מײן אַמעריקא (אונזער נײע הימנע) | My America (Our New Hymn) by Morris Rosenfeld (1917)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Morris Rosenfeld

Shared on:

7 August 2023 under the

Categories:

Independence Day (July 4th), Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November)

Tags:

Patriotic hymns, World War Ⅰ, rhyming translation, 20th century C.E., United States home front during World War Ⅰ, 57th century A.M., Prayers as poems, Yiddish vernacular prayer, American Jewry of the United States

TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):

ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!

COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.

TABLE HELP

Source (Yiddish)	Translation (English)
1. אַ בענשונג דיר, דו נײע װעלט! דײן שװעל אױף פרײהײט איז געשמעלט. אַמעריקאַ! איך האָב דיך ליעב! און זאָגסט דו מיר: ”דײן לעבען גיעב! איך דאַרף דײן מוטה, איך דאַרף דײן בלוט!“ זאָלסט דו דאָס האָבען די מינוט! איך פרעג דיך ניט: צו װאָס? צו װען? — װאָס דו פערלאַנגסט, דאָס זאָל געשעהן.	1. Be thou, New World, by Heaven blest! Thy threshold doth on freedom rest. America! thou hast my love; And if my valor thou wouldst prove, And ask my life as sacrifice, It shall be yielded in a trice. No wherefore and no why I asks I shall obey, whate’er the task.
ביס: דײן װאונש איז הײליג, דײן געבאָט איז גלײך מיר װי דער װאונש פון גאָט. מיט דיר אין פריעדען און אין קריעג, דו הױכגעבענשטע פרײהײטס-װיג, איך בין מיט דיר, מיט דיר, מיט דיר, יאָ, דו ביזט גוט גענוג פאַר מיר!	(Refrain) Thy wish is holy, thy command I deem as writ by God’s own hand. With thee in peace, with thee in strife, Blest nourisher of freedom’s life! I am with thee, with thee, with thee; Yea, thou art precious unto me.
2. דו מקום קדוש פון דער ערד! װי קדושה װערט דײן שטים געהערט, פערהײליגט װי פון סיני דאַן, אין דיר איז הײליג יעדער שפּאַן! װי קען אַ סצעפּטער, צי אַ טהראָן זיך מעסטען מיט דײן שעהנע פאָהן? דײן פרײנד איז מײנער אױך אַ פרײנד, דײן פײנד — איך האַס איהם — איז מײן פײנד!	2. Thou sanctuary. of the earth! Thy voice to men has sacred worth, Like that which did from Sinai sound. Thy every span is sacred ground. What sceptre and what throne shall dare With thy bright banner to compare? No other friend but thine I know; Thy foe—I hate him—is my foe!
ביס: דײן װאונש איז הײליג, דײן געבאָט איז גלײך מיר װי דער װאונש פון גאָט. מיט דיר אין פריעדען און אין קריעג, דו הױכגעבענשטע פרײהײטס-װיעג! איך בין מיט דיר, מיט דיר, מיט דיר, יאָ, דו ביזט גוט גענוג פאַר מיר!	(Refrain) Thy wish is holy, thy command I deem as writ by God’s own hand. With thee in peace, with thee in strife, Blest nourisher of freedom’s life! I am with thee, with thee, with thee; Yea, thou art precious unto me.
3. איך הער אין קראַך פון דײן האַרמאַט נור פרײהײט׳ס געטליכען ”װיװאַט“, איך בענש דײן חיל און דײן פלאָט, געװעהלטע פון דעם העכסטען גאָט! דער ים רױשט הלל דיר, מײן לאַנד, דו ביזט געפיהרט פון בורא׳ס האַנד! עס גיעבט דײן יעדער באַרג אַ הױב זײן עכאָ דיר מיט פרײד און לױב.	3. Amidst thy cannon’s crash I hear The voice of freedom calling clear, I bless thy hosts on land and sea, God’s chosen home of liberty! The waves roar hymns to thee my land! Thow’rt led by the Creator’s hand. Glad echoes from thy every hill With praise of thee set worlds athrill.
ביס: דײן װאונש איז הײליג, דײן געבאָט איז גלײך מיר װי דער װאונש פון גאָט. מיט דיר אין פריעדען און אי קריעג, דו הױכגעבענשטע פרײהײטס-װיעג! איך בין מיט דיר, מיט דיר, מיט דיר, יאָ, דו ביזט גוט גענוג פאַר מיר!	(Refrain) Thy wish is holy, thy command I deem as writ by God’s own hand. With thee in peace, with thee in strife, Blest nourisher of freedoms life! I am with thee, with thee with thee; Yea, thou art precious unto me.

“My America (Our New Hymn)” was written by Morris Rosenfeld and published by the Jewish Morning Journal sometime mid-April 1917. On April 2nd, the United States had entered the World War against Germany and its allies. In the xenophobic and anti-immigrant atmosphere of the United States during World War Ⅰ, Representative Isaac Siegel (1880-1947), R-NY, offered the hymn as evidence of the patriotism of America’s “foreign-born” Jewish immigrants. The poem in its English translation was added to the Congressional Record on 18 April 1917 in an extension of remarks. Xenophobia in the United States though did not ebb. Nearly a year later, on April 4, 1918, a German immigrant, Robert Prager, was lynched in Collinsville, Illinois.

Source(s)

My America (Morris Rosenfeld 1917)

Appendix to the Congressional Record 65th Congress, first session vol.55 p. 107

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“מײן אַמעריקא (אונזער נײע הימנע) | My America (Our New Hymn) by Morris Rosenfeld (1917)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Morris Rosenfeld

Morris Rosenfeld (Yiddish: מאָריס ראָסענפֿעלד; born as Moshe Jacob Alter; December 28, 1862 in Stare Boksze in Russian Poland, government of Suwałki – June 22, 1923 in New York City) was a Yiddish poet.

Pocket Pinterest Reddit 𝕏 Facebook Telegram WhatsApp SMS Email

Works of related interest:

feldmestn (Morris Rosenfeld 1906) - cropped

פעלד־מעסטען | Feldmesten | Measuring of the Graves, a prayer-poem by Morris Rosenfeld (before 1898)

die erste twile (Morris Rosenfeld 1906) - cropped

דיא ערשטע טבילה | Die erste Twile | The First Bath of Ablution, a prayer-poem by Morris Rosenfeld (before 1898)

kiddesh-lewone (Morris Rosenfeld 1906) - cropped

קידוש לבנה | Kidesch⸗Lewone | The Moon-Prayer, a prayer-poem by Morris Rosenfeld (before 1898)

Flag of the United States House of Representatives

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Edward Benjamin Morris Browne on 13 December 1917

Bar Kochba, Arthur Szyk,1927, watercolor and gouache on paper.

דיא חנוכה ליכט | Ḥanukkah⸗Lichter | Ḥanukkah Lights, a poem by Morris Rosenfeld (1897)

"The Wave, a sandstone formation in northern Arizona." (credit: Greg Bulla, license: CC0)

אַמעריקע די פּרעכטיקע | America the Beautiful, a patriotic hymn by Katharine Lee Bates (1895) with Yiddish translation by Berl Lapin (1950)

My Country! Tis of Thee (Samuel Francis Smith)

אמעריקע | America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee), a patriotic hymn by Samuel Francis Smith (1832) with Yiddish translation by Berl Lapin (1950)

prev next

Comments, Corrections, and QueriesCancel reply

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=52335

Associated Image:

My America (Morris Rosenfeld 1917)

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Source Data: XML | JSON

Re-formatted: HTML | ODT

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Morris Rosenfeld.
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=52335>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the . (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of contributors, patrons, or institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17