Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah

First language

Yiddish

Documented in print

1912 · Lider-zamlbukh

Yiddish words

Mordkhe (Mark) Rivesman

This English recording

New music and English adaptation: Walter J. Kin · Riglis Band

Before this English recording came חנוכּה אױ חנוכּה, Khanike, Oy Khanike: a Hanukkah song in Yiddish, with words by Mordkhe (Mark) Rivesman. It is documented in the 1912 Lider-zamlbukh, a collection for Jewish schools and families. That is a publication date, not a verified day or year of composition. The 1912 collection.

Rivesman was a writer, translator and educator born in Vilna. His work moved between Yiddish and Russian, and included plays as well as songs. Remembering his name matters: a song can become familiar enough to feel anonymous without its words having been anonymous in the first place. About Rivesman.

The surviving printed score separates the roles: Rivesman wrote the words; Pesach (Pavel) Lvov arranged the music. Calling Lvov the composer of the original melody goes beyond that evidence. The score appears as no. 24, on page 32, in the school-and-family songbook compiled by Susman Kiselgof. Read the early score.

This is a family song about celebrating Hanukkah together. Singing, a dancing circle, a spinning dreidel, latkes and candlelight turn the holiday into actions a child can join. Those images help explain how the song can travel between languages while remaining recognizably connected to Jewish life.

The recording that opens here is the English RIGLI version, performed by Riglis Band. Walter J. Kin created the new music and English adaptation from Olga Anikina’s Russian poem. It is a new contribution to the song’s history, rather than a performance of the 1912 score in English.

Olga wrote a Russian holiday poem for the project. Elechka sings it with the familiar traditional tune. Walter then developed new music, arrangement and production, and an English lyric based on Olga’s Russian text.

The connection is therefore a chain of authorship: the older Yiddish song, Olga’s Russian response, and Walter’s new musical and English treatment.

In RIGLI’s account, the verse retains a thread of the traditional tune, while the chorus and full arrangement are new. That is more precise than saying either “the same melody” or “no connection.” RIGLI’s account of the adaptation.

Use the recording selector to compare Elechka’s Russian performance, RIGLI’s Russian arrangement and the English version. Listen first to the verse, then to the chorus. Which familiar images remain when the words, musical setting and vocal character change?

Music Walter J. Kin (original)

English Lyrics Walter J. Kin

Russian Lyrics Olga Anikina, 2021

Performed by Riglis Band

Inspired by Mordkhe Rivesman · 1912 songbook

Music & composition: Walter J. Kin (RIGLI), original

English lyrics: Walter J. Kin, adapted from Anikina's Russian

Russian lyrics: Olga Anikina (commissioned, 2021)

Production: Walter J. Kin (RIGLI)

Performance: Riglis Band

Inspired by: Khanike, Oy Khanike: Yiddish words by Mordkhe Rivesman; 1912 printed arrangement by Pesach Lvov

Project: Jewish Songs for All / JewishSong.org

Yours for your school, choir, or family

You may sing, perform, teach, record, and share this song for non-commercial purposes: schools, synagogues, JCCs, choirs, camps, museums, families, and individuals.

Keep the credit to RIGLI and JewishSong.org, and please do not charge for the performance or resell the files.

The new music and English lyrics were created for RIGLI by Walter J. Kin, Member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and published by Rigli Publishing as part of JewishSong.org. The Russian version uses the traditional Yiddish melody (1912 arrangement by Pesach Lvov), with a Russian poem by Olga Anikina, performed by Elechka.

Inspired by "Khanike, Oy Khanike" by Mordkhe Rivesman (1912). Full terms and a copy-paste credit line are on our License - Free page. For-profit or commercial use is handled separately.

National Library of Finland: the 1912 songbook documents the publication, its compiler and editors. It does not establish an exact composition date.

1912 score: Khanike, Oy Khanike is the historical music source reproduced on Wikimedia Commons. Its credited roles distinguish the writer from the arranger.

Posen Library: Mark Rivesman provides the author’s biography and identifies his Hanukkah song.

JewishHit: the RIGLI Hanukkah adaptation documents the commissioned Russian poem, new music and English adaptation. The player uses the project’s own recordings. Sources checked 5 September 2026.