It’s Valentine’s Day! And while flowers, chocolates and candlelit dinners all are nice — what could be more romantic than learning a few songs in mameloshn for your Valentine? The landscape of Yiddish folksong is filled with beautiful treasures that capture the timeless joys and heartbreaks of romance, while offering us an incredibly special connection to our past. As a Jewish artist and Yiddish singer, I cherish these songs not just as precious cultural heirlooms that are part of our yerushe, our inheritance, but as living, breathing stories that continue to resonate with us across generations. And so no matter where your heart stands this year — whether you’re lovestruck, lovelorn or somewhere in between — there’s a Yiddish folk song for you this Valentine’s Day.
“Tumbalalaika”
Single this Valentine’s Day and swatting away would-be suitors at every turn? Glean inspiration for how to deal with this most tiresome predicament from the evergreen Yiddish classic, “Tumbalalaika.”
In this beloved Yiddish folk song, which readers may be familiar with, we are introduced to a young man who is pondering who he should marry. He meets a young woman and decides to test her with three riddles to see if she is the one for him. He asks: What can grow without rain? What can burn without ceasing? What can yearn and cry without tears? The woman, after first calling him foolish, confidently answers: A stone can grow without rain, love can burn without burning itself out, and a heart can cry without tears. And so ends the song, with our champion successfully answering the man’s riddles!
While these questions are the most popular ones to sing, at least one version includes the additional questions of: What is higher than a house? What is swifter than a mouse? What is deeper than a spring? What is more bitter than gall? (Answers: A chimney, a cat, the mind, and death). While this author is not sure if these questions are quite as romantic as the more standard ones above, they certainly could be helpful in a tiebreaker scenario!
Watch this beautiful rendition of “Tumbalalaika” sung by American folk singer Pete Seeger and Canadian-American singer and esteemed collector of Yiddish folksong Ruth Rubin. The performance, sung half in Yiddish and half in English, comes from the fourth episode of Seeger’s 1965 television program “Rainbow Quest.”
Click here for the song lyrics.
“Gey Ikh Mir Shpatsirn” (As I Went Walking)
Stuck in a situationship this Valentine’s Day? Find some solace in a Yiddish song about this timeless plight.
In the song, a young woman goes on a shpatsir, or stroll, where she meets a charming suitor. The man promises to marry her, but delays by saying he’ll be ready by summer. When summer finally arrives, however, he still doesn’t follow through (shocker!). Then after some time and a rather delightful musical interlude has passed, in the final verse of the song, he declares that he’s now ready to marry her! But our protagonist retorts with, “Itst vil ikh im nit kenen, aha, aha!” For those of you not yet fluent in Yiddish, that translates to, “Now, I don’t even want to know him!” before she laughs in his face.
Send this rousing and inspirational song to your situationship this Valentine’s Day!
(Take any relationship advice from this article at your own risk.)
Click here for the song lyrics.
“Di Sapozhkelekh” (Little Boots)
Are you unable to be with the one you love this Valentine’s Day? Listen to this beautiful love song filled with yearning for your heart’s desire instead.
This folk song, originally sung by Ukrainian émigré Bronya Sakina was performed by Eleanor Reissa in the 1990 Broadway musical revue “Those Were the Days,” created by Zalmen Mlotek and Moishe Rosenfeld.
In the song, we meet someone deeply longing to be together with their faraway love. Saying that they would sell their boots, ride on wagons, sleep in railway stations, eat without a table, sleep without a pillow and wash the floors of strangers all to be with their beloved again. It’s a poignant reminder of the lengths one might go to for love and the deep connection two people can feel for each other even when apart. With its lyrics full of poetic imagery and its beautiful melody, all in service of expressing the simple desire to be with the one you love again, it’s no wonder the song has remained a popular and beloved staple in the Yiddish cultural community for decades.
Click here for the song lyrics.
“Tumba” (“Oyfn Oyvn Zitst a Meydl”) (On a Hearth Sits a Young Woman)
Searching for a love song with a spark? “Tumba” might be just the one for you.
In this song we encounter a woman on the hearth of a fireplace contentedly embroidering a white dress when in walks a young male troublemaker (does this sound familiar?). The man pulls out a thread from the dress she’s working on and she tells him that he will pay for what he’s done! She goes on to say that she won’t let him leave and that she will embrace him and love him! (Plot twist!) The lyrics end with our narrator telling the audience that now there are two sitting upon the hearth, neither sewing nor embroidering… What ever else could they be up to? It looks like it’s up to interpretation!
Listen to celebrated Yiddish singer Adrienne Cooper’s wonderful version of “Tumba”:
Click here for the song lyrics.
“Reyzele”
While the former songs were all folk songs, our final song, and my personal favorite, is one that was written in a folk style by Mordkhe Gebirtig, a Yiddish poet and songwriter from Kraków whose songs rose to popularity throughout both Europe and America during the interwar years. While Gebirtig was murdered during the Holocaust, his many popular songs, like “Reyzele,” continue to live on and are performed to date.
This song centers on a young man who is out late one night cracking nuts and whistling outside the house of his beloved (I mean, who hasn’t?). His beloved, Reyzele, steps outside her house to tell her young man not to whistle up to her anymore! It upsets Reyzele’s religious mother who says that whistling is not a befitting thing for a Jew to do. At hearing this, our gentleman swears to Reyzele that he will give up whistling and even become religious himself and go to shul every shabes to be with her. The song has a happy ending with Reyzele, overjoyed, telling her love that she’ll knit him a beautiful tefillin bag and our young man going back out into the night, very happy, still cracking nuts, but this time — singing.
Listen to this beautiful of rendition of “Reyzele” sung by the beloved Israeli folk singer Chava Alberstein:
Click here for the song lyrics.
So happy Valentine’s Day! Or, if you’re more Tu B’Av inclined, save this article for August! That gives you even more time to practice.
All the songs featured in this article were preserved thanks to the work of Yosl and Chana Mlotek, whose collection has kept Yiddish songs alive for generations. If you’re interested in exploring the world of Yiddish song further, the lyrics to all these songs, and many more, can be found at the Yosl and Chana Mlotek Yiddish Song Collection at the Workers Circle.
