Mordechai Gebirtig

Mordechai Gebirtig, born Mordecai Bertig 4 May 1877, Kraków, Austria Hungary; d. 4 June 1942, Kraków Ghetto, General Government was an influential Yiddish poet and songwriter. From 1906 he was a member of the Jewish Amateur Troupe in Krakow. He also wrote songs and theater reviews for Der sotsial-demokrat, the Yiddish organ of the Jewish Social-Democratic Party. It was in such an environment that Gebirtig developed, encouraged by such professional writers and Yiddishist cultural activists as Avrom Reyzn, who for a time lived and published a journal in Krakow. His talent was his own, but he took the language, themes, types, tone and timbre of his art from his surroundings, in some measure continuing the musical tradition of the popular Galician cabaret entertainers known as the Broder Singers, who in turn were beholden to the yet older and still vital tradition of the badchen's (wedding jester's) improvisatory art.