YISRAEL V’ORAITA (TORAH SONG)

YISRAEL V’ORAITA (TORAH SONG) The earliest appearance in a hymnal of the tune YISRAEL V’ORAITA is probably as ‘Song of Good News’ in Orlando Schmidt’s (1924-2002) Sing and Rejoice! (Scottsdale, Pennsylvania and Kitchener, Ontario, 1979), with copyright 1967 by Willard F. Jabusch*.  Probably the copyright covers not only Jabusch’s hymn (‘Open your ears, O Christian people, Open your ears and hear good news!’) but also the combination of the hymn and tune, which is printed as melody-only with guitar chords.  While the tune is unmistakably YISRAEL V’ORAITA, the attribution in this hymnal is ‘Traditional Israeli folk song’, without reference to a more specific origin.  Schmidt must have...