Researching Yiddish penny songs (tenement song broadsides of theater and variety show songs, 1895-1925)
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This song, inspired by a prayer recited on Saturday night, is, in Hebrew letters,
ויתּן לך --  translated as "He will give to you"
Here are the English spellings I've found:
Wejiten L'cho
Veyiteyn l'kho
We-yiten lecho
Weyiten L'cho
Jiten lecho
Ve-yiten Lecha

Published in 1911, the song was sung by Jacob P. Adler and Mrs. Rosa Karp in the show "Nathan the Wiseman" (Nathan der Weise), music by Joseph Rumshisky (later Rumshinsky) and lyrics by by Rev. S. Smulewitz. Here's a closeup of Mrs. R. Karp from the sheet music cover:



I found two recordings of this song. At the Florida Atlantic University website you can hear Wejiten L'cho sung by Hyman Adler.

But I chose to use the recording by Frances Simonoff (Fannie Simonoff, Frances Burt). She was born in 1884 in the Ukraine and came to the United States with her family in 1886.

Click to hear her sing Veyiten Lecho:

Here's the song sheet (click for larger view):




Here she sings the first verse and two choruses. Here's the song translation:

We are, oh! dear God, after all,
Your children. And precisely because of that, we suffer, you treat us like small children.
You play with our feelings, you give us an exquisite land,
It's just a plaything to play with, and soon you take it back.
We want, dear God, to be children no longer. It's our goal to be grown up people, our own masters,
And you give us something, God, don't take it away, oy vey,

"And he gives heaven and earth"
Fulfill the blessing of Isaac!
Forests, fields, fruit and wine, may Jews always have them,
Make our enemies bow before us, God, bring them to disgrace,
And Jerusalem - Zion, shall be our fatherland.

We have great faith in you
We know you're not mocking us.
Fulfill what you promised to our holy generations,
You said your people Israel would multiply like the stars
But of course what's multiplying is our tears
Stones rain down on us without end,
Dear God, we want no more stones.

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For sheet music and/or performances contact me: jane@mappamundi.com

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Labels: history, immigration, mores, religion, zion