‘Mayn Rue Platz’ – ‘My Resting Place’
words by Morris Rosenfeld 1862-1923 – a "sweatshop" poet
music arranged by Sidor Belarsky
as sung by David Montefiore with Conrad Strasser at the pianoforte
performance is at the 1986 Sholom Aleichem Music Festival in
New York City with the Zamir Choral – Mati Lazar, Director
This sad Yiddish song by Morris Rosenfeld (1862-1923) has become synonymous with the cruel and unnecessary deaths of some 146 textile workers in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 25 March 1911 in New York. The song was written before the Triangle Fire. Rosenfeld was one of the four "sweatshop" poets and actually worked in the needle trades.
The music arrangement is by Sidor Belarsky - David Montefiore’s teacher of the Yiddish Leid
at the Hertzliah Hebrew Institute in New York City. Belarsky was a graduate of the State Conservatory at Leningrad and former leading basso of the Leningrad State Opera Company, Sidor Belarsky arrived in America on February 8, 1930 with his wife and daughter. Belarsky, born Isidor Livshitz [February 12, 1898 – June 7, 1975], was a Ukrainian-American singer born to a Jewish family in Kryzhopol, Ukraine. From 1932 through 1936, he lived in Los Angeles, where he embarked on a singing career with the Los Angeles Symphony. Belarsky's career in Jewish music followed this period. Although he devoted much of his time to teaching music at the Jewish Teachers Seminary in New York City, he regularly gave concerts throughout Europe, the Middle East, Canada, South Africa and South America. He visited and sang in Israel in 1948 to celebrate its birth. In 1951 he traveled there again to make the documentary film, "Shalom Israel".
As a pre-eminent collector, disseminator and interpreter of classic cantorial music, Chassidic nigunim, Yiddish folk songs and Hebrew songs from Israel - he revitalized songs that might have otherwise been forgotten.
Conrad Strasser is at the pianoforte. The performance is at the 1986 Sholom Aleichem Music Festival in New York City with the Zamir Choral – Mati Lazar, Director.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
'Mayn Rue Platz'
"Nit zukh mikh vu mirtn grinen.
Gefinst mikh dortn nit, mayn shats.
Vu lebns velkn bay mashinen,
Dortn iz mayn rue platz.
Nit zukh mikh vu di feyggl zingen.
Gefinst mikh dortn nit, mayn shats.
A shklaf bin ikh vu keytn klingen,
Dortn iz mayn rue platz.
Nit zukh mikh vu fontanen shpritsn.
Gefinst mikh dortn nit, mayn shats.
Vu trern rinen, tseyner kritsn,
Dortn iz mayn rue platz
Un libstu mikh mit reyner libe
To kum tsu mir, mayn guter shats
Un hayter oyf mayn harts di tribe
Un makh mir zis mayn rue platz."
'My Resting Place'
"Don't look for me where myrtles are green.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
Where lives wither at the machines,
There is my resting place.
Don't look for me where birds sing.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
I am a slave where chains ring,
There is my resting place.
Don't look for me where fountains spray.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
Where tears flow and teeth gnash,
There is my resting place.
And if you love me with true love,
So come to me, my good beloved,
And cheer my gloomy heart
And make sweet my resting place."
