The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #170449   Message #4191680
Posted By: Felipa
12-Nov-23 - 12:07 PM
Thread Name: Child Ballads - Yiddish versions
Subject: RE: Child Ballads - Yiddish versions
https://yiddishsong.wordpress.com/tag/conversion/:
"When ballads have been presented on the Yiddish Song of the Week we have sometimes emphasized the parallels with other international ballads. This week we present a ballad type that is not to be found internationally, certainly not in the Anglo-British-American tradition – a ballad that describes the conversion of a child to the Christian faith; a shmad-ballad. The verb shmadn in Yiddish means to convert to Christianity."

You'll find two related songs on the page, conversations between a parent and a daughter, with the parent offering clothes, a dowry, a good Jewish husband to the daughter if she will return to the faith of her family.