Background
Zunser was born on October 28, 1836 in Vilnius, Lithuania. His father, Feive Zunser, a poor carpenter, died when Eliakum was barely seven years old, leaving the family in direst straits.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Jewish Bard Eliakum Zunser Abraham Hyman Fromenson Simon Hirsdansky Tsunzer yubileum ḳomiṭe, 1905
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Bard-Eliakum-Zunser/dp/1273102851?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1273102851
(Arranged for Voice with Piano Accompaniment by William Fi...)
Arranged for Voice with Piano Accompaniment by William Fichandler. Based on Notes by Joseph Rumshinsky Eliakum Zunser, Yiddish troubadour of the Old World and the New, composed his own ballads. Themes of Zunser's songs ranged from the social to the prophetic, as this comprehensive collection documents. Readers will find music, Yiddish text, and English paraphrases of some fifty Zunser ballads, including The Flower," a song about Israel and memorable New World pieces, "The Golden Land," "The Greenhorn," "The Peddler," and "Columbus and Washington."
https://www.amazon.com/Selected-Songs-Eliakum-Zunser/dp/0405067577?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0405067577
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
https://www.amazon.com/Ale-er-dray-bend-Yiddish/dp/1179674421?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1179674421
Zunser was born on October 28, 1836 in Vilnius, Lithuania. His father, Feive Zunser, a poor carpenter, died when Eliakum was barely seven years old, leaving the family in direst straits.
After a few years of study in the Yeshivah (Talmudical school) under the most miserable conditions, young Zunser was apprenticed to an embroiderer of military uniforms, meanwhile studying modern Hebrew writers and acquiring the elements of a secular education in his spare hours.
As a boy of fourteen Zunser was impressed in the military barracks at Bobruisk, along with some eighty other youngsters who had been snatched away from their homes under the recruiting system then prevailing under Nicholas I. In the barracks he composed his first songs, reciting the woes of the unfortunate Poimaniks (impressed recruits), and even trained a choir of the boys to sing them. His song, "Di Yeshuah, " written upon the occasion of their deliverance five weeks later, won acclaim. His facility in creating popular songs was already beginning to be known, and he now commenced earning a livelihood as Badchen (bard) a familiar figure in Jewish ghetto life, whose calling was to amuse the guests at weddings and festivities with impromptu doggerel. Zunser lost his family to cholera. This tragic misfortune elicited his well-known poem, "Der Potshtover Glekl" (The Postilion). Upon settling in the city of Minsk, however, he later found happiness in a second marriage, and his fame as Badchen grew steadily. Wherever he appeared he drew large crowds of listeners, until eventually his influence over the masses attracted the suspicion of the Russian police. In 1889 he emigrated with his family to the United States. Shortly after his arrival he made a tour of the country, reciting his poems and meeting everywhere with great success. Later he settled in New York City and opened a small printing establishment on the East Side, but continued to write and compose. He himself liked the cognomen of "Eliakum Badchen" by which he was known, and would use it as his signature even after he had gained fame as a poet. In fact he lacked the lyric touch of the true poet, his verse being chiefly intellectual, moral, didactic, allegoric, and national in tendency. Yet because of their apposite content and the pleasing melodies to which he set them, his songs spread over the length and breadth of Russia, Poland, Galicia, and Rumania, wherever Yiddish-speaking people lived. Many of his songs became household tunes long before they were ever in print. He became the articulate voice of the Jewish Ghetto, for he touched in his rhymes upon events affecting the welfare of his co-religionists. It was his endeavor to give a true picture of the period in which he lived. Zunser scourges the hypocrite, the usurer, the oppressor, and bewails the plight of suffering Jews in the Diaspora. Joyous as was his nature, he had suffered deeply both the misfortunes of ordinary humankind and the sorrows of Israel. He was one of the first to encourage Jewish colonization in the Holy Land. His stirring song, "Shivath Zion, " dedicated to the first pioneer settlers in Palestine after the violent pogroms in Russia following the accession of Alexander III to the throne, had a magical effect upon vast audiences. This and other songs were powerful in spreading the Palestinian ideal. In another famous song, "Di Soche" (The Plough), he idealizes the farmer's life in contrast with that of the city dweller. In America Zunser became an ardent admirer of American institutions and the spirit of liberty. His muse gave ample expression to his patriotic feelings for the land of his adoption, often comparing conditions in the United States with those in Czarist Russia. To his popular American songs belong "Columbus and Washington, " "The Peddler, " "The Immigrant, " "Slaves Were We. " After the publication of his Shirim hadashim he composed over six hundred songs, some of which were translated into other languages. For the Jewish stage he wrote a version of the sale of Joseph (Mekhirath Joseph). Many of his poems, some with accompanying music, have appeared in selected editions. He was survived at the time of his death by his wife and seven children.
(Arranged for Voice with Piano Accompaniment by William Fi...)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
In 1862 Zunser married his first wife, by whom he had four children. Nine years later he lost all four children in a cholera epidemic, and shortly thereafter his wife.