ELYOKEM TSUNZER (ZUNSER) (October 28, 1840-September 22,
1913)
He was
born in Vilna to a pedigreed, though impoverished, family. His great grandfather, R. Eliyahu Tsunzer,
was a student of the Vilna Gaon, but his father Feyve had to become a
carpenter. His father died young and
left his widow with three small children in great need. Because of this, Elyokem Tsunzer was forced
to leave the yeshiva and went off to earn a living. He became a jeweler. In his free time, he continued studying
Tanakh, Hebrew grammar, and general subject matter. At that time (1853), he published his first
poem in Hebrew, “Tsiyon mikhlal yofi” (Zion, perfect beauty). After some time, he left on foot for Boysk
(Bauska). He worked two years there as a
jeweler, while at the same time studying with the town rabbi. At that time, he began to read literature of
the Jewish Enlightenment. His wanderings
took him to Bobruisk. He was hired there
on the High Holidays as a chorister under the cantor. And, there he composed his first poem in
Yiddish, “Reb takhnun” (Mr. Takhanun [supplicatory prayers] [?]). He later became a village schoolteacher, but
when he demanded his wages from his boss, the latter sold him for twenty-five
rubles to the Tsarist military recruiters (khapers
[lit. grabbers]). Fortunately, though,
Tsar Aleksandr II was distracted at the time from his decree to place minor
Jewish children among his soldiers. A
few weeks later, as Tsunzer was sitting in the barracks, he was freed from the
army. While in the barracks, he composed
a song, “Di paymanes” (The young Jews forcibly drafted into the Russian
military for many years of service), and sang it with the seized children. He later moved to Kovno and worked there in
the jewelry business until 1861. During
his sojourn in Kovno, he studied in his free time in R. Yisroel Salanter’s
small musar synagogue, and there he
wrote a series of songs—“Di yeshue” (the salvation), “Di blum” (The flower), “Der
zeyger” (The watch), and “Der parom” (The ferry), among others—all with his own
melodies. In 1861 he settled in Vilna
and became a professional wedding entertainer.
In Vilna, as well, his songs had great success, and he soon became
widely known as an outstanding wedding entertainer. In 1862 his first collection of poetry
appeared in print, Shirim ḥadashim
(New poems) which added immensely to his popularity. People would invite him to the very
wealthiest weddings, and his earnings would reach 100 rubles for an
appearance. In 1871 Tsunzer experienced
a great misfortune: during a cholera epidemic, over the course of three days,
all four of his children perished.[1] On the advice of R. Yisroel Salanter, he
moved to Minsk, but there his wife Rokhl died from a lung ailment. Tsunzer later married a second time to a
woman named Feygl. She provided for him
a warm home, where there converged well-to-do young people, teachers, and even
prominent Minsk followers of the Jewish Enlightenment. The Elyokem Circle played an important,
positive role in Minsk for the rise of the “Ḥibat-Tsiyon” (Love of Zion) movement. Following the pogroms of 1881-1882, he
composed his Zion songs, which he included in his repertoire for weddings. From among these songs, we should note: “Di
sokhe” (The plow),[2]
in which he celebrated the ideal of farming; “Vos ze ikh durkh di shoybn” (What
I see through the window panes), a song in honor of the “Biluim” [Palestine
pioneers, a movement to settle Jews in the land of Israel]; “Der aristokrat”
(The aristocrat); “Tsu unzer foterland” (To our fatherland); “Yudeske” (Judith);
“Hakhnoses-kale” (Marrying off of orphaned or poor girls by the community); and
“Mayne gefiln” (My feelings); among others.
Tsunzer would frequently appear at evenings organized by the “lovers of
Zion” in various cities. In 1886 they
celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his activities as a folksinger. With the passage of time, he became bored
with the life of a wedding entertainer.
With a partner he established a manufacturing business. In a short span of time, he lost all of his
possessions. Just then he fell into
disfavor with the authorities over his songs about the pogroms. He then happily accepted the invitation in
1889 to come to the United States as a singer of his own songs. He even wrote up a special American
repertoire with songs about Columbus, Washington, sweatshops, and the like,
published in: Dos yidishe tageblat
(The Jewish daily newspaper), Folks-advokat
(People advocate), and other newspapers.
