Itzik Manger (1901-1969) stands out as the last great bearer of Yiddish song and humor, equal if not exceeding others in his power of feeling, invention, imagination and popular expression. His style of writing remained essentially the Yiddish of ordinary people, as spoken in shops and markets. To him, poetry was the supreme form of literature – a direct and sublime means of communication between the poet and reader. Manger was divinely endowed with “antennas” able to pick up delicate meaning often deliberately ambiguous, or intentionally obscure, dreamlike visions – and transmit them to the reader. Manger’s approach to the heroes of the Bible, whom he “brought down” from the heavens and transformed into ordinary Jews of Poland and other Yiddish speaking communities, remains in the minds of Yiddish speaking populations of Europe and the Americas. The lyrics and other texts in this volume, the seventh in the series of the Anthology of Yiddish Folksongs, are translated into Hebrew and English to ensure their survival for future generations. Most of the translations are “singable” - a rare and ingenious feat, requiring not only perfect knowledge of both languages, but also a deep feeling for music, rhythm, cadence, accents and so on. The main purpose of this book is not to deal with Manger’s singular poetic style or unique sense of humor, all of which are no less the product of Manger’s genius, but to publish some 50 of his poems, set to music, in the hope that other composers will be attracted to their exotic beauty and will enrich the world of spiritual culture.

Mark Warshavsky was born in Odessa in 1848 and was a poet-composer of many famous Yiddish folksongs. It was Sholom Aleichem who first "discovered" Warshavsky with whom he often appeared in cultural evenings in Kiev. Like some of the early songs of Gebirtig - Warshavsky's songs too became folksongs, the lyrics and melodies spread like wildfire among the Jewish masses. The appearance of Warshavsky's Der Alef Beys, or as it quicky became known from its first words Oyfn Pripetchek, caused a real revolution in the minds of orthodox as well as progressive Jews in Eastern Europe."

Mordechai Gebirtig was one of the most influential and popular writers of Yiddish songs and poems. Born in 1877, he became a prolific poet and song writer, using everything he saw, heard and knew about people.

Vols. 1-4 Presented here is a collection of 350 songs in four volumes, complete with the music, the words in Yiddish and in transliteration into Latin characters, and translations or summaries in English and Hebrew. A comprehensive and lyrical introduction by Abba Kovner, opens the Anthology. Kovner traces the sources of Yiddish song, recreates the pre-war East European Jewish world in which the songs are rooted, and fuses memory with history to make the material live.

Vols. 1-4 Presented here is a collection of 350 songs in four volumes, complete with the music, the words in Yiddish and in transliteration into Latin characters, and translations or summaries in English and Hebrew. A comprehensive and lyrical introduction by Abba Kovner, opens the Anthology. Kovner traces the sources of Yiddish song, recreates the pre-war East European Jewish world in which the songs are rooted, and fuses memory with history to make the material live.

Vols. 1-4 Presented here is a collection of 350 songs in four volumes, complete with the music, the words in Yiddish and in transliteration into Latin characters, and translations or summaries in English and Hebrew. A comprehensive and lyrical introduction by Abba Kovner, opens the Anthology. Kovner traces the sources of Yiddish song, recreates the pre-war East European Jewish world in which the songs are rooted, and fuses memory with history to make the material live.

Presented here is a collection of songs, complete with the music, the words in Yiddish and in transliteration into Latin characters, and translations or summaries in English and Hebrew. A comprehensive and lyrical introduction by Abba Kovner, opens the Anthology. Kovner traces the sources of Yiddish song, recreates the pre-war East European Jewish world in which the songs are rooted, and fuses memory with history to make the material live.