"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? is one of the best-known American songs of the Great Depression. Written by lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Jay Gorney, it was part of the 1932 musical revue Americana; the melody is based on a Russian-Jewish lullaby."
Under the section Composition and lyrical interpretation:
"According to Harold Meyerson and Ernest Harburg, '[r]hythmically and melodically it sounds like a Jewish chant.'[1] An article in Tablet magazine suggested that the melody was similar to Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem."