WATCH: Folksbiene ‘Fiddler’ cast performs ‘God Bless America’ in Yiddish
Image by Getty Images
By Forverts Staff January 19, 2021
Read this article in Yiddish
To mark the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20, the Folksbiene released a video on Tuesday featuring the cast of the company’s hit production of “Fiddler on the Roof” performing “God Bless America” in Yiddish.
In the video, created by actor Ben Liebert (who played Motl the Tailor), more than 20 actors, including Steven Skybell (Tevye) and Mikhl Yashinskiy (Mordkhe the Innkeeper) , appear alongside the play’s director, Oscar-winning actor Joel Grey.
The new musical arrangement was created by Dmitri Slepovitch, the clarinetist in the Folksbiene’s production of “Fiddler”, who accompanies the singers in the video on the piano together with the violinist Lauren Thomas, who played the role of the titular Fiddler in the musical.
The inspiration for celebrating the inauguration by releasing a Yiddish version of “God Bless America” came from Lisa Fishman, a longtime singer and actress with the Folksbiene. She noted that Irving Berlin, a Yiddish-speaking immigrant who created many of the most popular American songs of the 1920s-1940s, released “God Bless America” in 1938 during a time of rising fascism in Europe.
“As we emerge from this dark chapter of division and strife and welcome in a new presidential administration, singing this iconic anthem in Yiddish – the author’s native tongue, is a unique way for the Fiddler family to honor our incoming leaders, to celebrate the ideals and values of our country and to pray for this beautiful and fragile – yet enduring – democracy. I can’t think of a more appropriate time in history or group of people to share Berlin’s prayer with the world.”
An excerpt from the video can be viewed here. Click here to see the full video.
The Yiddish version of “God Bless America” was created by the singer and ethnomusicologist Henry Sapoznik for Mandy Patinkin’s album “Mame-Loshn”. It has since become popular with a variety of singers and cantors, including Hasidic pop star Lipa Schmeltzer, who has incorporated it into his repertoire.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
