December 4, 2025<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nA new CD was released this year of delightful Yiddish children\u2019s songs, composed by the Vilna-born musician David Botwinik who died in 2022 at the age of 101.<\/p>\n
The album, Zumer iz shoyn vider do<\/em>, which translates to \u201cSummer is finally here again\u201d, was compiled by Botwinik\u2019s son, Sender Botwinik. It features 36 tracks of melodies composed by David Botwinik set to the works of various Yiddish poets, including David Botwinik himself.<\/p>\nThe text and music for most of the songs were originally published in Botwinik\u2019s seminal songbook, From Holocaust to Life<\/em>, published in 2010 by the League for Yiddish. On this new CD, these songs are brought to life through the voices of both children and adults, with Sender Botwinik on the piano; Ken Richmond on violin; Shira Shazeer on accordion, and Richmond and Shazeer\u2019s son Velvel on trombone.<\/p>\nThese recordings are valuable not only for people familiar with the Yiddish language and culture, but also for others looking for resources and inspiration. Singers, music teachers, choir conductors and Yiddish language students will find a treasure trove of songs about the Jewish holidays, family, nature and celebration.<\/p>\n
Born in Vilna in 1920, composer David Botwinik\u2019s life was filled with music and creativity from his earliest years. As a young child, he would walk with his father to hear the cantors at the Vilna shtotshul<\/em> \u2014 the main synagogue in what is now Vilnius, Lithuania.<\/p>\nAt age 11, he became a khazndl<\/em>, a colloquial Yiddish term for a child cantor, performing in several synagogues in Vilna. At 12, he composed his first melodies. Later he undertook advanced musical study in Rome.<\/p>\nIn 1956, he settled in Montreal, soon to become a leading figure in the city\u2019s thriving Yiddish cultural scene. He worked as a music teacher, choir director, writer and publisher. As he wrote in From Holocaust to Life<\/em>, he sought, most of all, to \u201cencourage maintaining Yiddish as a living language.\u201d<\/p>\nThere are many standout pieces on the CD, but I want to point out several whose lyrics, in addition to the melody, were written by David Botwinik himself. \u201cZumer<\/em>\u201d (Summer), the first song on the recording, gives the CD its title. In a Zoom interview with Sender and his wife, Naomi, they said that \u201cZumer<\/em>\u201d won first prize in a Jewish song competition in Canada in 1975, and that he remembered singing in his father\u2019s choir for the competition.<\/p>\n\u201cZumer<\/em>\u201d is a jaunty earworm that opens with a recording of David Botwinik reading the lyrics, followed by the song itself, performed by a magnificent chorus of children from four Yiddish-speaking families who met years ago at the annual Yiddish Vokh retreat in Copake, New York.<\/p>\nAnother standout song is \u201cShabes-lid<\/em>\u201d (Sabbath Song) which David Botwinik\u2019s grandchild Dina Malka Botwinik sings with a pure, other-worldly sound:<\/p>\n