"Every Boy Should Have a Jewish Mother" - Music and Funny Lyrics by Leonard Lehrman

Leonard Lehrman has had quite a musical career as a singer, composer, conductor, chorus leader, organist, pianist, performer and teacher.

As Olga Livshin wrote last month in the Vancouver Jewish Independent,

He has founded music theatres and festivals, written books and articles, and performed in various religious institutions. Music in all its aspects has dominated his life since he was eight years old.


Choral music and opera have been Lehrman’s passion for decades, but his particular interest was reserved for Jewish composers. He was close to his composition teacher Elie Siegmeister and was a personal friend of Leonard Bernstein. “When Bernstein yelled ‘Bravo!’ after one of my performances, that was the best moment in my life,” Lehrman shared.

But what we found most interesting about Lehrman is his sense of humor and his tongue-in-cheek original lyrics to music that he wrote, in a style that evokes Tom Lehrer.

Last month Lehrman and his wife, soprano Helene Williams, who have given more than 500 concert performances, appeared at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture in Vancouver. They sang songs in English, Yiddish and Ladino, and spoke about their experiences in Jewish music and opera.

We thought you'd enjoy this short selection in which Lehrman credits the success of Albert Einstein, Henry Kissinger, Sigmund Freud, and Leonard Bernstein to their Jewish mothers.

As the refrain goes,

Every boy should have a Jewish mother who pushes him to immortality.
Who strives for perfection with motherly direction
And does it so lovingly...

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)