Re: Judy Garland & "Eli, Eli"

[Bob Wiener <wiener...>]

Here's Eliott Kahn's post from that time.  It seems that, indeed, you may have 
sheet music for the Yiddish theater song that Eliott refers to.

Bob


>From Elkahn (at) JTSA(dot)EDU 
Received: 2 Mar 2001 16:05:42 -0000

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 published in 
several editions-- including a a setting done by Michael Schalit for the St. 
Petersburg Folk Music Society. Yet the song was originally written by Peretz 
Jacob Koppel Sandler in 1896 for a Yiddish show at the Windsor Theatre on the 
Bowery in New York City.

The Senesh poem is entirely in Hebrew, the first lines beginning: "Eli, Eli, 
shelo yigameir l'olam...."

Eliott Kahn


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: BrittGood (at) aol(dot)com 
  To: World music from a Jewish slant 
  Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 11:40 PM
  Subject: Re: Judy Garland & "Eli, Eli"


  In a message dated 10/29/2002 8:34:31 PM Eastern Standard Time, wiener (at) 
mindspring(dot)com writes: 



    I just saw the beginning  Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows and, 
forgetting the thread begun on this list by the post below, was surprised to 
hear her sing "Eli, Eli".  Several on the list conjectured that the "Eli, Eli" 
sung was not the Hannah Senesh version, but in fact, Yoel Kahn was correct -- 
it was.


  In my collection of old sheet music, I have a version of 
  Eli, Eli --copyright 1956 -- but the words are in Yiddish, not Hebrew. 
  It doesn't credit the author, but could this be the other version 
  you refered to? 
  B.Goodman