Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

The Nigun Project: Surely, There Will Be Vodka

For the latest installment of the Nigun Project, I am indebted to a Forward reader who posted a link in the comments section of a recent piece in the nigun series. The link led me to a website that contains many selections from a wonderful multi-volume series of albums of Chabad nigunim released during the 1960s.

One of the pieces I discovered online is known as “”Nye Zhuritze Chloptzi”; it’s an example of Jewish music borrowing from the host culture in which it resides. The nigun begins with a short Russian drinking song and then spins out into a wordless nigun. This nigun is one of many secular melodies “rescued” by the Hasidim, who by using the tunes for spiritual purposes brought to light their hidden holiness.

I worked on this piece with Cynthia Hopkins, the leader of the band Gloria Deluxe. Hopkins has also created, written, directed and starred in numerous theater pieces.

In the rendition that she and I created of the nigun, Hopkins had the idea of taking the short Russian song and using a translation of the lyrics as the basis for a new musical section in the piece. The Russian lyrics are as follows:

”Nye zhuritzi chloptzi shtoh s’nami budiet mi paidem nuh karchunki tam ie vodka budiet,” which translates to “Don’t worry, fellows, about what will become of us. We will travel to an inn; over there will surely be vodka.”

The fantastical interpolation Hopkins arrived at serves as a) a Brechtian switch of perspective in the dramatic arc of the song, b) a lugubrious morning-after counterbalance to the drunken revelry and c) a meditation on the affinity between the alcohol high and the experience of prayer.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.