Page 22 - Jewish News_September-2020

22 September 2020 JEWISH INTEREST

“You Poison Our Innards” –

revamped 1918 Yiddish pandemic song

By Arlene Stolnitz By Rabbi Barbara Aiello
ou may already have heard Di batsiln, di mikrobn boyen zeyer Mikrobn batsiln vos vilt ir? Zogt “Mentshn-Fresser” (2020)
it, since it is taking YouTube nest vemes shlikhes derfilt ir? A terrible plague is spreading around
Yby storm! I am talking about Fresn undzer layb un lebn frukhpern Ir frest di korbones gor on a the world
the song that was inspired in 1916 by zikh pek rakhmones, in bliyende lebn nor tsilt With the blazing speed of a great fire
the outbreak of polio and tuberculosis Un mir muzn zelbst farshvebn far der ir! Human minds are helpless, wisdom is
and then followed by the flu epidemic tsayt avek Ir bodt zikh in trern fun veyner ir tsit without use
of 1918. During the period of World Un mir filn vi mir geyen shtil un oys di markh fun di beyner No remedy can be found for bacillus.
War I, 500 mil- langzam oys Ir samt di gederem ir krikhende verim, Chorus:
lion people were Un di shmertsn un di veyen zaynen mikrobn batsiln vos vilt ir? Microbes, bacilli, what do you want?
infected, includ- shreklekh groys Microbes, bacilli, what do you want? Whose will do you serve?
ing many Jews. Un di finstere makhshoves gresern Whose mission are you carrying out? You devour your victims without
The ballad is dem shmerts You gobble the victims mercilessly, mercy
called “Mentshn- Yorn ligt der malekh hamoves tif bay you aim only at blooming lives You take aim at blossoming life
Fresser” (People undz in herts. You bathe yourselves in the tears of You bathe in our tears
Devourer), and The pale pestilence lives deeply those who weep, you suck the marrow You suck the marrow from our bones
was written by buried in the lungs from the bones You poison our innards, you crawling
Solomon Small The bacilli, the microbes build their nest You poison the entrails, you crawling worms
Arlene Stolnitz (Smulevitz) in They gobble us up, body and soul, and worms. Microbes, bacilli, what do you Microbes bacilli what do you want?
1916. Known as a Yiddish Penny multiply a lot want? Arlene Stolnitz, founder of the Sara-
Song, it was considered a “tenement And we must ourselves dwindle/fade Fast forward to today. Two Ber- sota Jewish Chorale, is a member of
song” with connections to theater and away before our time lin based musicians, Sveta Kundish the Jewish Congregation of Venice. A
variety show songs written during the And we feel how we’re expiring and Daniel Kahn, have teamed up and retired educator from Rochester, New
period from 1895-1925. quietly and slowly, produced a remake of the song which York, she has sung in choral groups
How amazing it is to read the and the suffering and crying are smacks of similarities to the earlier for over 25 years and also sings in
words written more than 100 years ago terribly great. one, but uncannily speaks to today’s The Venice Chorale. Her interest in
and see their similarity to our pandem- And the dark thoughts increase the COVID-19 virus. the preservation of Jewish music of all
ic today! pain. According to Kundish and Kahn, kinds has led to this series of articles
“Mentshn-Fresser” (1916) For years the Angel of Death lies deep “what goes ’round, comes ’round,” on Jewish Folk Music in the Diaspora.
In di lungen tif bagrobn voynt di blase in our hearts. as we hear the lyrics which reflect the
pest Chorus: anxiety of today’s pandemic. With the Crossword Puzzle
help of their musician friends and fel- Solution to puzzle on page 21
low Yiddishists, they decided to record
Buying or Selling? in Yiddish, an updated version of the

Call Realtor David Weiman 1916 song. Complete with images
®
from the earlier pandemic, they took
Residential Agent / Business Broker the concept further by finding an aban-
DavidWeiman@WagnerRealty.com doned farmhouse outside of Berlin and
have created a video of the song, but
www.ManasotaBusinesses.com with all the overtones of an earlier era.
Fluent in Hebrew. Active member of the It is available for viewing on YouTube
Jewish Federation and Community. under the title “ Mentshn Fresser”.
Call David The English translated 2020 ver-
941.404.5898 sion is remarkable and bears a striking
resemblance to the pandemic of 1916.

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