Whisky
Mikhl Gordon
ca. 1868
Creator Bio
Mikhl Gordon
Shuttling between worlds—Yiddish and Hebrew, religious and secular—came naturally to Mikhl Gordon, the Vilna-born poet and songwriter. A proud maskil, he championed modern, secular ways of thinking and prodded religious Jews, especially Hasidim, to evolve with the times. Yet Gordon never abandoned Judaism, and his articles, poems, and songs reflected his deep engagement with traditional Judaism. For most of his life, Gordon’s fame rested on his music. Writing under a pseudonym, he expressed deep sympathy for married Jewish women saddled with large families and capricious husbands—an extraordinary act for a Jewish male writer at the time.
Related Guide
Music and Opera in Jewish Culture
One of the most striking changes in European Jewish culture toward the later eighteenth century was marked by the entry of Jews into art music, opera houses, and the stage.
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