How Paul Robeson Learned Yiddish And Battled Fascism

Guno צְבִי

Guno צְבִי

We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
American singer Paul Robeson is mostly remembered today for his hauntingly beautiful bass voice, his groundbreaking career as an actor and his political activism and involvement in the Communist party. Often forgotten is his mixed and tragic role in Yiddish literary history.


Although Robeson sang in more than 50 languages, including many he didn’t speak at all, he became fluent in more than 10, among them Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese and German. He began studying Yiddish informally while at Columbia and continued learning the language in London, as well as on several trips to Poland and the Soviet Union before World War II. Although he never achieved the same level of fluency in Yiddish as he did in his strongest languages he was comfortable speaking and reading it.

Robeson often featured Yiddish songs in his concerts. Above is a recording of the folksong, “What the Czar’s Life is Like,” a selection that was well suited both to his bass voice and his political leanings. The video, with English subtitles, was made by the Yiddish folksinger and ethnomusicologist, Jane Peppler.

https://forward.com/yiddish/422302/paul-robeson-singer-football-yiddish-ussr-fascism/

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Paul Robeson was a very successful singer. This song is familiar to most people.
He was a lawyer and an athlete of renown.
 
Vasquezrocks said:
Who ???
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Paul Robeson - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson

Paul Leroy Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1898, to Reverend William Drew Robeson and Maria Louisa Bustill. His mother, Maria was from a prominent Quaker family of mixed ancestry. His father, William, was of Igbo origin and was born into slavery, William escaped from a plantation in his teens and eventually became the minister of Princeton's Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church …

Amazing singer and an amazing man.
 
Nordberg said:
Not even close. read about him. He was very smart and at one point moved to Russia to escape racism.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Paul_Robeson Not about Jews.
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"In June 1949, during the 150th anniversary celebration of the birth of Alexander Pushkin, Robeson visited the Soviet Union on a major tour including a concert at Tchaikovsky Hall. Concerned about the welfare of Jewish artists, Robeson insisted to Soviet officials that he meet with Itzik Feffer a few days earlier.[14] Robeson had first met Feffer on July 8, 1943, at the largest pro-Soviet rally ever held in the United States, an event organized by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and chaired by Albert Einstein. Robeson then also got to know Solomon Mikhoels, the popular actor and director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater. Mikhoels also headed the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the Soviet Union with Feffer as his second. After the rally, Robeson and his wife Essie had entertained Feffer and Mikhoels.

According to an account by Paul Robeson Jr told to Robeson biographer Martin Duberman,[15] in the 1980s, Robeson was disturbed as to why he could not find his many Jewish friends when he returned to the U.S.S.R. in June 1949. After several inquires, Feffer was brought to Robeson's hotel room by the State Police. He and Feffer were forced to communicate through hand gestures and notes because the room was bugged. Feffer indicated that Mikhoels had been murdered in 1948 by the secret police[16] and intimated that he also was going to be killed. Feffer in fact was executed along with 14 other Jewish intellectuals three years later.[17] After the talk with Feffer Robeson would ask his friend Pete Blackman to "stick around" him during their stay in Moscow, he would also caution Blackman to "watch what he said" around party officials.[16]"
 
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