On This Day: February 23

Map
Watched
In honor of Purim, which is Thursday night into Friday, Six13 released an updated version of Al Hanisim, which includes 22 different Jewish Acapella groups and over 300 singers mixed together. Worth a watch.
Watched “This Land is Your Land” in Yiddish by Forverts from youtube.com

“Dos Land iz Dayn Land” Woody Guthrie’s
“This Land is Your Land”
Yiddish Translation by Linda Gritz & Daniel Kahn
with Harry Bochner, Michael Alpert, & Josh Waletzky

Video and music produced, directed and edited by Daniel Kahn
Presented by The Forverts

Performed by (in order of appearance)
Daniel Kahn (voice, guitar, harmonica- USA/Germany)
Sarah Gordon (voice- USA)
Lorin Sklamberg (voice, piano- USA)
Patrick Farrell (accordion- USA/Germany)
Sveta Kundish (voice- Ukraine/Israel/Germany)
Michael Alpert (voice- USA/Scotland)
Linda Gritz (voice- USA)

Thanks & love to: אַ האַרציקן דאַנק Mike Katz, Eleanor Reissa, Binyumen Schaechter, Zalmen Mlotek, Emily Finer, Michael Williams, Ethel Raim, Michael Tuttle, Earthwork folks, Rukhl Schaechter & Jordan Kutzik at the Forverts, The 2020 YNY Lider-Shmideray, Bela Lipa Kundish, Yeva & Leybke Lapsker Kahn, & Nora Guthrie

This Land is Your Land © Copyright 1956 (renewed), 1958 (renewed), 1970 and 1972 by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. & TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (BMI)

A note: Written on February 23, 1940 as a response to the popularity of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” Woody Guthrie’s radical ballad has often been sanitized and sung as an uncritical patriotic anthem, ignoring a history of stolen land, lives, and labor.

As Yiddish singers, musicians, and translators, drawing on our own heritage, we challenge this interpretation, and stand in solidarity with Indigenous, Black, and immigrant voices calling for power, reparation, and justice in this land.

Transliterated Lyrics:
(Daniel:)
Kh’hob mir gevandert in a land a frayen
Aroys fun midber, vi mi-mitsrayem,
Gezukht a nayem Yerushalayem,
Dos iz a land far mir un dir.

(REFREN:)
Dos land iz dayn land, dos land iz mayn land
Fun Kalifornye biz Elis Ayland,
Fun di groyse oz’res biz di breyte yamen,
Dos iz a land far mir un dir.

(Sarah:)
Ikh gey ariber di berg un teler,
Arumgeringlt fun zise keler.
Di ritshkes murmlen, di feygl zingen:
Dos iz a land far mir un dir.

(Lorin w/ piano:)
Kh’ze a groysn moyer mit a shild vos vornt:
Vil men araynet, shteyt az me tor nit
Nor af yener zayt, shteyt dortn gornit
Ot iz di zayt far mir un dir.

(Sveta & Patty w/accordion:)
Gey ikh mir voglen, di zun fun oybn,
Nor beyze vintn tseblozn shtoybn,
Durkh di tumanen, her ikh gezangen:
Dos iz a land far mir un dir.

(Michael:)
Af nase gasn, in tife shotns,
Ze ikh vi mentshn betn nedoves
Bay aza dales, darf ikh zikh klern
Tsi dos iz a land far mir un dir.

(Linda and all:)
Es ken shoyn keyner undz nit farshtern,
Di fraye vegn undz nit farvern.
Nito keyn tsamen, ven nor tsuzamen.
Dos iz a land far mir un dir.

דאָס לאַנד איז דײַן לאַנד פֿון װוּדי גאָטרי, 1940
פֿאַרטײַטשט פֿון ליבע גריץ און דניאל קאַהן
מיט חײם באָכנער, מײשקע אַלפּערט, און דזשאַש װאַלעצקי

כ’האָב מיר געװאַנדערט, אין אַ לאַנד אַ פֿרײַען
אַרױס פֿון מידבר, װי ממצרים
געזוכט אַ נײַעם ירושלים
דאָס איז אַ לאַנד פֿאַר מיר און דיר

רעפֿרען: דאָס לאַנד איז דײַן לאַנד
דאָס לאַנד איז מײַן לאַנד
פֿון קאַליפֿאָרניע ביז עליס אײַלאַנד
פֿון די גרױסע אָזערעס ביז די ברײטע ימען
דאָס איז אַ לאַנד פֿאַר מיר און דיר

איך גײ אַריבער די בערג און טעלער
אַרומגערינגעלט פֿון זיסע קעלער
די ריטשקעס מורמלען, די פֿײגל זינגען
דאָס איז אַ לאַנד פֿאַר מיר און דיר

כ’זע אַ גרױסן מױער מיט אַ שילד װאָס װאָרנט
װיל מען אַרײַנעט, שטײט אַז מע’ טאָר ניט
נאָר אױף יענער זײַט, שטײט דאָרטן גאָרניט
אָט איז די זײַט פֿאַר מיר און דיר

גײ איך מיר װאָגלען, די זון פֿון אױבן
נאָר בײזע װינטן צעבלאָזן שטױבן
דורך די טומאַנען הער איך געזאַנגען
דאָס איז אַ לאַנד פֿאַר מיר און דיר

אױף נאַסע גאַסן, אין טיפֿע שאָטנס
זע איך װי מענטשן בעטן נדבֿות
בײַ אַזאַ דלות, טו איך זיך קלערן
צי דאָס איז אַ לאַנד פֿאַר מיר און דיר

עס קען שױן קײנער אונדז ניט פֿאַרשטערן
די פֿרײַע װעגן אונדז ניט פֿאַרװערן
ניטאָ קײן צאַמען, ווען נאָר צוזאַמען
דאָס איז אַ לאַנד פֿאַר מיר און דיר

You can read more about the premiere of this song on the Forvert website here. The video features several people I’m familiar with, including Lorin Sklamberg, who I had the pleasure of meeting with several times some years ago.

As the article mentions, people often omit the more critical aspects of This Land is Your Land.

Simple Location 3.6.0 Released

There is a new update to Simple Locations which adds some new features.

  • A query option for Micropub was added in a prior version and adjusted in this one. This is currently only supported in the Indigenous for Android app.  It allows the Android app to query the plugin for the name of the current location, to display and edit in the app.
  • Wikimedia Maps was added as a map provider, which is displayable without an API key
  • There’s a new setting that only shows altitude above a configurable height.

The biggest feature is Zones. Zones is a geofencing feature. If your location is inside the zone, it will not display the exact location, only a textual description.

Zones consist of a name, a location, and a radius around that location. If you are posting in the UI, it will replace the actual location name with that of the zone, and set the visibility to protected to add the actual coordinates.

If you are posted via Micropub, it will set the same, unless the location visibility property exists, and then it will follow that. Currently, this property is only supported by Indigenous for Android.

So, what does this mean? It means I am safe to post to my site and know that if I’m in one of these locations, it will obscure it unless I say otherwise. This is the first step to more granular visibility of location allowing me to store it in all posts, knowing that it won’t be shared specifically in areas I don’t want it to be shown in.