Dreidel I Shall Play Composer Samuel E. Goldfarb

1. I Have a Little Dreidel – from the original 1927 recording 2. I Have a Little Dreidel – Craig Taubman 3. Little Candle Fires – Theodore Bikel 4. I’d Like to Be a Maccabee – Craig Taubman 5. Shalom Aleichem – Laurence Juber 6. Little Jewish Cousins – Vocals by Matt Davis, Mike Stein, Madison

Greer, Hide Matsua, Duvid Swirsky 7. I Love the Day of Purim – Rena Strober 8. A Merry Purim Song – Daniel Cainer 9. Burning Bush – Barbershop Quartet 10. Ten Commandments – Rick Recht 11. Noah’s Ark - Saul Kaye & Elana Jagoda 12. B’sefer Chayim - Neshama Carlebach & Josh Nelson 13. V’ychulu - Cantor Nate Lamm 14. Magen Avot - Cantor Marcus Feldman 15. Yah Ribon Olam - Cantor Alberto Mizrahi 16. V’shamru - Cantor Marcus Feldman

A joyous and eclectic collection of early Jewish American

holiday and liturgical songs composed in the 1920s, recovered by the composer’s son, and arranged and performed in a

variety of styles by talented musicians from the United States, Europe and Israel. Jewish family music for the 21st century.

Credits Executive Producer – Myron Gordon, Scott Christianson Produced by - Craig Taubman Arrangements by - Craig Taubman & James Fuchs Additional Arrangements - A Merry Purim Song - Daniel Cainer Burning Bush - Kelly Shephard Shalom Aleichem - Laurence Juber Recorded at Studio City Sound & Pico Union Project by Andrew Schwartz,

Steve Velenzuela & Tom Weir Mixed and Mastered by Tom Weir Background Vocals - Duvid Swirsky, Madison Greer & Craig Taubman Piano, Rhodes Keyboard and Organ - James Fuchs Electric Guitars - Laurence Juber, Rob Math & James Fuchs Acoustic Guitars - Laurence Juber Craig Taubman & James Fuchs Drums and Percussion - Jeff Stern

Drums - MB Gordy Bass - Dominic Genova Saxophone - Chazzy Green & Leo Chelyapov Clarinet - Melodica & Duduk Leo Chelyapov Trombone - Eric Jorgensen Banjo, Balalika & Oud - Duvid Swirsky Cymbals, Bells, Whistles & Pixie Dust - Tom Weir Harmonica - Howard Levy Pico Union Pipe Organ - Ty Woodward Accordion - Phil Parlarpiano Violin - Michael Stein Other Thanks - Jetta Gordon, Tamar Gordon, Eve Gordon, Michael Gardner,

Paul Rapp, Mark Kligman, John Feldman, Ginger Warnes, Melissa Mykal, Michael A. Danchak, Louise Tilzer, Julie & Tom Hirschfeld, the McFadden family, David and Lisa Schechter, Joy Lewis, Ralph Marash, Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Rita, Susan Wolfe, Ethan Bronner, Barbara Dean, Dan Klein.

Theodore Bikel, Craig Taubman, and Myron Gordon at Pico Union

FROM THE PRODUCER “We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore.

What falls there, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what wall rides over the river, we know not.” –Major John Wesley Powell

My journey recording this music began with a two-hour phone conversation with Dr. Myron Gordon the 95-year-old son of composer Samuel E. Goldfarb. It was clear from the get go that this would be a meaningful journey. “Craig, can I bounce these ideas, while they’re still in my head?” We spoke weekly, sometimes twice a week. He introduced me to his son-in-law Scott who shared my enthusiasm for the music and my love for his father-in-law. It’s said that music is what happens “between the notes.” I can assure you that this CD is far more than notes, and rather an extraordinary reflection of a remarkable man and his relationship with his estranged father as well as a revival of the music evoking the happier and more innocent days of that past.

A recent e-mail from Myron captures the essence of our sacred journey. “Dear Craig: Your check is on its way. Let this payment stand not merely for work done, but how it was done. Loving friendship, iron trust, and minimizing egos—all gave birth to a CD event with unique character and purpose. Scott heartily joins me in this testimony to our team, especially to you. Tikvah always.”

