Amerike di prekhtike [America the Beautiful]

1996 SATB a cappella (CE)

Recording: Goldene Keyt Singers

(Katherine Lee Bates/Samuel Ward (after Materna), Yiddish: Berl Lapin) A rousing arrangement of the patriotic standard, with the first verse in English and in Yiddish translation celebrating the Jewish immigrants' devotion for their new land of freedom.

Immigrants were eager to adopt the secular holidays of America, especially July Fourth, commemorating their own struggle for freedom as well as their new country’s. The Jewish immigrants often translated the American holiday songs into Yiddish, as with Samuel Ward’s famous hymn America the Beautiful.

First performed at Lincoln Center, this arrangement was chosen to end the Town Hall commemoration of the Jewish Forward’s centenary.