"Raisins and Almonds" ( yi, ראָזשינקעס מיט מאַנדלען, translit=Rozhinkes mit Mandlen) is a traditional

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

lullaby popularized in the arrangement by

Abraham Goldfaden Abraham Goldfaden (Yiddish: אַבֿרהם גאָלדפֿאַדען; born Avrum Goldnfoden; 24 July 1840 – 9 January 1908), also known as Avram Goldfaden, was a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in the languages Yid ...

(1840-1908) for his 1880

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

musical, "Shulamis". It has become so well known that it has assumed the status of a classic

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

. It has been recorded as both a vocal and instrumental by many artists over the years, including

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman ( he, יצחק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist widely considered one of the greatest violinists in the world. Perlman has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that hav ...

Chava Alberstein Chava Alberstein ( he, חוה אלברשטיין, born 8 December 1946 in Poland) is an Israeli musician, lyricist, composer, and musical arranger. Biography Born Ewa Alberstein in Szczecin, Poland, her name was Hebraized to Chava when she m ...

Benita Valente Benita Valente (born October 19, 1934) is an American soprano whose career has encompassed the operatic stage as well as performance of lieder, chamber music and oratorio. She is especially lauded for her interpretations of Mozart and Handel, but ...

, and

Ella Jenkins Ella Jenkins (born August 6, 1924) is an American folk singer and actress. Dubbed "The First Lady of the Children's Folk Song" by the ''Wisconsin State Journal'', she has been a leading performer of children's music for over fifty years. Her alb ...

. It is a common lullaby among

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

European Jews (

Ashkenazim Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

). This song has multiple translations and multiple versions, which have slight changes in both Yiddish and English lyrics. Several ghetto writers used Goldfaden's lullaby as the basis for new songs: out of the

Kovno Ghetto The Kovno Ghetto was a ghetto established by Nazi Germany to hold the Lithuanian Jews of Kaunas during the Holocaust. At its peak, the Ghetto held 29,000 people, most of whom were later sent to concentration and extermination camps, or were sho ...

came yi, script=latn, In Slobodker yeshiva, label=none (In the yeshiva of Slobodka); in the

Łódź Ghetto The Łódź Ghetto or Litzmannstadt Ghetto (after the Nazi German name for Łódź) was a Nazi ghetto established by the German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma following the Invasion of Poland. It was the second-largest ghetto in all of Ge ...

, Dovid Beygelman and Isaiah Shpigl wrote yi, script=latn, Nit keyn rozhinkes, nit keyn mandlen, label=none (No raisins, no almonds). One verse of the song appears in the

Herman Wouk Herman Wouk ( ; May 27, 1915 – May 17, 2019) was an American author best known for historical fiction such as ''The Caine Mutiny'' (1951) for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. His other major works include ''The Winds of War'' and ' ...

novel ''

War and Remembrance ''War and Remembrance'' is a novel by Herman Wouk, published in October 1978 as the sequel to Wouk's ''The Winds of War'' (1971). ''The Winds of War'' covers the period 1939 to 1941, and ''War and Remembrance'' continues the story of the extended ...

'' in Yiddish as well as an English translation, and also in the

TV miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

based on the book.

References

External links

Lyrics
and miscellaneous other materials related to the song
Lyrics
written using the Yiddish alphabet. Lullabies Yiddish-language songs {{folk-song-stub