Yes Myron...Tikvah, always. Always hope! Let us all enjoy the playful children’s songs and timeless liturgical music of this pioneer Jewish American composer.

--CRAIG TAUBMAN Craig ‘N Co.

Dedicated to the memory of Theodore Bikel, Alav Hashalom (1924-2015), singer, actor, activist and friend, who passed away shortly after recording a song for this album. ©Copyright 2015 by JA Songster Inc.

From left: Myron, Ruth, Bella, Sam Goldfarb (circa 1925)

MY FATHER’S SONGS By Myron Gordon, Ph.D. Everyone knows the Dreidel song. Even non-Jews. Some listeners assume it’s a centuries-old Yiddish folk song that came from shtetls in the old country, but in fact the music was composed in New York in 1927, by Samuel E. Goldfarb, a pioneering Jewish American songwriter and music educator, with lyrics by his frequent collaborator, Samuel S. Grossman. Few people today know much about the other Jewish music that Goldfarb composed. But I do, because “SEGy” (as his New York intimates called him) was my father.

I’m Myron Gordon (formerly Myron Goldfarb), now 95 years old. The second-born child and first-born son of Samuel E. Goldfarb and Bella Horowitz Goldfarb.

A few years ago I came across an old box of memorabilia in my

basement. Along with many of my father’s letters, it held copies of his artistic works from the 19-teens and 20s that long ago passed into obscurity. Booklets containing liturgical songs, children’s Bible songs, holiday songs and songs about the Holy Land, and several extremely rare 78-rpm gramophone disc recordings that emerged slightly cracked from their tattered paper jackets, the scratchy sounds of which took me back to another world and time. Rediscovering these lost objects rekindled vivid memories from more than 85 years ago.

It’s 1927. I am seven years old. We are in the tiny living room of our apartment in Arverne, Queens, a salt breeze wafting through an open window. A menorah sits on the mantel, next to a photo of our family. Mother and sister are off in the kitchen. Dad is at the piano, wearing a gray sweatshirt. I smell his cigar. I sense that he wants me to memorize this music, which I am doing…

Two years later, Dad would be gone. He’d abandoned his wife of 13 years, Bella, his 12-year-old daughter Ruth, and me, as well as a very large extended family, his many friends and collaborators, and a successful music career in New York, in order to be with another woman, three thousand miles away. “Take care of yourself and be a man,” he wrote me from the train as he departed. Two months later, the stock market crashed and the country sank into the Great Depression. We had to fend for ourselves. Both parents felt so ashamed, they tried to conceal the truth from me by saying he was away on business. For years, my father’s only contact with me was through an occasional handwritten letter. I saw him again on just a few occasions—once, during the war, when I was in my Army uniform, visiting him in Seattle, he introduced me as “a friend,” and another time, 30 years later, he dropped by my home in Forest Hills to play the piano and sing versions of the Dreidel song with my seven-year-old daughter, Tamar. His absence left a deep void in my life. I changed my surname as part of my separation from him. But I never forgot him or his music. My personal story of my father, Samuel E. Goldfarb, begs to be told just as some of his other children and grandchildren have told the story of his later life in Seattle. The sad predicament of his abandonment of his family in New York when I was nine. It wasn’t till after his death in 1978 that I very slowly began to get clear of my emotional impasse. Gradually over the years, my youthful yearning gave way to a less troubled connection with his music. Listening to it in the last few years, I’ve finally been able to enjoy the joyous melodies without succumbing to the other associations his work had summoned for me. Eventually, no longer feeling bound by a child's futile phantasy, I came to think: why not crystallize my new experience of father and son with a CD of his music? After considerable effort, I came into contact with someone who would enable me to realize that dream.

Our magnificent producer of Jewish music, Craig Taubman, immediately recognized how rich and exciting these songs could be when cast in today's diverse musical spirit. Craig’s brilliant adaptations, so true to the original, should be widely appreciated now. He’s given us an extraordinarily wide range of genres and styles, and captured so much of the Jewish spirit. And the wealth of wonderful performers and recording artists he’s assembled has given my father’s songs – and me – new life!

