Our mission

We reimagine Jewish classics and create original songs, bringing Jewish stories and musical traditions to new audiences.

Jewish Songs. For All gives existing songs new life and creates songs that have never existed before. Jewish melodies, stories and traditions meet contemporary sounds, inviting listeners of every background to discover something they can feel and sing. We work in Russian and English today, with more languages to come.

Jewish Songs. For All даёт новую жизнь существующим песням и создаёт те, которых ещё не было. Еврейские мелодии, истории и традиции встречаются с современным звучанием, чтобы эти песни могли услышать, почувствовать и спеть люди разных культур. Сегодня мы работаем на русском и английском, впереди другие языки.

A recording and its story: a song people can hear here, with the authors and performers credited. For a new interpretation, we explain its relationship to the source. For an original song, we tell how it came into being.

"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 brings together new interpretations, original songs and the stories behind them. Research connects each interpretation to its roots; songwriting and recording give the tradition new possibilities.

Trace source, authorship, adaptation, performance and listener memory without erasing the people who carried the song this far.

Write original songs and reimagine familiar ones in Russian, English and, in time, other languages. Contemporary sounds help them reach listeners across cultures.

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.