Tune of the Day: Shalom Aleichem
“Shalom Aleichem” is a traditional song sung on Friday night at the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath. The liturgical poem was written at the end of the 17th century, and many different melodies have been composed for it. The most well-known melody was composed by the American Rabbi Israel Goldfarb in 1918, while sitting near the Alma Mater statue in front of Low Memorial Library at Columbia University. It was to be part of his Friday Evening Melodies collection, which was published in 1918.
Goldfarb's work is often presumed to be a traditional melody, as the composer himself remarked: “The popularity of the melody traveled not only throughout this country but throughout the world, so that many people came to believe that the song was handed down from Mt. Sinai by Moses”.