בבית ספרנו | Be-vet sifrenu | In Our School (1912)

Artist: Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (1882-1938)

Lyrics: From "Ha-Zamir"

Tune: Foreign Melody

The text of this song, which was published in Ha-Zamir (Odessa, 1903: p. 2), praises modern Hebrew school, where children study, play, sing, and enjoy themselves. The song presents an environment in which Jewish studies are taught alongside secular subjects.

The melody is adapted from the Polish song "Krakowiak Kosynierow" [Krakoviak of Polish Heroes], written in memory of the heroes of the nineteenth-century Polish uprising against Russia. The Polish melody was published in Krakow in 1917 but had been performed before its publication. The Hebrew song makes no reference to the Polish text.

This song has a verse-refrain structure, which was not common for the time in which it was written, and is set in a major key.