Tsunzer, though, had no success with his public appearances in America. To earn a living, in 1893 he opened a
publishing house in New York, and on the High Holidays he would serve as cantor
in the synagogue welcoming in poor Jewish immigrants. His birthday was celebrated in New York, and a
special committee for this event published his autobiography. His home on the Lower East Side was always a
warm inn for Yiddish writers and cultural figures. Tsunzer died in New York from a lung
inflammation. He signed the majority of
his work “Elyokem badkhn” (Elyokem the wedding entertainer). If it is actually true that in his songs one
often felt a lyrical sentiment, his melodies with their deep rootedness in the
Jewish soul always comfortably filled out the empty spaces. He produced an immense wealth of rhymes, a
beauty in the structure of his verse and stanzas, a rare musicality of rhythm,
and exceedingly rich stylistic charm.
Thanks to his great virtues, he occupies for us the highest place of
honor among the leaders in the realm of folk-style wedding entertainment. His immense influence is evident on other
such entertainers of his own and a younger generation. Even distinguished Jewish poets were
unashamed to exult in his pedigree. Thus
did Itsik Manger say that he was: “a grandchild of Elyokem the wedding
entertainer.” And, Moyshe-Leyb Halpern wrote
in his elegiac poem at Tsunzer’s fresh grave: “This short poem, which you have
kindled, glows, it lives and tinkles in us with your incompletely sung song.” Shmuel Niger found great educational value in
Tsunzer’s creations: “Elyokem the wedding entertainer may have achieved more
with his songs for the popularization of the ideas of the time than the essays
of the newspapers of that era which the masses would have read little of and
understood even less.” The number of
Tsunzer’s songs is huge, and most of them have never been published. Of his longer works, we need note: Mekhires yoysef, a teater shtik (The
selling of Joseph, a theatrical piece), first edition (Vilna, 1874), 194 pp.;
and Tsunzers byografye geshribn fun im
aleyn (Tsunzer’s biography written by him alone) (New York, 1905), 61 + 44
pp., in two separate parts (Yiddish and English). There are three comprehensive editions of
Tsunzer’s works: Geklibene lider fun
elyokem tsunzer (Selected songs of Elyokem Tsunzer), for singing,
constructed from notes taken down by Joseph Rumshinsky (Yiddish preface by
Kalmen Marmor, English preface by Ab. Cahan, English summary by Maximilian
Hurvits) (New York: Tsunzer Publishing Comp., 1928), 236 pp.; Ale verk fun elyokem tsunzer (Collected
works of Elyokem Tsunzer) (New York: Abe Katsenelenboygn, 1920), 3 vols.; Elyokem tsunzers verk (Elyokem Tsunzer’s
works), critical edition prepared by Mordkhe Schaechter (New York: YIVO, 1964),
2 vols. The precise number of shorter
song collections is difficult to determine.
Zalmen Reyzen indicates in his Leksikon
fun der yidisher literatur, prese un filologye (Biographical dictionary of
Yiddish literature, press, and philology), roughly sixty-five collections which
appeared in different times in the Russian empire (Vilna) and the United
States. Schaechter notes ninety-six in
his critical edition (including short editions as well).
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen indicates in his Leksikon, vol. 3 (with a bibliography); Elyokem tsunzers verk (Elyokem Tsunzer’s
works), critical edition prepared by Mordkhe Schaechter (New York: YIVO, 1964),
2 vols. (in vol. 2, pp. 783-88, there is presented a selection from the
bibliography concerning Tsunzer: 106 entries in Yiddish, 57 in foreign
languages; the list comes down through 1963); Y. Botoshanski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (June 18, 1964);
Borvin Frenkel, in Unzer shtime
(Pariz) (June 29, 1964); Y. Ribkes, in Unzer
shtime (October 31, 1964); Hillel Rogof, in Forverts (New York) (March 28, 1965); Dov Sadan, in Tsukunft (New York) (April 1965). From the entire English bibliography, we
note: Solomon Liptzin, Eliakum Tsunzer: Poet of His
People (New York: Behrman House, 1950), 243 pp.
Yekhiel Hirshhoyt
[1] Translator’s note.
According to Paul Glasser, he had five children, lost one in an accident,
and the remaining four succumbed to cholera, as did his wife. See http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Tsunzer_Elyokem
(accessed January 7, 2019) (JAF).
[2] Glasser gives
as this song’s title: “In der sokhe
ligt di mazl-brokhe” (In the plow is found good fortune).
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