"It is Burning", is a Yiddish poem–song written in 1938 by Mordechai Gebirtig

Mordechai Gebirtig

Mordechai Gebirtig, born Mordecai Bertig was an influential Yiddish poet and songwriter.- S'brent :One of Gebirtig's best-known songs is "S'brent" , written in 1938 in response to the 1936 pogrom of Jews in the shtetl of Przytyk. Gebirtig had hoped its message, “Don't stand there, brothers, douse...

. The poem was originally written about the pogrom of Przytyk

Przytyk pogrom

The Przytyk Pogrom occurred against the Jewish community in Przytyk, Radom County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland on March 9, 1936. It was the most notorious incident of antisemitic violence in Poland in the interwar period, and attracted worldwide attention...

, which had occurred

s’brent! briderlekh, s’brent!

oy, undzer orem shtetl nebekh brent!

beyze vintn mit yirgozn

raysn, brekhn un tseblozn,

shtarker nokh di vilde flamn,

alts arum shoyn brent!

The poem talks about the bystanders' apathy as they watch the events, not in any way attempting to stop them. Cracow's underground Jewish resistance adopted S'brent as its anthem. It is frequently sung in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 and around the world on Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah

Yom HaShoah

Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah , known colloquially in Israel and abroad as Yom HaShoah and in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, is observed as Israel's day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews and five million others who perished in the...

).

Adaptations

Several versions of the poem have been recorded. Among others, Israeli singer Dorit Reuveni recorded a Hebrew version and British band Oi Va Voi

Oi Va Voi

Oi Va Voi is a British band that takes its name from a Yiddish-derived exclamation popular in modern Hebrew meaning, approximately, "Oh, dear!" It is an experimental band from London, England, which formed in the late 1990s...

 recorded a version with modified Yiddish lyrics for their album Travelling the Face of the Globe

Travelling the Face of the Globe

-Personnel:*Nik Ammar - guitar, charango, strumstick, kazoo, percussion*Bridgette Amofah - vocals*Josh Breslaw - drums, percussion*Steve Levi - clarinet, vocals*Dave Orchant - trumpet*Anna Phoebe - violin*Lucy Shaw - double bass, electric bass-External links:...

.