Olga Avigail Mieleszczuk — also known by the shortened name Olga Avigail — is a Polish-Israeli singer and accordionist. In addition, she conducts research on Ashkenazi-Jewish music that originated in her native country of Poland and its environs. Interestingly, Avigail was born a Polish Catholic but underwent an Orthodox conversion in Israel.
Linked below is her rendition of the Yiddish-Polish tango “Rivkele.” The following is an English translation of the song by Paul Azaroff, a Yiddish speaker and longtime teacher of the language:
He saw her first when he went to buy something
And after that time would go often and ask her, “Be mine,
I’ll shower you with gold. I’m the town’s nobleman.
Put aside your pauper’s clothes.
Wait, I’ll make you a queen. I won’t ask more than a small dowry.
For me you’ll convert [to Christianity], and in my palace I’ll take you to me…”
[Here is what she told him]
Oh, you, my destined one, your sweet words are as beautiful as you are,
But my father and mother and the whole town will curse me:
“Rivkele, the small, charming, beautiful one has run off with a Christian,
And instead of a synagogue she goes to church.”
I’ll only be your friend. A huge outcry in town, that would be a real horror.
My father and mother would cry, my brother and sister and the whole house.
This is my beloved. Your sweet words shall remain holy and pure,
But our love, our holy love, must remain a dream.
Quote: “When I started to sing in Yiddish, I had no idea about Jewish culture at all. This world suddenly opened up to me [during my visit to] Auschwitz. I was there for five days doing meditation and tikkun olam [repairing the world]. A Hassidic rabbi sang in Hebrew and Yiddish, and I felt deeply connected with the place.”
Sources: jta.org, ashkenaz.ca
Read a source article from jta.org, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency website. >>
Read a source article from the website Ashkenaz.ca. >>
Watch Olga Avigain’s beautiful rendition of the haunting Yiddish tango “Rivkele” [5:20]. >>
Photo: folk24.pl
Amazing Jews
In Celebration of the Jewish People
