Der Rebbe Elimelech is a Yiddish song published in 1927 by the communist satirist Moyshe Nadir and loosely based on the song Old King Cole.Paul Kriwaczek, Yiddish Civilisation, Vintage Books, © 2005, p. 247: 'Der Rebbe Elimelech,' inspired by the children's song 'Old King Cole,' was the work of a Communist satirist... Isaac Reis, who went by the pen-name Moshe Nadir, Moses the Rare."
Lyrics and translation
(first verse)
Yiddish Yiddish lyrics:
English translation
When Rabbi Elimelekh
Became happy,
(Became happy, Elimelekh)
He took off his tefillin
And he put on his glasses
And he sent for his two fiddlers.
And the fiddling fiddlers
Fiddlingly fiddled!
Oh, they fiddlingly fiddled, they did!
References