VIDEO: Tania Grinberg singing Yiddish Hanukkah song, ‘Eight Candles’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Rukhl Schaechter November 29, 2021
A new video has been released, featuring the Brazilian composer and singer Tania Grinberg singing the Yiddish Hanukkah song, “Akht likhtlekh” (Eight Candles).
The song, which was written by the late Yiddish poet and songwriter, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, has a folksy quality to it and is easy enough for kids to learn. The video, which was produced by the Forverts, includes English subtitles.
Full disclosure: Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman is my aunt. In fact, Beyle composed many children’s songs, both lyrics and melody, that are sung at Yiddish music festivals round the globe. I myself sang a number of them with my children (and now with my grandchildren), including the autumn song, “Bletelekh in vint” (Leaves Flying in the Wind) and “Gendzelekh geyen” (Little Geese Marching).
Tania Grinberg, who performs in both Portuguese and Yiddish, heads a Jewish band, Azdi, and has performed at Yiddish culture festivals around the globe. In 2020 she won a Bubbe Prize for a Yiddish song she composed called Naye velt (New World). She lives in Sao Paulo with her husband and two daughters.
Akht likhtlekh
Akht likhtlekh zenen mir
Akht likhtlekh akht
Likhtik freylekh brenen mir
Khanike af der nakht
Likhtik freylekh brenen likhtlekh
Khanike af der nakht.
Ikh bin dos ershte likht
Dos tsveyte iz oykh do
Royt un gel zenen mir
Un zey – grin un blo
Un nokh a likhtl
Nokh a likhtl
Biz mir zenen akht
Un me tsindt undz
Un me bentsht undz
Khanike af der nakht.
Ikh bin der shames gor
Ikh tsind di likhtlekh on
Bin ikh take groys bay zikh
Me shtelt mikh oybn on.
Un mir brenen vi mir zenen,
Khanike likhtlekh glaykh
A gut yontef, a gut yontef,
A gut yontef aykh!
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