07. SAR A HAVER

In 1845 a young Irishman from County Down, Joseph M. Scriven, moved to Canada, living near Port Hope, Ontario. Scriven’s bride-to-be had died in 1843, the night before their wedding. In 1855 he wrote a poem to comfort his ailing mother in Ireland. The words of ‘What a Friend we have in Jesus’ speak to people in pain who are going through great trauma. Charles Crozat Converse penned a touching melody in 1868. Haim Yehiel Einshpruch (Henry Einspruch) first composed Yiddish words to this song, releasing it in his 1935 Lider fun gloybn (Hymns of Faith; גלויבן וןֿפ לידער(. It is worth noting that Einshpruch’s Yiddish New Testament remains a classic of high Yiddish literature to this day, according to famous Yiddish author Meylech Ravitsch. Avner’s fresh Yiddish translation of the song is presented in an American Big Band klezmer style, with a tip of the hat to dear long-time musical comrade Stuart Dauermann.