Eliacum Zunser

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Eliakim Zunser

Eliakum Zunser (also written Eljakim Zunser, Elyakim Zunser ; Yiddish Eljokem Zunser, called Eljokem Badchn ("Eljokem Bänkelsänger"); * October 28, 1835 - according to other sources born in 1836 or 1840 - in Vilna ; † September 22, 1913 in New York ) was a Russian Yiddish folk singer.

Zunser was the son of a poor master carpenter, received the usual strict religious upbringing, but from an early age he was also interested in educational literature, the themes of which he reproduced in songs he wrote himself.

He learned a trade but also worked as a private tutor and continued to write songs that soon became popular, so that in 1861 he settled in Vilna as a wedding singer. In the same year he published a first collection of his songs under the title Schirim chadoschim ("New Songs"), which quickly spread and were sung at weddings and other simches (family celebrations).

In 1871 his four children died of the cholera epidemic within three days ; his wife also died of cholera shortly after the two of them moved to Minsk .

In 1889 Zunser moved to the United States , where he continued to write songs that appeared in the Tageblatt, in Volksadvokat and in a separate edition (1901). In 1894 he opened a printing company in New York which kept him afloat economically.

In 1905, Zunser celebrated his 50th anniversary as a folk singer in New York. on this occasion his Yiddish autobiography was published (with English translation).

The surviving children re-edited a three-volume collection of his songs including his autobiography in 1921. Altogether, over sixty different collections of his songs have been published in repeated editions in several countries, with titles such as “Earthwork”, “Chibbat Zion”, “Corrupted Education”, “Haskala”, “Luxury” or “Pure Faith”.

Eliakum Zunser and his songs, which were committed to the goals of the Enlightenment , Zionism and social justice and testify to a great love for Judaism, were extremely popular and popular. They were common property and were sung and passed on by the broad masses of the Eastern Jews, which virtually ceased to exist with the Holocaust.

literature

  • M. Bassin: Antalogy [sic!]: Five Hundred Years Yiddish Poetry. New York 1917.
  • Minikes Jontewbletlech 1920.
  • Samuel Löb Lemon : Three Literary Doires. 1924 ff.
  • Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography, Volume VI, 1925 ff.
  • Salman Reisen : Leksikon fun der Yidischer Literatur un Presse, Volume III, 1926 ff.
  • Sol Liptzin: Eliakum Zunser: Poet of his People. Behrman House Publ., 1950.
  • John F. Oppenheimer (Red.) And a .: Lexicon of Judaism. 2nd Edition. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh u. a. 1971, ISBN 3-570-05964-2 , col. 919.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zunser, Eliacum
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eljokem Badchen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian Yiddish folk singer
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH Vilna
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1913
Place of death new York