Hold On

Melodic source

Hevenu Shalom Aleichem

New English words

Walter J. Kin · 2026

The author’s recording credits identify the tune as Hevenu Shalom Aleichem, with new English words by Walter J. Kin in 2026. Kin also supplies arrangement and production, and the performance is credited to RIGLI and the Riglis Band. Hebrew Songs lists the source as a Hebrew folk song, with traditional words and music.

The sources used here do not establish a precise composition date or a named original composer.

The Hebrew refrain is a greeting of peace. Hold On gives its tune different work to do: it addresses a listener facing difficulty. This is an adaptation through a shared melody, not an English translation of the Hebrew words. The new verses build a small world of puzzles, roads, instruments and movement around their recurring promise.

The first puzzle is hard, but a castle might still be built at the end. The road is long, but the fiddle offers something to follow. These are deliberately manageable pictures of persistence. The lyric does not describe a heroic victory; it stays close to the experience of trying again with other people beside you.

The repeated promise is made for everyone. That plural matters: encouragement becomes something a group can give one another. In the final verse, shoes, hopping and bells turn the idea into physical participation.

The release describes a Latin rhythmic approach with klezmer colors; those are the arrangement’s stated intentions, rather than evidence about the tune’s original historical instrumentation.

Listen for the difference between the compact recurring refrain and the longer storytelling lines. The English recording here is the children’s version named in the playlist. This Russian article explains it; it does not imply a recorded Russian adaptation.

A Hebrew performance would illustrate the earlier use of the melody and must be identified separately from the new song.

The Russian recording Stepenka uses Olga Anikina’s original 2021 text on Hevenu Shalom Aleichem and returns to the Hebrew blessing in its finale. Compare two different new texts on a shared melodic source; this is not a literal Russian translation of the English song.

Language English

Music Traditional · Hevenu Shalom Aleichem

This version Walter J. Kin · new English words, arrangement and production

Performer Riglis Band

License Free, non-commercial

Yours for your school, choir, or family

You may sing, perform, teach, record, and share Hold On (Kid's Version) 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.

Walter J. Kin wrote the new English words and supplied the arrangement and production for this recording, published by Rigli Publishing as part of JewishSong.org. The melodic source is the traditional Hevenu Shalom Aleichem. Full terms and a copy-paste credit line are on our License - Free page. For-profit or commercial use is handled separately.

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Hevenu Shalom Aleichem · Hebrew Songs

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