RE: [Fwd: Judy Garland & Eli, Eli (Kahn)]

[Leonard Koenick <lkoenick...>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of Eliott Kahn
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 10:19 AM
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Judy Garland & Eli, Eli (Kahn)]

George:

I didn't see the Garland special but if she sang it for Louis B. Mayer (with
an "a") it would have been in the 1930s. The Wizard of Oz, filmed when
Garland was still a teenager was released in 1939.

The song she most likely sang for Mayer was Eli Eli, originally written for
the Yiddish theatre. Except for its opening line: Eli Eli loma asavtoni
(from Ps.22 as well as the Gospel of St. Matthew), the remainder of the song
is a Yiddish plaint to God from the suffering Jew: " ... In feier in flam
hot men uns gebrent ..." According to Irene Heskes, the song was extremely
popular, sung years later by Yossele Rosenblatt on his vaudeville tours,
And by Perry Como on a 78 in the 50's.
Leonard

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