchers, reflecting religious frameworks. Rubins\u2019 legacy of work helped discover thousands of folk songs, especially songs sung by women and children. Thankfully, her recordings have been digitized and are accessible to the public on YIVO\u2019s dedicated website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rubin, along with other ethnographers, recorded on acetate tapes, magnetic reel to reel tapes, and cassettes. These technologies were essential in ethnographic circles, allowing for more ease not only in recording, but being able to replay recordings almost instantly. Technologies advance, however, and the use of these devices are now rare. In this way, if collections have not been digitized, they are almost impossible to access, especially if you do not live in or nearby New York and cannot make your way in-person to YIVO or other research centers to conduct in-person research. Even among digitized collections, it is hard to know where to begin if you are starting from scratch. For someone unfamiliar with Yiddish folk songs, it would feel overwhelming to find things of interest, even for me who has much more familiarity. In spending much time going through various digitized repositories of folk songs, I wanted to create a simple beginner\u2019s guide to accessible folk song resources. This guide is intended to not only display the range of options available, but also to provide a curated list of listening recommendations, a sampling if you will, in order for the user to not be overwhelmed by the thousands of songs available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An Introductory Online Listening Guide to Yiddish Folk Songs<\/strong> The Ruth Rubin Legacy<\/a> \u2192 Enge benge (children\u2019s nonsense rhyme)<\/a> The Yosl and Chana Mlotek Yiddish Song Collection at the Workers Circle<\/a> Stonehill Jewish Song Archive<\/a> YIVO Folksong project (RG 2299)<\/a> Yiddish Book Center’s Frances Brandt Online Yiddish Audio Library<\/a> References Feldman, Walter Zev. \u201cIntroduction to the Study of Yiddish Folksong.\u201d Inside the Yiddish Folksong. https:\/\/www.yiddishfolksong.com\/study-of-yiddish-folksong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This past semester (Fall of 2025), I got the opportunity to spend time working at YIVO through the Irene Kronhill Pletka YIVO Research Fellowship. Having started studying Yiddish just one year prior at Columbia, I realized just how far I have come in not only my Yiddish skills, but my engagement with the academic and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":4882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9teox-1gJ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0386-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4881"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4883,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881\/revisions\/4883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
By Sarah Gluck Tabak<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recorded from 1946 to the 1970s, this collection is seen as one of the most comprehensive databases of Yiddish folk songs. Rubin recorded informants, but also herself singing songs that she had recorded. Multiple recordings of the same song by different people reflect the changeable nature of folk songs as they are passed from person to person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2192 Eyn kol vayn<\/a>
\u2192 Bay dem shtetl<\/a>
\u2192 Di bord<\/a>
\u2192 Eliyohhu hanovi (three variants)<\/a>
\u2192 Hob ikh a por oksn<\/a>
\u2192 Jewish dances based on folk tunes (Instrumental<\/a>)
\u2192 Lomir ale in eynem<\/a>
\u2192 Tape 19 – Drinking Songs<\/a>
\u2192 Un du akerst un du zeyst<\/a>
\u2192 Zol zayn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This recently digitized collection is a database of lyrics (Yiddish, English, and transliterated) as well as sheet music of songs collected and published by Yosl and Chana Mlotek, the Workers Circle education director and YIVO\u2019s ethnomusicologist and folklorist, respectively. Sheet music is available for free upon submission of email. Some entries have spotify or youtube versions available, but not all. Here is a short selection of songs to get you started.
\u2192 Di bord<\/a>
\u2192 A kholem<\/a>
\u2192 Alef-indikes<\/a>
\u2192 Avreml der marvikher<\/a>
\u2192 Borukh ate, zingt der tate<\/a>
\u2192 Eynzam<\/a>
\u2192 Fun Kosev biz Kitev<\/a>
\u2192 Sholem-aleykhem<\/a>
\u2192 Varnitshkes<\/a> (an equally humorous alternative to the popular folk song \u201cBulbes.\u201d)
\u2192 Yome, Yome<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Created by Miriam Isaacs, PhD, this website presents songs from the archive of Ben Stonehill (RG 533), who recorded songs from Holocaust survivors living on 103rd street in 1948, in Manhattan New York, in order to preserve a culture that had lost so much. As such, this collection is a specific look into the songs that Holocaust refugees chose to share.
\u2192 A yid vil ikh zayn (I Want to be a Jew)<\/a>
\u2192 Es brent<\/a>
\u2192 Mamenyu, ikh vil aheym tsurik<\/a>
\u2192 Mir shteyen bay di vent<\/a>
\u2192 Simkhas toyre bay deim tish<\/a>
\u2192 S’iz avek der nekhtn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The YIVO Folksong project was directed by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, a well-known historian in Jewish and museum studies, between 1973 and 1975 in which she collected around 2,000 folksongs from 75 informants.
\u2192 Ary, Solomon (Side 1), 1972<\/a>
Songs include “Fun groys dasad;” “A nign” [starts with “Iz a kabtsn amol gevezn\u2026”]; “Di varnishkes” (“Gevalt, vu nemt men”); “Di krenitste”
\u2192 Nirenberg, Mariam (Side 1)<\/a>
Libe mentshn
Di bord
Lomir beyde
Bin ikh nur a shanyderl
Shvartse karshelekh
Tsi der side far kol nidre
Di vest zayn a gevirte
Ikh gey nur fun shenk
Ikh ben shoyn a meydl
Dorn in vald
Dos totes
\u2192 Yiddish Songs from Toronto<\/a> (please note that the recording is quite scratchy)
“Mashke”
“Dortn in a velde”
“Gey mayn zun”
“Ikh hob derlebt a nakhes”
“Fir fun mir aroys” (chorus “yo, yo vaybele, yo, yo, taybele”)
“Redn ken ikh zeyer veynik”
“And when I tell them how beautiful you are”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Yiddish Book Center\u2019s digitized collection of the Jewish Public Library of Montreal\u2019s literary events from 1953 to 2005. Although primarily composed of literary recitations, the collection also includes a number of musical events as well. These specific recordings have been titled, and links to the texts of individual songs are available upon request.
\u2192 Itzik Manger Memorial Evening<\/a>
\u2192 Jewish Folk-Poets and Trabadours featuring Joseph Mlotek<\/a>
\u2192 Literary and Musical Evening in Memory of the Poet Mordechai Gebirtig<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deutsch, Nathaniel. The Jewish Dark Continent: Life and Death in the Russian Pale of Settlement. Harvard University Press, 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n