Louis Gilrod

The composer and lyricist Louis Gilrod was raised in the Vinnytsya-region village of Ulaniv, Russian Empire (now in Ukraine). Gilrod studied in a heder before immigrating to America with his father in 1891. Living with his uncle in Newark after his father returned to the Russian Empire, Gilrod was drawn to the world of New York’s Yiddish theater. He wrote Yiddish lyrics for popular American songs as well as songs for the Yiddish theater, notably “Got un zayn mishpet iz gerekht” (“God and His Judgment Is Correct,” with David Meyerowitz, 1903) for Jacob Adler’s Tsebrokhene hertser (Broken Hearts) and “Yisrulik kum ahaym” (“Yisroel, Come Home,” 1904) for a Boris Thomashefsky performance. Gilrod also acted in and wrote for Yiddish theater and vaudeville. His “Di fayer korbones” (“The Fires’ Victims”) uses the melody Meyerowitz composed for “Bor kara va-yakhperehu” (He Has Dug a Pit and Deepened It, from Psalm 7:16, 1905).