Music videos from our December concerts of Yiddish music from Poland

This is my favorite of the new videos so far, "In Odess" :



Odessa was famous as a rather relaxed and secular location where you could "live in progress" as the protagonist promises. The Moldavanke was a Moldavian settlement which predated the rest of the city. At the time of this song it was sort of run down and rowdy. It had a good flea market.

This happy Yiddish music must have seemed so empty and pointless after the Holocaust. For decades Yiddish music has been associated mostly with sorrow. There was a wonderful world of witty, cosmopolitan, frivolous Yiddish music that practically disappeared. If you want to wander in the aisles of forgotten Yiddish theater songs, visit my Polish Jewish Cabaret blog. Happy holidays.