With belated empowerment I wish to grant Samuel E. Goldfarb due credit for these long lost songs. I’m also offering a legacy of his Jewish music to present and future generations. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Samuel Eliezer Goldfarb (1891-1978) was born in Sieniawa, Galicia, Poland, to Nathaniel David Goldfarb and Malye Goldfarb. The family immigrated to New York in 1895, taking up residence in a packed tenement on the Lower East Side—the place in America where most Jews lived, the center of Jewish American culture. He grew up as the sixth of eleven children in a large orthodox family. Money was scarce, but they had their worship–and music. Every Shabbat and other holy days they all sat around the table, singing Shabbat zemirot, or family songs, in harmony. At age ten Sam’s relatives somehow scraped together enough money to give him weekly piano lessons. His elder brother, Israel Goldfarb (1879-1956), a graduate of the Institute of Musical Art (now The Juilliard School), the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University, and a cantor with a fine baritone voice, taught him to read and write music.

Israel Goldfarb

After graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School, Sam took courses in musical theory and composition at Columbia. When Israel took over as rabbi at Brooklyn’s Kane Street Synagogue in Brooklyn, the younger brother assisted him in services and also performed in other temples across the Lower East Side, spreading the power and beauty of Jewish liturgical music

to appreciative worshippers. When he was about 24, Sam’s parents arranged for him to marry a 19-year-old neighborhood girl, Bella Horowitz, who also was one of eleven children. Bella’s father, Samuel I. Horowitz, was a partner in the thriving matzoh bakery, Horowitz Brothers and Margareten, located on the Lower East Side), and her aunt, Regina Horowitz Margareten, was known as “the matriarch of the kosher food industry.” As their two large families became intertwined, the newlyweds took up residence on one floor in Israel Goldfarb’s brownstone in Brooklyn Heights.

Friday Evening Melodies & The Jewish Songster In 1918 during the Great War the Goldfarb brothers completed a book, Friday Evening Melodies, by composers Rabbi Israel Goldfarb and Samuel E. Goldfarb, Head of the Department of Music, Bureau of Jewish Education, bearing the copyright by Rabbi I. Goldfarb and S.E. Goldfarb, 1918. Advertised as “collection of liturgical songs and prayers, skillfully arranged, composed or adapted for voice and piano,” it contained five of the six liturgical songs now included in this music CD. One of these original compositions, “Shalom Aleichem,” would go on to become one of the most beloved Jewish liturgical melodies of the 20th century, sung in every movement of Judaism and in many traditions. In 1918 the Goldfarbs also came out with a bigger compilation—The Jewish Songster, the path-breaking two-volume collection of Jewish liturgical and secular songs, presented in Hebrew, Yiddish and English—that became a staple of every Jewish American synagogue and school. Later reissued in successive editions, the work’s popularity spread throughout the Jewish world and helped to establish Israel Goldfarb’s status as the “father of Jewish congregational singing.”

Six of the songs in our collection are the product of the brothers’ collaboration. Despite the fact that some of the brothers’ early publications list both of them as the composers and copyright holders of the songs, others from the same period credit only Israel for two of those compositions. So in the interest of family harmony and early historical evidence, we credit Israel as the composer of “Shalom Aleichem” and “B’Sefer Chayim” while

still including both of them in our collection. We have done our best to scrupulously credit all of Sam’s collaborators just as we credit each of the performers and other contributors on the album. History requires it.

SEGy’s interests weren’t limited to liturgical music. He also embraced the popular secular music of the day. The Yiddish theaters on Second Avenue were flourishing, and he played piano for the silent movies and hung around the neighborhood’s fabled headquarters of American popular music songwriting and publishing. Tin Pan Alley represented a brash new style of urban music that was taking America by storm, turning out ethnic novelty songs and ragtime, along with 32-bar love songs that relied heavily on internal rhymes and punning. These influences as well are evident in some of the music we have included in the CD.

