Irving Berlin’s famous “God Bless America” was written in 1918 during World War I, set aside, and then published again twenty years later in a slightly revised form to be sung on 11 November, Armistice Day (now Veterans Day).

In 1938, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Irving Berlin, who was Jewish and had arrived in America from Russia at the age of five, felt it was time to revive it as a “peace song,” and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show. Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, “to the right” might have been considered a call to the political right, so he substituted “through the night” instead. He also provided an introduction that is now rarely heard but which Smith always used: “While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.” (In her first broadcast of the song, Kate Smith sang “that we’re far from there” rather than “for a land so fair”.) This was changed when Berlin published the sheet music in March 1939.^[2] ”From Peace To Patriotism: The Shifting Identity Of ‘God Bless America’“. Interview of Sheryl Kaskowitz by Robert Siegel. NPR. September 2, 2013. Retrieved September 10, 2013. 

The Yiddish version that I have transcribed in Hebrew type is the translation made by Henry Sapoznik used in Mandy Patinkin’s album Mamaloshen (Nonesuch 1998). Please correct any errors in my transcription or orthography. Many thanks to Cantor Hinda Labovitz for her assistance in locating these Yiddish lyrics.

Source(s)

Click to access Nem-mikh-mit-tsu-der-ball-geym-Got-bentch-Amerike.pdf

Recordings

“גאָט בענטש אַמעריקע | God Bless America, for Armistice Day by Irving Berlin (1918/1938) with Yiddish translation” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Aharon N. Varady (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.)

Henry Sapoznik (translation/Yiddish)

Henry “Hank” Sapoznik is an award winning author, record and radio producer and performer of traditional Yiddish and American music.

Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin, May 23 [O.S. May 11] 1888 – September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. His music forms a great part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russia, Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy", in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the publishing rights,[4] and had his first major international hit, "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in 1911. Composer Douglas Moore sets Berlin apart from all other contemporary songwriters, and includes him instead with Stephen Foster, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandburg, as a "great American minstrel"—someone who has "caught and immortalized in his songs what we say, what we think about, and what we believe." Composer George Gershwin called him "the greatest songwriter that has ever lived", and composer Jerome Kern concluded that "Irving Berlin has no place in American music—he is American music."

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American composer Irving Berlin sings his song “God Bless America” in front of Boy Scouts troop members and spectators gathered at a tent in Monticello, New York in 1940. Instead of collecting royalties from “God Bless America,” Berlin created a fund that collected and distributed them to the Boy and Girl Scouts.

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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

Works of related interest:

 

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

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

Armistice Day Prayer, by Rabbi Hyman Solomon (after World War Ⅰ, circa 1920s)

Armistice Day Prayer, by Rabbi Jospeh H. Hertz (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire 1923)

Invocation by Rabbi Irving Greenberg at the Democratic National Convention (2000)

דער נײער קאָלאסוס | The New Collosus, a paean to the Shekhinah/”Mother of Exiles” by Emma Lazarus (1883, Yiddish translation by Rachel Kirsch Holtman 1938)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Irving Spielman on 12 September 1990

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