The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #41967   Message #4030050
Posted By: Karen Impola
24-Jan-20 - 11:45 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: 'O Hanukkah' (Yiddish & Hebrew words)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'O Hanukkah' (Yiddish & Hebrew words
Hi, that guest was me on a different computer.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Our versions were the same until partway through the first verse, and then diverged. We both sang:

Chanuke, oy Chanuke, a yontev a sheyner
A lustiger a freylicher, nito noch azoyner
Ale nacht in dreydl shpiln mir
Zudigheyse latkes esn mir

Geshvinder, tsindt kinder
Di dininke lichtelech on


At this point, the version I know goes:

Zogt "Al ha-nisim", loybt Got far di nisim
Un kumt gecher tantsn in kon!


Steve Weintraub had something different for the last two lines, but I don't know exactly what it was. (I don't speak Yiddish; I'm just good at learning songs verbatim, and if I've read a translation, I can attach meanings to some of the words.) He asked me what I was singing, so I repeated it for him - he does speak Yiddish - and he said it made sense that his version was different because it was from the Workmen's Circle and they secularize everything.

The last two lines of the version I learned mean, according to the Wikipedia page for the song, Say "Al Hanissim" [the blessing for Chanukah], praise God for the miracles,
And we will all dance together in a circle!


Here's Theodore Bikel's version, in Yiddish, English, and Hebrew. The last two lines in the Yiddish part are:

Lomir ale zingn un lomir ale shpringn
Un lomir ale tantsn in kon!


which I'm guessing means

Let's all sing and let's all jump(?) and let's all dance in a circle!

This may or may not be what Steve sings. You could contact him through his website (linked in my last post) if you really want to know.

The Wikipedia page gives lots of different variations of the Yiddish words, but there's no "Lomir ale zingn". It also says it was a Yiddish song first and then translated into English and Hebrew.