Tin Pan Alley

I was too young to know what was happening, just three years old when Dad, apparently in love with a younger woman and contemplating divorce, suddenly took me, my mother and sister west to Reno, Nevada. Newspaper ads from those days announce that Samuel E. Goldfarb, “the noted pianist from New York City will play his rendering of ‘Gypsy Airs’ and ‘Tarantella’ at the Majestic Theater on Friday and Saturday nights.” Or that he would accompany soprano Eloise Harris as they perform to the Jazz age silent picture drama, “What’s Wrong with the Women?” What must his orthodox relatives have thought about that?

It still hasn’t sunk in to me that Reno in those days was the divorce capital of the western world, where New Yorkers like Mary Pickford went to “take the cure.” (Nevada's six-month residency requirement was half that of other states, but the catch was, it had to be uncontested.) Yet it seems that Mother must have held on, because we all stayed together in Reno, as she kept house, tended the children, and taught Hebrew School to bring in extra cash, while her parents continued to support them financially. After a year-and-a-half in Reno, we all packed into the Studebaker and returned to New York where we continued to live together as a family—at least for a while.

Bureau of Jewish Education From 1925 to 1929 Dad held a salaried position with the Bureau of Jewish Education of New York. Selected by its visionary director, Dr. Samson Benderly, to serve as the organization’s music director, Sam worked with a corps of talented and progressive educators seeking to reform and enrich Jewish education. Benderly wanted the children and grandchildren of immigrants to preserve their Jewish identity as they made their way in American society. Sam seemed an ideal choice for the task. He had a winning personality, talent, experience, and a deep connection with Jewish music. Never letting go of his Jewish roots, the ambitious young composer sought to keep alive existing Jewish musical traditions amid the popular new American sensibility of the day, in ways that would foster integration yet maintain core Jewish culture. (Just as this CD seeks to do.) While working for the Bureau, Sam collaborated with a brilliant lyricist and playwright, Samuel Schlomo Grossman (1893-1930). Born a rabbi’s son

in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Grossman had been educated at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. Grossman was a talented writer with a theatrical bent, who was fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish and English, and he was one of the organizers and first general manager of Maurice Schwartz’s renowned Yiddish Art Theatre on Second Avenue. He’d turned out a stream of Jewish plays and operas as well as songs. Together the two Sams wrote an operetta, The Jews in Egypt, as well as many children’s songs. It was Grossman who penned the words to the Dreidel song, which was first recorded in 1927 with Goldfarb the composer at the piano and Arthur Fields, one of the most popular singers of the day, as vocalist.

Arthur Fields

The Dreidel Song There was a lot of Jewish history behind dreidels. The dreidel is associated with Chanukah, a holiday celebrated since 165 BCE, commemorating the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks for religious freedom. Also celebrated is the miracle of an eight-day flame in a small flask of oil in the rededicated Temple. As modern Jews know it, the dreidel began when the medieval Germans adopted the ancient Roman teetotum for gambling. Rabbis, seeking a fun-activity for the joyful holiday created a Hebrew version of this four-sided top (with players rules to win nothing; win all; win half; put in) and formulated an ingenious acronym for each of the four letters, spelling out, "A Great Miracle Happened There."

What’s lesser known is that when the song was written, in the 1920s, a variant of dreidel spinning had recently swept the country as a gambling craze known as “put and take,” which wasn’t limited to Jewish kids, so that in those days, the object generated even more excitement. There were many songs and movies involving Put and Take back in those days. Looking back today, I can see the Dreidel song as a metaphor for SEGy’s life at that point. On the horns of his dilemma over his love triangle, which choice should he make? Should he keep what he had or risk it all?

Grossman turned out to be a tragic figure. About the same time that Goldfarb made his final dreidel move, leaving his wife and children behind, Grossman suffered the loss of his son in an auto accident and he plunged into a deep depression, ending a few months later when, out of work and bereft, he leaped to his death from the sixteenth story of Philadelphia’s Statler Hotel. (His daughter, Judith Merrill, later went on to become a famous science fiction writer who also penned a marvelous autobiography, Better to Have Loved, with her granddaughter, Emily Pohl-Weary.)

