JewishSong.org
The story of a song
By the Fireplace Oyfn Pripetchik
One of the most beloved Yiddish songs ever written: an old teacher, little children, and the alphabet learned by the fire. Russian version performed by Riglis Band.
A little fire, a teacher, and the alphabet
In the hearth a little fire burns, and the house is warm, and the rabbi teaches little children the alef-beys. That is how the most famous Yiddish teaching song in the world begins, and for more than a century it has meant one thing above all: this is how a people hands itself, letter by letter, to its children.
It is a gentle song with a serious heart. The teacher tells the children to look carefully at the letters, because one day, when they are older and carry the weight of exile, these same letters will hold their strength. A song about an alphabet turns out to be a song about survival.
Late 19th century - Warshawsky writes it
Mark Warshawsky, a lawyer in Kiev who wrote songs in Yiddish for his own pleasure, composes Oyfn Pripetchik (By the Hearth). It pictures a rebbe teaching small children the alef-beys beside the warm stove, and urges them to learn the letters well, for the letters will carry them through hard times to come.
Blessed by Sholem Aleichem
The great Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem hears Warshawsky’s songs, recognizes their quiet genius, and encourages him to publish. Warshawsky’s collection appears, and Oyfn Pripetchik spreads from home to home until, like the very best songs, it is treated as if it had no author at all.
The 20th century - A song of an entire world
The song becomes a fixture of Jewish homes, schools, and choirs across Eastern Europe and, through emigration, the world. After the Holocaust it takes on an unbearable second meaning: the warm room and the children learning their letters become an image of a world that was destroyed, and the song is sung in memory of it.
The Russian version
For the project Jewish Songs. In Russian, Olga Anikina renders the song into Russian, keeping its center intact: a child by the warm stove, reading a first primer with a grandfather while a blizzard howls outside. The difficult work of learning ancient letters becomes a picture any child recognizes from their very first schoolbook.
The project’s version
Recorded under RIGLI and performed by Riglis Band, this is the version on this page: Warshawsky’s tender melody carried into Russian, so a new generation can sit by the same fire.
Why this matters
How a people hands itself on
Every culture has to solve the same problem: how to give itself to the next generation before the last one is gone. Warshawsky answered it with a stove, a teacher, and twenty-two letters. The song works because it is not a lecture; it is a warm room a child wants to stay in.
That is precisely the mission of this project, stated a century early and better than we could state it: carry the letters, the warmth, and the memory into the language today’s children actually speak, so the fire does not go out.
"Warshawsky already wrote our mission in the 1890s: teach the children the letters by the warm fire, so the letters carry them through the cold."
- Walter J. Kin, on the project's approach
On authorship and attribution
The words and melody of Oyfn Pripetchik are the work of Mark Warshawsky, published in the late nineteenth century and long in the public domain; the project’s arrangement is new. The Russian text is an adaptation by Olga Anikina. Warshawsky deserves to be remembered by name, and this page is, among other things, a small act of remembrance.
The original words
How Warshawsky began it
Oyfn pripetchik brent a fayerl,
Un in shtub iz heys,
Un der rebe lernt kleyne kinderlekh
Dem alef-beys.
In the hearth a little fire burns, and the house is warm, and the rabbi teaches little children the alef-beys.
Zet zhe, kinderlekh, gedenkt zhe, tayere,
Vos ir lernt do;
Zogt zhe nokh a mol, un take nokh a mol:
Komets-alef: o!
See, children, remember, dear ones, what you are learning here; say it once more, and again: komets-alef, o!
The project’s Russian poem is a new text. Its full lyrics and a kids’ room are on the Russian page.
Credits
This version
| Words & melody | Mark Warshawsky (late 19th c.), Oyfn Pripetchik |
| Russian poem | Olga Anikina (adaptation) |
| Arrangement | Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) |
| Performance | Riglis Band |
| Production | Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) |
| Project | Jewish Songs for All / JewishSong.org |
Еврейские песни. По-русски.
Hear it in Russian
The project’s version is in Russian, with Olga Anikina’s poem, performed by Riglis Band. The full Russian text and a kids’ room for parents and teachers are on the Russian page.
License
Listen freely. License to perform.
For films, stages, and schools
You may watch, share, and enjoy this recording freely. For performances, recordings, film and media placements, and printed arrangements of the project's version, licensing is handled simply and respectfully by Rigli Publishing.
The project’s arrangement and the Russian adaptation were created for RIGLI: the poem by Olga Anikina, the production by Walter J. Kin, Member of the Dramatists Guild of America, published by Rigli Publishing as part of JewishSong.org. The original Oyfn Pripetchik by Mark Warshawsky is in the public domain and belongs to the whole Jewish people.