This rich compilation of Yiddish folksongs contains the texts of

over five hundred songs in transliterated Yiddish and in English

translation, with music for fifty-four, as well as extensive comments

on their origin, meaning, and background. Together, they afford a

fascinating view of life in the now-vanished Jewish communities of

Eastern Europe, of the migrations to America and Israel, and of

the horrors of pogroms and concentration camps. There are chap-

ters on cradle songs, children s songs, love and courtship songs,

wedding songs, songs dealing with religious beliefs, street and un-

derworld songs, humorous and dance songs, Chasidic songs, songs

of class struggle, and finally, songs deriving from the ghettos and

death camps of Nazi-occupied Europe. They are all "voices of a

people"--a people that has expressed its deepest feelings and

thoughts through song.