Document the human chain. Create the next living version. Invite a new audience to understand, sing and pass it on.
History proves that Jewish songs can cross into general culture. The challenge is continuity: releasing English versions with sources and credits intact, so new artists and listeners can find, understand and carry them forward. JewishSong.org records each human chain of writers, adapters, performers and listeners, then gives the song a living version people can hear today.
История доказала, что еврейские песни могут становиться частью общей культуры. Задача сегодня заключается в преемственности: выпускать английские версии с сохранёнными источниками и авторством, чтобы новые исполнители и слушатели могли находить, понимать и передавать их дальше. JewishSong.org сохраняет эту человеческую цепочку и даёт песне новое живое звучание.
One release, one complete cultural record: a finished English recording, original cover art, a public YouTube release and a permanent page explaining the song's source, meaning and journey.
"Hanukkah" shows the method. Mordkhe Rivesman's Yiddish song travelled into Hebrew and English; a new production by Walter J. Kin and Riglis Band lets today's families hear another link in that chain.
JewishSong.org is both a living encyclopedia and an active release practice. Documentation makes the work trustworthy; new recordings make it audible.
Trace source, authorship, adaptation, performance and listener memory without erasing the people who carried the song this far.
Release carefully made English recordings with permanent stories, then make them useful to families, classrooms, choirs and communities.
The project began in 2017 by bringing Jewish songs into Russian. Those Russian-language versions found a real audience. The next chapter carries selected works into English with the same attention to poetry, sound and credit.
Olga Anikina creates the Russian poetic adaptations. Elechka established the intimate sound of the early home recordings. Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) arranges, produces and releases the work, and translates or freely adapts Olga's Russian versions into English.
The method is more than literal translation. Each version must work as a song while preserving source attribution: composers, lyricists, historical context and every new hand in the chain.
"Olga, you are not just a poet, you are a translator of souls. How can you feel so subtly what would seem not to belong to you by blood, but so clearly belongs to you in spirit?"
Irina K. · YouTube listener · Hava Nagila in Russian
The next sequence turns eight English songs from the existing catalog into finished public releases. Each receives final audio, original cover art, a public YouTube release and a permanent story page explaining its source, meaning and journey.
Video versions may follow when they genuinely serve a song. The durable promise is simpler: a listener can hear the work, understand what it carries and find the people who made every step possible.
JewishSong.org is the growing bilingual record behind that work. HavaNagila.org is its human front door. Together they turn a catalog into a repeatable act of cultural storytelling.
One song. One human chain. One new chance to pass it on.
A recording is the entrance. Context, response and practical use turn one listen into cultural memory.
Sources, credits, lyrics, versions and historical context remain together on a permanent page.
A finished English recording and original visual identity give the song a clear public entrance.
Real comments reveal what listeners recognize, remember and ask once the words become accessible.
Lyrics, printables and classroom pages help families, schools, camps and choirs carry the song further.
Hebrew schools, JCCs, Hillel chapters, federations, summer camps, synagogue music programs, and Holocaust education centers. If you are a non-profit teaching this music, it is free: the recordings, the lyrics, and the teacher notes are yours to use. Just sign our one-page free-use agreement online.
Just sign our one-page free-use agreement.
A trustworthy encyclopedia needs contributors who know different languages, communities and musical traditions. JewishSong.org is designed to accept corrections, sources and credited expertise one entry at a time.
If you are a Jewish music educator, performer, scholar, archivist or producer with knowledge to add, reach out.
Elechka established the project's intimate Russian-language sound through more than 40 early home recordings: her voice, guitar and arrangements.
For many newer English and experimental recordings, Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) uses AI-assisted tools as part of a human-led writing, adaptation, arrangement and production process. A song may go through many versions before its words, pacing and musical character are ready.
The tools do not replace the chain of credit. Source writers, composers, Olga Anikina's Russian poetic adaptations, Walter's English adaptations and every human collaborator remain identified by role.
Questions about a specific recording, source or production method are welcome. Write to Walter directly.
A poet, a singer, and a producer who started this project across borders. The editorial team is growing.
Russian poet and novelist who creates the project's poetic Russian adaptations, including roughly 35 works rooted in Jewish song since 2017.
Singer, guitarist and arranger whose more than 40 early home recordings gave the Russian-language project its first voice and found its first large audience.
Founder, songwriter, arranger, producer and English-language adapter. He translates or freely adapts Olga's Russian versions into English and also writes new English material under the artist name RIGLI.
Hear the finished recordings, read the stories behind them and use the songs in your community.
Our story
Document the human chain. Create the next living version. Invite a new audience to understand, sing and pass it on.
History proves that Jewish songs can cross into general culture. The challenge is continuity: releasing English versions with sources and credits intact, so new artists and listeners can find, understand and carry them forward. JewishSong.org records each human chain of writers, adapters, performers and listeners, then gives the song a living version people can hear today.
История доказала, что еврейские песни могут становиться частью общей культуры. Задача сегодня заключается в преемственности: выпускать английские версии с сохранёнными источниками и авторством, чтобы новые исполнители и слушатели могли находить, понимать и передавать их дальше. JewishSong.org сохраняет эту человеческую цепочку и даёт песне новое живое звучание.
One release, one complete cultural record: a finished English recording, original cover art, a public YouTube release and a permanent page explaining the song's source, meaning and journey.
"Hanukkah" shows the method. Mordkhe Rivesman's Yiddish song travelled into Hebrew and English; a new production by Walter J. Kin and Riglis Band lets today's families hear another link in that chain.
JewishSong.org is both a living encyclopedia and an active release practice. Documentation makes the work trustworthy; new recordings make it audible.
Trace source, authorship, adaptation, performance and listener memory without erasing the people who carried the song this far.
Release carefully made English recordings with permanent stories, then make them useful to families, classrooms, choirs and communities.
Research
Adapt
Record
Share
The project began in 2017 by bringing Jewish songs into Russian. Those Russian-language versions found a real audience. The next chapter carries selected works into English with the same attention to poetry, sound and credit.
Olga Anikina creates the Russian poetic adaptations. Elechka established the intimate sound of the early home recordings. Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) arranges, produces and releases the work, and translates or freely adapts Olga's Russian versions into English.
The method is more than literal translation. Each version must work as a song while preserving source attribution: composers, lyricists, historical context and every new hand in the chain.
"Olga, you are not just a poet, you are a translator of souls. How can you feel so subtly what would seem not to belong to you by blood, but so clearly belongs to you in spirit?"
Irina K. · YouTube listener · Hava Nagila in Russian
The next sequence turns eight English songs from the existing catalog into finished public releases. Each receives final audio, original cover art, a public YouTube release and a permanent story page explaining its source, meaning and journey.
Video versions may follow when they genuinely serve a song. The durable promise is simpler: a listener can hear the work, understand what it carries and find the people who made every step possible.
JewishSong.org is the growing bilingual record behind that work. HavaNagila.org is its human front door. Together they turn a catalog into a repeatable act of cultural storytelling.
One song. One human chain. One new chance to pass it on.
A recording is the entrance. Context, response and practical use turn one listen into cultural memory.
Sources, credits, lyrics, versions and historical context remain together on a permanent page.
A finished English recording and original visual identity give the song a clear public entrance.
Real comments reveal what listeners recognize, remember and ask once the words become accessible.
Lyrics, printables and classroom pages help families, schools, camps and choirs carry the song further.
Hebrew schools, JCCs, Hillel chapters, federations, summer camps, synagogue music programs, and Holocaust education centers. If you are a non-profit teaching this music, it is free: the recordings, the lyrics, and the teacher notes are yours to use. Just sign our one-page free-use agreement online.
Just sign our one-page free-use agreement.
A trustworthy encyclopedia needs contributors who know different languages, communities and musical traditions. JewishSong.org is designed to accept corrections, sources and credited expertise one entry at a time.
If you are a Jewish music educator, performer, scholar, archivist or producer with knowledge to add, .
Elechka established the project's intimate Russian-language sound through more than 40 early home recordings: her voice, guitar and arrangements.
For many newer English and experimental recordings, Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) uses AI-assisted tools as part of a human-led writing, adaptation, arrangement and production process. A song may go through many versions before its words, pacing and musical character are ready.
The tools do not replace the chain of credit. Source writers, composers, Olga Anikina's Russian poetic adaptations, Walter's English adaptations and every human collaborator remain identified by role.
Questions about a specific recording, source or production method are welcome. Write to Walter directly.
A poet, a singer, and a producer who started this project across borders. The editorial team is growing.
Russian poet and novelist who creates the project's poetic Russian adaptations, including roughly 35 works rooted in Jewish song since 2017.
Singer, guitarist and arranger whose more than 40 early home recordings gave the Russian-language project its first voice and found its first large audience.
Founder, songwriter, arranger, producer and English-language adapter. He translates or freely adapts Olga's Russian versions into English and also writes new English material under the artist name RIGLI.
Hear the finished recordings, read the stories behind them and use the songs in your community.
JewishSong.org