B. Cassel (my zeyde) wrote this in his history of Keidan:
In the beginning of 1898 S.M. Ginzburg and P.S. Marek of St. Petersburg published announcements in the journals “HaMelitz,” “Voskhod,” and “HaTzefira,” inviting Jewish intellectuals in Russia with close ties to the Jewish masses to collect and record Jewish folk songs. There was a response from towns and cities, resulting in the first collection of real Jewish folk songs in Russia, published in 1901 in St. Petersburg under the editorship of Ginzburg and Marek. A total of 376 folk songs were included in the book, of which 154 were collected in and around Keidan by the author of this article and his friend, Dr. Aharon Leib Pick. Through an oversight, the songs that appear above the names Cassel and Pick are described as having been collected in Kovno province. In reality, they were collected in Keidan. These songs were among the best and most interesting in the collection.
I’ve long wondered how Ginzburg and Marek phrased their call for folksong collectors. Recently I actually found an original copy of the “HaMelitz” issue that carried it. On the front page, no less:
With some help from Gabriel Laufer, here’s a translation of the masthead and the notice:
HaMelitz
29 Adar 5658 (March 23, 1898)
A periodical letter telling Yaakov[1] everything about the Jews in particular, and national and scientific affairs generally.
Published from Petersburg Every Day No. 58 Thirty-eighth year of publication
Established by Alexander HaLevi Zederbaum and Dr. Aharon Yitzhak Goldenblum
————
Writers’ Section:
Letter to the editor
Regarding the collection of Jewish folk songs.
It is undeniable that folk music traces a nation’s history, expresses its identity and experience. Apart from official and unofficial records, another story is written by the nation itself, retelling its past in song. Many of our writers (A. Arshansky, Lerner and others) speak of using song to unearth our long and ancient history. But regretfully, no one has attempted to collect this material in a direct and organized manner. At first glance it seems like a chaotic, wide and flowing stream, but its value is high because it can illuminate the life of the nation that lives in Russia. Over the centuries, songs reflected daily and national events – wedding songs, lullabies, school songs, songs about the position of women and family life, songs from the first Hebrew agricultural colonies in Russia, the period where Jewish men were conscripted into the army, the first government-run schools, and so on. Such songs are being supplanted by newer lyrics as modern life brings new conditions.
Within ten years, this living body of material, showing how the nation currently views itself, may be lost. Our brethren who live in western Europe, who surpassed us in many things, also do so in this area. The book Mittheilungen des Gesellschaft für Jüd Volkskunde (Announcements from the Society for Jewish Folklore) and the monthly Urquell highlight the productivity of Hebrew poetry, and in the material they published recently one can find folk songs by the inhabitants of Poland and Lithuania.
So, will we who live in Russia, who are close to the source, keep idle until our brethren who live elsewhere record our own history in a book? Will they serve us more material which we could have done ourselves, had we had the passion and interest in our own history and literature?
We the undersigned are ready to publish a collection of Yiddish songs; we request the public to write down songs from the people’s mouths, as they are being sung in their locations, and send them to one of the two addresses noted below. We will be very pleased if our request reaches the hearts of our intelligentsia — those who live in small rural towns, far from the big cities, the small towns where Jews keep the old ways and sing the old songs. For this they will be recognized in the collection that we plan to publish.
S[aul]. Ginzburg
P[esach]. Marek
Here are our addresses:
- Ginzburg, St. Petersburg, Angliski Prospekt 12
- Marek, Moscow, Nikolskaya d.gr. Sheremeteva kb. 57
[1] A reference to “Israel” or the Jewish community