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Teddi Schwartz
1914–2017
Yiddish singer and translator who, with , wrote the English “Dona Dona” that carried around the world.
was born Theodora Rothfarb in 1914 in East Harlem to Yiddish-speaking immigrants; her father, Max, was a klezmer (כּלי־זמר) cornetist as well as a tailor. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music, sang and taught, and began turning American songs into Yiddish — then, with Arthur Kevess, turning Yiddish songs into singable English. Their 1956 Tumbalalaika pamphlet included “Dona Dona”; Jewish Currents reprinted it in 1958. She performed through the folk years, appeared at the 1964 World’s Fair, later toured with the Yiddisher Caravan, and turned up at the early KlezKamps. She died in 2017, at 103.
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