Mark Warshawsky

Mark Markovich Warshavsky (Warshawsky) (Russian: Марк Маркович Варшавский, Yiddish: מאַרק וואַרשאַווסקי‎; born in Odessa 1848, died in Kiev, 1907) was a Ashkenazi Jewish Yiddish-language folk poet and composer.

Born in Odessa, he moved with his family to Zhitomir (both cities then in the Russian Empire, now in the Ukraine); in Zhitomir he attended the four-year state rabbinical school. After that he studied law at Odessa University for one year, then completed his studies at Kiev University, and went on to practiced law in Kiev. He practiced law throughout his life, barely managing to make a living. In 1903 he moved to Belgium to work as a legal adviser for a firm there; upon falling ill in 1905, he returned to Kiev, where he died two years later.

By the influence of Abraham Goldfaden Warshawsky started to write songs and sing them in his circle of friends accompanied by a fortepiano. He did not take seriously his musical work and never recorded those songs, relying on his memory. Many of his works in this way were spread throughout the Jewish community of the Ukrainian region of the Russian Empire and most of them were simply adopted as folk songs.

In 1890 Warshawsky met with Sholem Aleichem. After listening to his songs, Sholem Aleichem wrote "I simply hugged him and kissed him!" And then,

Later, by Aleichem's full cooperation, Warshavsky published his first collection "Yiddishe Volkslider" ("Jewish People's songs". Kiev 1900) with a heartily foreword from the great classic. That book was republished not only in Russia, but abroad as well. The collection included such songs as "Der Alef-Beis" (commonly known as Oyfn Pripetshik), "A Brif fun Amerike", "Der Zeide mit der Babe". The songs described the everyday life of Jews in the Russian Empire.

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