After fleeing the family, Goldfarb headed to the west coast and married the other woman. From 1930 to 1967, he directed the music program of Seattle’s largest Reform Jewish congregation, Temple De Hirsch, now the Temple De Hirsch Sinai. The senior rabbi when he arrived was Samuel Koch. It’s said that Goldfarb enhanced the temple’s educational curriculum and brought traditional Jewish values to the prayer service. He introduced one of the finest temple choirs in the United States and taught piano to generations of aspiring musicians. Rock historians have also noted that Samuel Goldfarb oversaw a performance space in the temple’s basement, where on one occasion he yanked from the stage an unconventional guitarist named Jimi Hendrix for his wild playing. The temple continues to be commemorate his long years of service.

SEGy seldom returned east, but on one occasion in 1962, he finally entered my home in Queens and sat at the piano with his vivacious seven-year-old granddaughter, Tamar. The three of us joined in singing versions of “I have a little dreidel…” It was the tune he would always be called upon to perform—a reminder of an earlier and joyous time, a lost and hidden identity, a song about the little dreidel game he’d played. Myron Gordon (1920- ) received his BSS in social science and master’s degree in clinical psychology from the City College of New York, attended the Seminary College of Jewish Studies and received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from New York University. He served in the Army in World War II, was in private practice for over 50 years and retired as an associate

professor at Queens College, CUNY. He was awarded two post-doctoral certificates from the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health. He is married to Jetta Hendel Gordon and has two children and four grandchildren.

   Mark Kligman

The Music of Samuel E. Goldfarb, by Mark Kligman Samuel E. Goldfarb’s early Jewish musical activities came at a time when European Jewish practices were acquiring more American tastes. Around the same time other composers/synagogue musicians such as Max Wohlberg and A.W. Binder wrote melodies to blessings that quickly caught on after the music was published and taught at New York seminaries. In some cases the European liturgical melodies were kept, such as the nusach (melodic formula of prayer) for Shabbat that was retained in many congregations as well as many of the prayers and special melodies for the High Holidays and Three Festivals.

American Reform composers such as Alois Kaiser, Max Spicker and Edward Stark had written new music for the synagogue that was intended to sound like 19th-century Romantic music for organ, choir and cantor. Some lauded the artistic style as an important development in Jewish liturgical music, since this was in vogue in Europe, while others found a lack of identifiable Jewish sounds. Meanwhile, music for home use, blessing for the candles and songs about the holidays, was created anew—which is where Samuel E. Goldfarb’s work comes in.

The 1920s was an active time for popular music in America. Tin Pan Alley songwriters were honing their craft for clever lyrics and snappy tunes. Efforts by the songwriters (many of whom were Jewish) to define an American culture, combined with the desire of synagogue leaders during the interwar period to focus on synagogue life as a key experience for American Jews. Charismatic rabbis led congregations, created vibrant synagogue services and educational activities to attract and engage Jews to continue to practice Jewish rituals.

Seen in this light “I Have a Little Dreidl” was the right song at the right time. So too with many of Goldfarb’s home ritual-based songs which are included in this album. Clever lyrics and singable melodies were just right for a growing Jewish community. I grew up in Los Angeles during the 1960s to 1970s singing many of these melodies never knowing where they came from. Samuel E. Goldfarb’s contribution as a pioneering American Jewish songwriter is important to recognize. There were no prior models for this music. His prodigious efforts, along with those of his brother Israel, established a foundation that has clearly continued. Through singing his songs American Jews were able to learn and express their Jewish heritage.

--Mark Kligman, Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, UCLA Mickey Katz Endowed Chair in Jewish Music, UCLA Herb Albert School of Music

Craig, Tom Weir of Studio City Sound, and Myron

LYRICS I Have a Little Dreidel (S.E. Goldfarb & Samuel S. Grossman, 1927) Original first recording, Arthur Fields with Samuel E. Goldfarb, 1927.

Each suspenseful spin of the Chanukah dreidel reminds us of an ancient battle by the victorious Maccabees over the Hellenists to rescue Jewish culture.

I have a little dreidel I made it out of clay

And when it's dry and ready Then, dreidel I shall play Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I made it out of clay And when it's dry and ready Then, dreidel I will play It has a lovely body With legs so short and thin And when it gets all tired It drops and I will win Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I made it out of clay And when it's dry and ready Then, dreidel I will play My dreidel is so playful It loves to dance and spin A happy game of dreidel Come play now, let's begin Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I made it out of clay And when it's dry and ready Then, dreidel I will play. I Have a Little Dreidel (Goldfarb & Grossman) Craig Taubman

Theodore Bikel

Little Candle Fires (S.E. Goldfarb & S.S. Grossman, 1927) Theodore Bikel On this night let us light one little candle fire. What a sight, O so bright, one little candle fire. On this night, let us light, two little candle fires. What a sight, O so bright, two little candle fires. On this night, let us light, three little candle fires. What a sight, O so bright, three little candle fires. On this night, let us light, eight little candle fires. They say fight, for the right, eight little candle fires. They say fight, for the right, say little candle fires. Ah zeessen Chanukah. I’d Like to be a Maccabee (S.E. Goldfarb & S.S. Grossman, 1927; adapted by Craig Taubman) Craig Taubman

A child is inspired on Chanukah to win today’s struggles for freedom –just like the Maccabee in ancient Israel.

I’d like to be a Maccabee, So strong, and brave and bold: I’d fight, and win Each fight I’m in: But I am only six years old! If peace was more There’d be less war With gun, and spear, or sword in hand. I’d love to say: “There’s a better way ‘Cause together we can build this land.” I’m a Jew. So I will do Everything a small child can I walk the line, for this land of mine Until I grow to be a man.

Laurence Juber

Shalom Aleichem (Israel Goldfarb, 1918) Laurence Juber

Little Jewish Cousins (S.E. Goldfarb & S.S. Grossman, 1927; lyrics adapted by Craig Taubman & Myron Gordon) Vocals by Matt Davis, Mike Stein, Madison Greer, Hide Matsua, Duvid Swirsky

On Chamisha-asar B’shevat we celebrate rebirth. Jewish cousins from unexpected places meet from around the world in Israel.

Where do you come from Yodlin man, Yodlin man, Yodlin man I come from the mountain alpine land the mountain alpine land Tell me, tell me who are you? I am your cousin, the Yodlin Jew Tell me, tell me who are you? I am your cousin, the Yodlin Jew Where do you come from who are you? Who are you? Who are you? I’m from the town of Kalamzoo I’m American, from Kalamzoo Tell me, tell me, who are you? I am your cousin, I am a Jew Where do you come from my good man My good man, my good man I come from far away Japan From far away Japan Tell me, tell me, who are you? I am your cousin, I am a Jew. Tell me, tell me, who are you? Ito kudesu judaiya no Where do you come from my kind sir My kind sir my kind sir I’m from the land of Israel M’eretz Yisrael Tell me, tell me, who are you? I am your cousin, I am a Jew. Tell me, tell me, who are you? Ani ben dod Shelcha, Yehudi too!

I Love the Day of Purim (S.E. Goldfarb & S.S. Grossman, 1927) Rena Strober

Join the Purim party in synagogue and home while sharing the story, the songs, the drama and special desserts with family and friends.

I love the day of Purim so! For then, to synagogue I go, And hear them read the story old Of Esther brave and Haman bold. O Purim, O Purim, O Purim full of joy For every, for every Jewish girl and boy! Have a party, sing a song, Turn the greger loud and long. Shloach monoth give and take, Eat your Hamantashen cake! O Purim, O Purim, O Purim full of joy. For every, for every, for every Jewish girl and boy! My papa makes a party, too, And very jolly things we do! And sometimes we all masquerade— ‘Tis then the story of Purim’s played. O Purim, O Purim, O Purim full of joy. For every, for every, for every Jewish girl and boy! Have a party, sing a song, Turn the greger loud and long. Shloach monoth give and take, Eat your Hamantashen cake! O Purim, O Purim, O Purim full of joy. For every, for every, for every Jewish girl and boy! Then Shloach monoth to each friend With lots of goodies, too, I send, With candies, nuts and fruits so sweet, And Hamantashen cakes to eat. O Purim, O Purim, O Purim full of joy. For every, for every, for every Jewish girl and boy! Have a party, sing a song, Turn the groger loud and long. Shloach monoth give and take, Eat your Hamantashen cake! O Purim, O Purim, O Purim full of joy. For every, for every, for every Jewish girl and boy! P-u-r-i-m – PURIM!

