Chava Alberstein - Dona Dona (audio only)

Chava Alberstein singing Dona Dona (audio only)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Chava
• Alberstein
• Yiddish
• Dona
• Donna
• Dana
• חוה
• אלברשטיין

[mahvach]

yiddish= language of heart

[georges3601]

It was written during the time of the Nazis, but a year or two before the Final Solution was conceived. It is now sung as a Holocaust song, although it has, in the past, been associated more with communism (the calf and the bird -- haves and have-nots) and has apparently been banned in a few countries for promoting communist ideas. It seems somewhat communistic to me (many European Jews and early zionists dreamed of a communist utopia for Jews), but may very well be a Holocaust song. I dont know

[MeinradKoch]

Grossartig !, Wunderschön !

Bravo...ein wunderschöner Moment !

[TheEvilViolin]

Singing this for my Grade 1 Singing examination, in the original Yiddish of course, the ONLY way this should be sung

[odedzinger]

The English version, made so well known by Joan Baez, is also wonderful but it has "americanized" the song. "Whoever treasurers freedom, like the swallow has learnt to fly" maybe fits the message of the happy 1960s but not the stark reality of the 1940s. The original Yiddish words are much more tragic and disturbing.

[odedzinger]

This version is a true gem. It captures the original theatrical context of the original song. True, it is gleeful - which brings out the deep irony of the song. It is a truly Yiddish performance: dealing with the most horrible subject with a ironic laughter.

[betzalel153]

According to prof Weinreich a"h. Yiddish is a combination of German, Hebrew, Russian, and even Latin. "zugt der zayde, Raboysi mir viln bentchen" Zugt - from german, zayde - russian, Rabosai - Hebrew or Aramaic, Bentchen - Latin from Beneditcus - blessing

[betzalel153]

far besser fun Joan Baez

[constantinos45]

Yiddish (ייִדיש yidish or אידיש idish, literally "Jewish") is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world.

[SiggiNebel]

@ihrfer Let's rather say in the last 800 years, for the language is based on medevial (southern) German, not on modern standard German. After the persecutions of jews had started in medivial Germany along with the crusades, many jews emigrated, encouraged by the Polish kings, to Poland, in those days actually the vastest of the European kingdoms, but the most sparsely populated one, too. Linguistically isolated from Germany, the language adopted many Hebrew, Aramean and slavic expressions.

[ihrfer]

@sadella Ethnoloque is made by linguistics and is a standard reference. Linguasphere says that standard German, Dutch, and Yiddish are all varieties of the same language.

And yes, Ethnoloque puts _Northern_ Italian dialects and French dialects with Gallo-Romance in a similar category like High German (btw, High German is the name for languages traditionally spoken in High Germany, what is the problem with that category?).

[sadella]

@ihrfer And what does linguistics say about this? Jews have learnt to be VERY cautious of ethnologists and anthropologists, if you see what I mean. Yiddish being spoken even in non-german parts of Europe (such as Ukraine, and Russia, and, my, Poland), it IS a language, not a dialect. Besides, being French, I can understand Itlalian and Corsican pretty easily without having studied it. Which doesn't make these languages a "shade" of French. "High German" as a category can be discussed in itself.