Ejli, Ejli,
lomo asavtoni

A song from the play ' For One Night A Jiddish King in Poland' which had the first performance in New York in 1896. The indictment in this poem refers to the pogroms against East European Jews in Poland and Russia. Half a century later this song was sung by Miriam Eisenstadt, the nightingale of the Warsaw Ghetto, often even before the Nazi occupying forces. She at the same time took part in concerts of the underground movement. Her constant accompanist in the Ghetto was the world-renowned artist Ignazi Rosenbojm.
Sad irony of this story: the very popular singer was abused by a film team from Berlin to present the song in a propaganda movie which misrepresented the situation in the Ghetto completely. The song starts with the shout: My God! My God! Why did you abandon me? In the history this cry appears for the first time with King David repenting his sins (Psalm 22,2). On the mountain of Golgatha, citing David, Jesus at the Cross cries out this exclamation (Matthew 27,46). 
Miriam Eisenstadt’s life was to have been saved but she decided to share her family’s fate. When in autumn of 1942 the Ghetto was eliminated, she refused to be separated from her parents at the transfer center from where the Jews were taken to their extermination; the Nazis shot the twenty year old on the spot.

Ejli, Ejli, lomo asavtoni
In fajer un flam hot men uns gebrent
Iberal hot men uns gemacht zu schand zu schpot
Doch opzuwendn hot uns kejner gekent
Fun dir majn Got
Un fun dajn hejliker tojre, fun dajn gebot
Ejli, Ejli, lomo asavtoni
Tog un nacht nor ich tracht fun dir majn Got
Ich hit mit mojre op dajn tojre un dajn gebot
Rete mich, oj rete mich fun gefar
Wi a mol di ojwes fun bejsn gsar
Her majn gebet un majn gewejn
Helfn kenstu, nor du alejn
Schma Isroel adonoj elohejnu adonoj echod

Mein Gott, warum hast Du mich verlassen

Mein Gott! Mein Gott! Warum hast du mich verlassen
In Feuer und Flamme hat man uns verbrannt
Überall hat man uns zu Schande und Spott gemacht
Doch keiner konnte uns zwingen
Uns von dir, mein Gott, abzuwenden
Und von deiner heiligen Thora, von deinem Gebot
Mein Gott! Mein Gott! Warum hast du mich verlassen
Tag und Nacht denke ich nur an dich, mein Gott
Ich hüte mit Ehrfurcht deine Thora und deine Gebote
Rette mich! Oh Rette mich vor Gefahr
Wie einstmals die Ahnen vor feindlichem Gesetz
Höre mein Gebet und mein Weinen
Nur du allein kannst uns helfen
Höre, o Israel, unser Gott, einziger Gott

My God, why hast Thou forsaken me

My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me
They burned us in fire and flame
Everywhere they brought upon us, shame and derision
But no one could turn us away
From Thou, My God
And from Thy Torah, from Thy Commandments
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me
Day and night I think of Thou, my God
I keep the Torah and the Commandments with awe
Save me! O save me from danger
As once the ancestors were saved from an evil decree
Hear my prayer and my crying
Thou alone can rescue me
Hear, o Israel, our God, the only one