Daniel Cainer

A Merry Purim Song (S.E. Goldfarb & S.S. Grossman, 1927; adapted by Daniel Cainer) Daniel Cainer

The Purim megillah recites the bold rescue of the Jews in ancient Persia by the brave Esther and Mordecai.

Who thinks that he is wondrous wise? Who tells the King so many lies? And always when found out, cries? Why Haman, bad Haman, The lying, spying, lying, spying Haman He builds an enormously tall tree, To hang brave Mordecai, but he was hanged instead, for all to see, Was Haman, bad Haman, The lying, spying, lying, spying Haman Who was the prettiest ever seen

Who didn’t wish to be a queen Who save her people from the king Sweet Esther Sweet Esther The Royal Loyal Royal Loyal Esther She made a party for the king And asked for Haman there to bring And then she told them everything Sweet Esther Sweet Esther The Royal Loyal Royal Loyal Esther Who is glad on Purim day? Who is jolly happy and gay? Who spends the day in Haman’s play We all do we all do We Jewish girls and boys We boys and girls do We all have a real good time And everybody wines and dines And say our little Purim rhymes Let’s all do let’s all do Girls and boys and boys and girls let’s all do For royal loyal Esther We throw this fiesta So raise a glass and pass the holiday-tion To lying spying lying spying Haman Such a naughty Iranian Lying spying lying spying Haman

The Burning Bush (S.E. Goldfarb & S.S. Grossman, 1927) Barbershop quartet

As a young shepherd, Moses discovers his pre-eminent place as founder of the Jewish nation.

Shepherd, resting by the stream, O, tell me, what is it you dream? I am dreaming all the day Of my brothers far away. In that land from here so far, O, tell me who your brothers are? Slaves in Eqypt land are they Working, working all the day. Shepherd, tell me who you are, Do you also come from far? Moses, and a Jew am I, Brother of the slaves who sigh. O, what’s that burning bush so strange? It burns and burns, yet does not change. ’Tis an angel telling me: “Go and set your people free!”

Rick Recht

The 10 Commandments (S.E. Goldfarb & S.S. Grossman, 1927) Rick Recht

Freedom from bondage in Egypt are linked with the Passover story. After wandering in the desert on the way to the Promised Land, the children of Israel receive the Law at Mount Sinai from God through Moses.

We have left the land of Egypt, and from Pharoah we are free. We have left the land of Egypt, and no longer slaves are we. We are going to the Mountain, to the Mountain, to the Mountain. We are going to the Mountain, and what wonders, what wonders we shall see!

We have been to the Mountain; O what wonders God did show! We have heard the Law through Moses, And Commandments Ten we know. We have heard the Law through Moses, through Moses, Through Moses, We have heard the Law through Moses; to our own land, To our own land now we go. We have heard the Ten Commandments, We’ll keep and teach them, too. We have heard the Law through Moses, And we know what we must do. We must keep the Ten Commandments, The Ten Commandments, the Ten Commandments. We must keep the Ten Commandments, You and I, you and I, and every one. We must keep the Ten Commandments, You and I, you and I, and every one.

Noah’s Ark (S.E.Goldfarb & S.S. Grossman, 1926) Saul Kaye & Madison Greer

The biblical story of Noah saving this family and animals of the world from the flood with the ark.

The rain is raining day and night; Within the ark, O what sight! Noah is the Captain, and everyone aboard Is happy that he listened to the order of the Lord. Chorus The animals are happy, the animals are good A sailing in the Ark that Noah made of wood; Resting there is safety in comfort and in love The elephant and the tiger and the lion and the dove! The rain was raining day and night And not a dry spot was in sight. Noah sent the raven out, the raven oh so black! The naughty raven went away and never did come back. Chorus When Noah saw it clear above He sent the little snow white dove. And when the dove came back from flying far away An olive branch was in its mouth ‘o what a happy day. Chorus

