Dos lid fun Yarmulovski (about the crash of the S. Jarmulowsky bank on the Lower East Side in 1914)
UPDATE: I first posted this ten years ago, but yesterday I decided to record it again, this time with all the verses, and with keyboard. My voice is ten years older but my indignation is fresh and young. The song ends: "One who dares steal even just a bit of bread is severely punished. When someone flays the skin from thousands of people? He's called a wise man." Here is the new recording:
It took a while to find the historic figures of this song. Yarmulovski the elder is Alexander (Sender) Jarmulowsky. Ordained as a rabbi, he married the daughter of a wealthy merchant and established a shipping firm in Germany, then emigrated in the early 1870s to New York City, where he founded the S. Jarmulowsky bank on the Lower East Side.
Jarmulowsky was known as the "East Side J.P. Morgan" and his bank was the area's first skyscraper. He died, however, within weeks of the building's completion. His sons inherited it, made bad investments, and a few years later went bust.
Most of its depositors were poor and counted on being able to withdraw their savings to send to European relatives when World War I was beginning. In August 1914 5,000 depositors gathered in front of the skyscraper and demanded their savings. They then paraded to City Hall, where some were clubbed and arrested (see New York Times article from August 30, 1914 at the bottom of this post). The bank was closed in 1917 and many of the depositors were left with nothing.
Here's the 2016 recording - with Jim Baird on bass - of the song Max Zavodnik wrote about their misery:
The song's full title is Dos lid fun Yarmolovski, Max Kobre un Mandel di 3 bankirer un zeyere korbones. (The Song about Jarmulowsky, Max Kobre and Mandel, the Three Bankers, and Their Victims.) These culprits were Sender's two sons, Meyer and Louis Jarmulowsky, Max Kobre, and Adolf Mandel. The final words of the song ring true today:
When someone dares steal even just a bit of bread
He's severely punished
When someone flays the skin from thousands of people
He's called a wise man
He's severely punished
When someone flays the skin from thousands of people
He's called a wise man
This text is written to the melody of a song called Troymende shlefer, also the underlying melody for the workers' song Vos vet zayn der sof?. I still had the bass accompaniment from that recording that song, so here it is again, and thanks again to Jim Baird the bassist!
Transliteration and translation after the jump.
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by melinama @ 9:26 PM
Wow, it's been three months since I put up a song. There was a time I was putting one up almost every day. Truth is, since the election I have been so disheartened I hardly ever talk, let alone sing. There are times I think music is over for me. I just can't bear the world right now. So I sound rusty but it will have to do.
Here's our recording of Der man mit der nodl un di sher from the 
Transliteration and translation from the Yiddish after the jump.
This one was such a pleasure. Louis Gilrod, one of the two most prolific parodists featured in Lider magazin, wrote a classic workers' anthem, stirring, furious, bitter, to the cheerful tune of a frivolous WASPy classic.
And here is the cover of "Take a Car," the specified melody. You can find it on line and you can also find a cute period recording of it on Youtube.
The song referenced, "All Aboard for Broadway," was hard to find. I had to search a long time. Finally, somebody on the Vaudeville Facebook group dug up a pixelated scan of a faded old copy of the music. I stupidly retyped the whole thing into Sibelius before checking to see if it was the right song. Nope. Next time, check first.
Isidore Lillian (left) (also spelled Isidor Lillien or any combination) was born in 1882 in Galicia. He came to New York in 1892 and was 22 when he wrote this parody for the Katsenelenbogen music publishing company.
This song was written by Louis Kopelman to the tune of "My Gal is a High Born Lady," and it was sung by Bessie Thomashefsky. The tune has a cakewalk / ragtime feel to it.
I couldn't find much information about this song, which is on the Library of Congress website. It's from the 1904 show "The Lodge President" דער לאָדזשען פּרעזידענט by that shund mayster Professor Horowitz, about whom I've written before.
So, note that von Plehve died the very year this song mentioned him!
This song is transliterated at the Florida Atlantic University website as 
The star, Ludwig Satz, wrote the words of the songs. Joseph Rumshinsky claimed the melody. We've had several of Satz's later songs on my other blog, http://PolishJewishCabaret.com. This was one of his earliest hits.
This is a dull melody but the lyrics are vivid.
The composer is Herman Wohl, the lyricist is Louis Gilrod though as usual Boris Thomashefsky gives himself credit. The song is from a show called "The Two Cantors" (the two cantors were originally played by David Kessler and Boris Thomashefsky). It says on the sheet music that Sam Kasten sang this song.
Here is the handsome Yiddish theater star, singer Sam Kasten.
Left is Samuel Rosenstein, who produced Gelebt un Gelakht (Live and Laugh) and, as the son Julius, sang this song in the show. 
Also seen as Giter Bruder nicht gechapt, Giter brider nisht gechapt, and Giter Brüder nicht gechapt, this song was published in 1907 and, along with the previous song on the blog, is from the Professor Hurwitz show Malke Shvo (Queen of Sheba).
Womens suffrage was not an easy sell in misogynistic America. The suffragettes struggled year after year and were not successful in getting the right to vote until 1920.
Yiddish Ragtime
Ikh bin busy
Opgenarte velt
Vos hot men tsu mir
Der East Side fun amol
