My Yiddisha Mame
                                                                   Lyrics Jack Yellen (1892 - 1991), Music  Lew Pollack (1895 – 1946)
                                                                                               Singer Тамара Гвердцители(Georgia)

Jack Yellen was born in Poland on July 6, 1892. When he was five years old, his family immigrated to America and settled in Buffalo, New York. He started to write lyrics when he was a teenager. The lyrics of the song “My Yiddishe Momme” was written in 1924 in collaboration with composer Lew Pollack.
 After Sophie Tucker and Belle Baker, both very famous vaudeville stars, sang it in the 1925s,the song became a #1 hit. 
“My Yiddishe Momme” was performed by the Barry Sisters and Tom Jones as well. The song is like an ode to the epitome of the Jewish mother in her boundless and self-sacrificing love towards her children.

  

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Yiddish
Ikh vil bay aykh a kashe fregen, zogt mir ver es ken
Mit velkhe  tayere farmegen bentcht got alemen?
Men koyft dos nisht fir kayne gelt, dos  git men nor umzist
Oon dokh az men ferlirt dos, oy vi treren men argist
A Tzvayten git men kaynem nit, es helft nisht kayn gevayn
Oy, ver es hot  farloyrn, der vays shoyn vos ikh mayn.

A Yiddishe Mame,
Es gibt nisht besser oif der velt
A Yiddish  Mame,Oy vey vi bitter ven zi felt
Vi shayn in likhtig iz in hoiz ven di  mame iz do
Vi troyerig finster vert ven Got nemt ir oif Olam Haboh

In vasser in fayer volt zi gelofn far ihr kind
nisht halten ihr tayer, dos  iz gevis di gresten zind
Oy, vi gliklekh un raykh iz der mentsh vos  hot
Aza shayne matuneh geshenkt foon G-t,
Nor ayn altichke Yiddishe  Mame,
Oy, Mame Mayn!

English
I’d like to ask of you a question, tell me who knows
With which dear possession does G-d bless everyone
It cannot be bought for no money, it’s  given only for free
And when it is lost, how many tears are  shed.
 
A second is given nobody, no cry can help,
Oy, he who has lost it, he already knows what I mean.
A Yiddishe Mame
It doesn’t get  better on this earth
 
A Yiddishe Mame,
How bitter when she is  missing.
How nice and bright it is at home, when the Mame is here
How sad  and dark it becomes, when G-d takes her to Olam Haba 
 
In water, through fire, she would have run for her  child
Not to hold her dear, is surely the greatest sin,
How lucky and rich  is the one who has
Such a beautiful gift presented from G-d
Like and old  Yiddishe Mame
My Yiddishe Mame!