David Meyerowitz

Born in Dvinsk, Russian Empire (today Daugavpils, Latvia), David Meyerowitz received no formal education and began working in manufacturing early in his life. Immigrating to New York City in 1890, Meyerowitz started his career performing in music halls and cafés, eventually selling his songs to prominent figures of the burgeoning New York Yiddish stage. A vocal supporter of Zionism, Meyerowitz composed several songs around Zionist themes, including a piece commissioned by Boris Thomashefsky. Meyerowitz frequently collaborated with Louis Gilrod and adapted the latter’s “Bor kara va-yakhperehu” (He Has Dug a Pit and Deepened It, Psalms 7:16), which Gilrod wrote with Jacob Kamenetzky (1905).