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Mordechaj Gebirtig
Pseudonym of Mordechaj Bertig, born in 1877 to a poor Jewish family in Kazimierz, near Kraków. After studying in a cheder, he then served an apprenticeship with a carpenter, learning the trade. He spent his youth among workers—something that clearly influenced his later political views, as shown by his social-democratic sympathies.
In the year 1905, he published a poem titled "General Strike" ("Strajk generalny") in the Jewish weekly Socialdemokrat (Socialdemocrat), published in Kraków. At that time, he was active as an actor and director in an amateur Jewish theater, of which he was probably the founder. The theater's productions were of a high quality, as reviews by a leading Jewish poet, Adam Rajzen. These were published in the Kraków daily Dos Yidishe Vort (The Jewish Word). The stage was nevertheless not his calling. He devoted himself to his writing activities, addressing social issues, attacking the wealthy Jewish strata and criticizing social injustice.
During the First World War, Gebirtig did not participate in the fighting because of a heart ailment, though he did serve as an orderly in a military hospital in Kraków. After the war, he worked his brother Leon's carpentry and upholstery shop. He gained popularity in circles associated with the Bund's proletarian wing, and took part in Jewish literary circles where he presented his works. Their reception moved his friends to publish a volume of his verse in 1920, titled "Folstimlech" ("On a Folk Note"). At the same time, Gebirtig's songs were enjoying growing popularity on the stage of the "Strzecha Robotnicza" ("Workers' Roof"). In the summer of 1921, those songs, particularly "Kinderjon" ("Childhood Years") and "Huliet kinderlech" ("Play, Play, Little Children") were heard by Molly Picon, an American actress who was giving concerts in Kraków. Charmed by their loveliness, she included them in her repertoire.
Shortly after that, in 1923, an American theater manager named Boaz Young bought those songs and incorporated them into an operetta by Mosze Szor titled "Rumuńskie wesele" ("Romanian Wedding"), staged in Warsaw in 1923. According to critics, it was the songs of Gebirtig, "the troubadour from Galicia", that made it so popular. Gebirtig's works were not modeled on Polish cabaret, which he hardly knew at all, but rather dealt with cultural and Jewish folk themes. Gebirtig realized that his texts could not be understood by everyone. He nevertheless did not want to betray his ideals, or his artistic nature, which rebelled against creating works described as "shmontses"--humorous, erotic and often devoid of any ideology. When he began to cooperate with cabarets, he had to move away from the aggressive, proletarian tone of his first poems. He remained true to the subject matter, but showed a more domestic side of himself, sometimes even a sentimental side. These included lullabies of poor, overworked mothers putting their children to sleep—lonely women, worrying about their husbands who had emigrated to America to earn money.
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His best-known song, "S'brent, undzer shtetl brent" ("It’s Burning, Our Town Is Burning") was the unofficial hymn of the ghetto uprisings. Those who know Gebirtig's work well disagree as to when this song was composed, and its origins. The view has spread that this work was composed when Gebirtig heard that there had been a pogrom in Przytyk. This fact was certainly widely discussed and touched the Gebirtig family deeply. Although this song should not be interpreted as a direct commentary about that event, it is nevertheless a prophetic vision of the nightmare to come.
During the German occupation, Gebirtig was in the Kraków ghetto, where he became friends with Abraham Neuman. Beginning in October 1940, he was in the ghetto in Łagiewniki, near Kraków. He still composed - mainly for his daughter, who was a well-known singer at that time performing at the Polonia Café, and elsewhere. He was killed by the Nazis in 1942 during a deportation action.
His poems and songs have survived and have been performed at the Jewish State Theater in Warsaw in the production Der trubadur fun Galitsye ("The Troubadour from Galicia"), directed by Gołda Tencer (premiered April 4, 1992). Several collections of songs have also been published, including "Folksstimlech" ("On a Folk Note", Kraków, 1910), "Mayne lider" ("My Songs", Wilno, 1936), "S'brant Gore" (Kraków, 1936), and "Wiersze wybrane" ("Selected Poems") (Buenos Aires, 1954).
Biographical details can be found in Natan Gross's book, Zydowski bard: Gawęda o życiu i twórczości Mordechaja Gegirtiga (Jewish Bard: Tales about the Life and Work of Mordechaj Gebirtig, Kraków, 2000). (asw)
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