Researching Yiddish penny songs (tenement song broadsides of theater and variety show songs, 1895-1925)
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List of the still-lost songs: do you know any of them?
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I don't think I'm going to find the melody for this one, it says: "Sing to the tune of Di shkheynim" (The neighbors), I can't find that song either. This one reads like off-the-cuff rhymes for a party. As usual Morris Rund has a jaundiced view of the proceedings. But look how he advertises himself on the cover of the songsheet! (Click for a larger view.) The songsheet itself is at the bottom of this post.

It also says: "Sung with great success by Isidor Meltzer in the Peoples Music Hall."


From Mendele:

Probably from the Polish word "kolacz" (pronounced "kowatch") which comes from "kolo", meaning "wheel". This was a traditional Polish bread-like cake, round-shaped, and sometimes very big.

And from the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food:

A polish synonym for a very large braided oval challah of more than one and a half feet is variously spelled koyletsh, keylitsh, keylitch, koilitch, and koylatsh. [I also found the spelling kuilecz]
It is served at festive occasions, notably weddings and the Purim feast. At Polish weddings, a woman holding the koyletsh, sometimes with lit candels set into it, would dance (koyletsh tanz) solo in front of the seated bride and groom, conveying a wish that they might always have bread.

Wikipedia:

In cities that were protected by a surrounding wall at the time of the Biblical Joshua, Purim is instead celebrated on the 15th of the month of Adar on what is known as Shushan Purim, since fighting in the walled city of Shushan continued through the 14th day of Adar.

Oy der purim


There's a tumult everywhere, purim is coming soon
Every woman is involved with Purim now
They're all busy, it's no small thing
People are running, buying, doing everything to prepare for Purim!

Oy, Purim, it just causes misery
Every woman is sweating over the hamentashn there with the three points
For Purim!

My wife Mirke is terribly busy, she's running back and forth
She wants her Purim koyletsh to be just right
But suddenly, disaster, a lament, I beg you folks, just listen:
Her Purim koyletsh has risen too high, now it's worthless!

Khane Dvoshe's husband ran away a year ago
And now she's gotten a letter, he'll be here for Purim
So then she prepared Purim the day before
And suddenly her man arrives unexpectedly on Shushan Purim!

Chaim Khvatsh, a handsome Jew, I've known him quite a while
He gave his wife money to prepare for Purim
But suddenly he comes to me complaining and crying:
She's gone, she took Purim with her and left him alone!

My neighbor invited me to come to her the night of Purim
"I have," she said, "prepared a Purim with all the good stuff."
I thought what she was saying was all true
But what I found there, what a Purim, ugh, she should have such a year!

Sore Pesl took a ton of money from her husband
She ran out in the street and bought whatever she liked for Purim
She comes home and shows her husband the money she spent
The husband gets mad and says to her: you and Purim can burn!



Click for a larger view:

Labels: battle between the sexes, food, holidays, humor, sarcasm