Velvel Zbarjer (1824,

Zbarazh Zbarazh (, ; ; ) is a small city in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast, western Ukraine. It is located in the historic region of Galicia (Central Europe), Galicia. Zbarazh hosts the administration of Zbarazh urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukr ...

– 1884), birth name Benjamin Wolf Ehrenkrantz (a.k.a. Velvl Zbarjer, Zbarjur, Zbarzher, etc.), a Galician

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

, was a Brody singer. Following in the footsteps of

Berl Broder Berl Broder (1817–1868), born Berl Margulis, was a Ukraine, Ukrainian Jew born in Pidkamin, Podkamen,https://archive.org/details/nybc207372 Dray doyres̀: lider fun Berl Broder (Margulies), feliṭonen fun Yom Hatsyoni (Yitsḥaḳ Margulies), poe ...

, his "mini-melodramas in song" were precursors of

Yiddish theater Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; na ...

. Born in

, Galicia, he moved to

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

in 1845. According to Sol Liptzin, this move was occasioned by the offense his townspeople took at his "

heresies Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Christianity, Judai ...

and scoffing verses".Liptzin, 1972, 47 He worked briefly as a schoolteacher in Botoşani, but soon became an itinerant singer, singing in the homes of wealthy Jews and in workers' cafes in Botoşani, Iaşi, Galaţi, and

Piatra Neamț Piatra Neamț (; ; ) is the capital city of Neamț County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in northeastern Romania. Because of its very privileged location in the Divisions of the Carpathians, Eastern Carpathian mountains, it is con ...

, always glad to sing for a glass of wine or a meal. An actor as much as a singer, he variously sang the praises of his own footloose life and made up

topical song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usuall ...

s about whatever might be going on in the towns he passed through; the latter often described injustices, or made fun of the

Hasidic Jews Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those affi ...

, and occasionally got him tossed out of various towns. In 1865, having noticed that others were singing his songs without giving him credit, he published them in a

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

booklet. As he grew older, he settled down. He lived in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

from 1878 to 1889, then lived out his last years in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, where he married for a second time, to a woman known as Malkele the Beautiful. This end-of-life romance became the subject, in 1937, of a cycle of twelve verse epistles by

Itzik Manger Itzik Manger (30 May 1901, Czernowitz, then Austrian-Hungarian Empire – 21 February 1969, Gedera, Israel; ) was a prominent Yiddish language, Yiddish poet and playwright, a self-proclaimed folk bard, visionary, and 'master tailor' of the writ ...

. Writing in the ''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...

'' (1901–1906),

Isidore Singer Isidore Singer (10 November 1859 – 20 February 1939) was an Austrian-born American encyclopedist and editor of '' The Jewish Encyclopedia'' and founder of the American League for the Rights of Man. Biography Singer was born in 1859 in ...

and

Peter Wiernik Peter Wiernik (March 6, 1865 – February 12, 1936) was a Russian-born Jewish American Yiddish journalist, newspaper editor, writer and historian. Life Wiernik was born on March 6, 1865, in Vilna, Russia, the son of Hirsch Wolf Wiernik and Sara ...

describe him as "a real folk-poet" whose songs, two decades after his death were "still sung by the Jewish masses of Galicia and southern Russia."

Published works

His first published poem, written in Hebrew and based on a

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ical parable, appeared in "'' Kokebe Yizhak''," xii. 102-103,

, 1848. His next work, "''Hazon la-Mo'ed''," a satire on the

Hasidim Ḥasīd (, "pious", "saintly", "godly man"; plural "Hasidim") is a Jewish honorific, frequently used as a term of exceptional respect in the Talmudic and early medieval periods. It denotes a person who is scrupulous in his observance of Jewish ...

and their rabbis, is also in Hebrew (Iaşi, 1855). His Yiddish songs were published with a Hebrew translation in four parts, under the collective name "''Makkel No'am''" (Vienna, 1865, and Lemberg—now

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

—1869–78). A new edition in Roman characters appeared in

Brăila Brăila (, also , ) is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County. The Sud-Est (development region), ''Sud-Est'' Regional Development Agency is located in Brăila. According to the 2021 Romanian ...

, Romania, 1902 (see ''

Ha-Meliẓ ''HaMelitz'' (Hebrew: ) was the first Hebrew newspaper in the Russian Empire. It was founded by Alexander Zederbaum in Odessa in 1860. History ''HaMelitz'' first appeared as a weekly, and it began to appear daily in 1886. From 1871, it was publish ...

'', v. 42, No. 125). His "''Makkel Hobelim''" (1869) and "''Sifte Yeshenah''" (1874) appeared in

Przemyśl Przemyśl () is a city in southeastern Poland with 56,466 inhabitants, as of December 2023. Data for territorial unit 1862000. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. It was previously the capital of Prz ...

. Gustaf Hermann Dalman's "''Jüdisch-Deutsche Volkslieder aus Galizien und Russland''," pp. 29-42, 2d ed.,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, 1891 reproduces some of Velvel Zbarjer's songs.
''Jewish Encyclopedia'' bibliography: * L. Wiener, ''History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century''
pp. 77-80
* ''

Ha-Shaḥar ''Ha-Shaḥar'' () was a Hebrew language, Hebrew-language monthly periodical, published and edited at Vienna by Peretz Smolenskin from 1868 to 1884. The journal contained scientific articles, essays, biographies, and literature, as well as genera ...

'', ii. 204-206; v. 367, 368.

Modern Reception

He is the subject of Canadian writer Jill Culiner's travelogue ''A Contrary Journey'' (Claret Press, 2021).

Notes

References

* Bercovici, Israil, ''O sută de ani de teatru evreiesc în România'' ("One hundred years of Yiddish/Jewish theater in Romania"), 2nd Romanian-language edition, revised and augmented by Constantin Măciucă. Editura Integral (an imprint of Editurile Universala), Bucharest (1998), pages 36-37. . ''See the article on the author for further publication information.'' * Liptzin, Sol, ''A History of Yiddish Literature'', Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, *
Byli tu anebo spíš nebyli
(in Czech), site about

klezmer Klezmer ( or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these wou ...

and its antecedents {{DEFAULTSORT:Zbarjer, Velvel 1824 births 1884 deaths People from Zbarazh People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Jewish Ukrainian musicians Romanian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Yiddish theatre Badchens Broder singers 19th-century Romanian singers Yiddish-language singers of Romania