Daily Podcasts Video Research

My Toddler Loves This Jewish Lullaby About a Calf Being Slaughtered

JL;DR SUMMARY Exploring the popular yet somber Jewish song "Dona Dona," this piece delves into its history and cultural significance. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Cultural HistoryCivil Rights MovementYiddish PoetryJewish SongsJoan BaezDona DonaJewish LullabyProtest AnthemsMusic TranslationsNursery Rhymes

Places mentioned

Poland
"The play itself is based on the Jewish legend of Esterke, the Jewish mistress of the king of Poland."
South Korea
"It was even banned in South Korea in 1975, when, according to The New York Times, the countrys Art and Culture Ethics Committee banned all American protest songs considered revolutionary, subversive or antisocial by prevailing standards."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 58856
Cairo Source ID 33
Retrieved 2025-08-08 05:30:46 UTC
Curated 2025-08-08 08:30:44 UTC