Neshama Carlebach

B’sefer Chayim (Israel Goldfarb, 1926) Neshama Carlebach & Josh Nelson B’sefer chayim bracha v’shalom U’farnasah tova Nizacher v’nikatev Lefanecha anachnu v’chol amcha bet yisrael Lechayim tovim, lechayim tovim Ul’shalom

Nate Lam

V’ychulu (S.E. Goldfarb & Israel Goldfarb, 1918, 1925) Cantor Nate Lam Va’yechulu hashamayim v’ha-aretz v’chol ts-v’am Va-yechal elohim bayom ha-shvi-i M’lachto asher asah Vayishbot bayom ha-sh-vi-i Mi-kol melachto asher asah Va’yivarech Elohim et yom ha-shvi-i va’yekadesh oto Ki vo shavat mi-kol milachto Asher bara Elohim la-a-sot

Myron, Craig, Cantor Marcus Feldman and organist Ty Woodward

Magen Avot (S.E. Goldfarb & Israel Goldfarb, 1918, 1925) Cantor Marcus Feldman Magen avot b’dvaro M’chaye metim b’ma-a-ma-ro Ha-El hakadosh sh’en kamohu Hameniach l’ammo b’yom Shabbat kodsho Ki vom ratsah l’honiach lahem Ki vom ratsah l’honiach lahem L’fanav na-a-vod b’yirah l’fachad.deh lishmo b’chol yom tamid m’en habrachot El hahoda-ot adon hashalom M’kadesh ha-shabat u’mevarech shvi-i U’meneach b’kdusha l’am m’kudshe oneg Zecher l’ma-a-seh b’resheet

Alberto Mizrahi

Yah Ribon Olam (S.E. Goldfarb & Israel Goldfarb, 1918, 1925) Cantor Alberto Mizrahi Yah ribon olam v’alamaya Ant hu malka melech malchaya Ovad g’vurtech v’timhaya Shifar kodamach l’hachvaya Sh-vachin asader tzafra v’ramsha Lach elaha kadisha div-ra chol nafsha Irin kadshin u’vnei enasha Cheivat bara v’ofei sh-maya Rav-r-vin ovadach v’takifin Machech ramaya v’zakeif k-fifin Lu y-chei gvar sh-nin alfin La yei-ol gvur-tech b’chush-bna-ya V’shamru (S.E. Goldfarb & Israel Goldfarb, 1918, 1925) Cantor Marcus Feldman V’shomru Vney Yisrael et hashabat

La-asot et hashabat l’dorotom brit olam Baini u’vain Bnai Yisrael Ot hi l’olam baini u’vain Bnai Yisrael Baini u’vain Bnai Yisrael Ot hi l’olam, ot hi l’olam Ki sheshet yamin asah adonay Et hashamayim v’et ha-aretz U’vayom ha’shvi-i shavat vayinofosh Shavat vayinofosh Shavat vayinofosh Vayinofosh #

Dreidel I Shall Play Composer Samuel E. Goldfarb 1. I Have a Little Dreidel – original 1927 recording 2. I Have a Little Dreidel – Craig Taubman 3. Little Candle Fires – Theodore Bikel 4. I’d Like to Be a Maccabee – Craig Taubman 5. Shalom Aleichem – Laurence Juber 6. Little Jewish Cousins – Matt Davis, Mike Stein Madison Greer Hide

Matsua, Duvid Swirsky 7. I Love the Day of Purim – Rena Strober 8. A Merry Purim Song – Daniel Cainer 9. Burning Bush – Barbershop Quartet 10. Ten Commandments – Rick Recht 11. Noah’s Ark - Saul Kaye & Elana Jagoda 12. B’sefer chayim - Neshama Carlebach & Josh Nelson 13. V’ychulu - Cantor Nate Lam 14. Magen Avot - Cantor Marcus Feldman 15. Yah Ribon Olam - Cantor Alberto Mizrahi 16. V’shamru - Cantor Marcus Feldman

Produced by Craig Taubman for JA Songster Inc. JA Songster Inc., 30 Minturn St., Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706 Copyright 2015 All rights reserved @JA Songster Inc. Visit our website at www.jewishamericansongster.com