It's Rosh Hashanah – Shana Tova Umetukah – A Good and Sweet Year!

Today is Rosh Hashanah… the Jewish New Year. Much about the holiday centers around the theme of having a sweet year. One of the greetings for Rosh Hashanah is “Shana tova umetukah”, which is Hebrew for “A good and sweet year”. Apples and honey are served as a symbol of a sweet year. People dip [...]

Recipe for Savory Matzo Brei

Matzo brei means fried matzo in Yiddish.  The traditional way to make it is with a lot of matzo – you generally use equal eggs to matzo.  Jewish people eat it around Passover. Savory Matzo Brei is salty.  There's a different recipe for Sweet Matzo Brei. You can put whatever you like into savory matzo [...]

Recipe for Matzoh Omelet

I'll give the recipe here for a matzo omelet. It's inspired by the dish called Matzo brei. There's a little story behind this and I'll tell it in a moment. Matzo brei means fried matzo. The traditional way to make it is with a lot of matzo – you generally use equal eggs to [...]

Recipe for Sweet Matzo Brei

Matzo Brei means fried matzo in Yiddish.  This is a good dish to make near Passover.  That's when most Jewish people eat it.  I'd suggest trying it even if you're not Jewish.  Here's one good reason: Matzoh is always on sale around Passover and there's tons of it in the store.  How can you [...]

Hiding the Matzo for Passover

One Passover tradition that children love is "Hide the Matzoh".  An adult hides a piece of matzo that's wrapped in a cloth napkin or put in a baggie.  Then the children try to find it.  Whoever finds the matzoh gets a prize.  The prize is often chocolate money (gelt) or real money (like a dollar). “Hide [...]

Mama Lisa Now Has a Facebook Group

We'd love it if you'd join the Mama Lisa Facebook Group. You can post anything you'd like about your culture. You can post your own musical recordings or YouTube videos… Links to culture and musical sites… Photos of your country… Questions about songs or cultural issues… Anything related to World Culture and [...]

Can Someone Help with a Kids Song that's either Belarussian, Russian or Yiddish?

Martin wrote: Hello from a sunny but quite COLD New York City! I am wondering if anyone knows the answer to this. Not being too knowledgeable about the Belarusian language, I'm assuming that this song my maternal grandmother used to sing to me when I was in my single digits was in Russian or [...]

Happy Hanukkah!

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“Oy Chanukah” – The Yiddish Version of “Oh, Hanukkah” with a YouTube Video

The other day I posted the popular English version of “Oh, Hanukkah” with a YouTube rendition of the song. Here's the Yiddish version of “Oh, Hanukkah”. It was originally written by Mordkhe Rivesman (1868 – 1924), who was born in Lithuania. The song was also called “Latke Song” and “Khanike Oy Khanike”. [...]

Oh Hanukkah – A Holiday Song with a YouTube Video

My mother-in-law sent me the lyrics to Oh Hanukkah. She sings it while lighting the Menorah* every year. Oh Hanukkah was originally Yiddish. I believe the original version was written by Mordkhe Rivesman (1868 — 1924), who was born in Lithuania. This song is extremely popular in English now. Here is [...]