A Closer Walk
Israel Beilin was born in Tyumen, Siberia, on May 11, 1888, according to documents. In Czarist Russia and being Jewish his family was persecuted. As an adult he remembered lying on a blanket in Russia by the side of the road watching his house burn to the ground. By daybreak nothing but ashes remained. Later his father decided to take his family, including Israel, to America. On September 14, 1893, they arrived at Ellis Island, New York. Israel, his brother and his sisters were put into a pen until they could be cleared to enter the city (sourced from Wikipedia). Upon arrival their family name was changed to Baline. With only a few years schooling Israel began helping support his family and got a job as a newspaper boy. Two of his sisters got jobs wrapping cigars, which apparently was common for young girls in that day.
As a newspaper boy in the Bowery Israel was exposed to the music of the various saloons and restaurants. At thirteen he left home and went out on his own. He along with other immigrant boys sang in the saloons to entertain the customers. At age eighteen he got a job as a singing waiter at the Pelham Cafe in Chinatown. He taught himself how to play the piano and wrote his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy," in collaboration with the cafe's resident piano player Mike Nicholson. For this composition he received royalties of thirty-seven cents. But the sheet music for the song contained a spelling error. It listed him as "I. Berlin."
Why is all this important for this column today? Because of one particular song that "I. Berlin" wrote. "God bless America Land that I love Stand beside her And guide her Through the night with the light from above. From the mountains To the prairies To the oceans White with foam God bless America My home sweet home." This song was originally written for an all soldier Revue after Mr. Berlin had been drafted by the U. S. Army in 1917. He decided not to use it for the Revue.
Twenty years later, for the twentieth anniversary of Armistice Day, a well know singer named Kate Smith asked Irving Berlin for a song she could use. She sang "God Bless America" in 1938 and it became her signature song. 1938 was a pivotal time for our country. The U. S. was emerging from "The Great Depression." But winds of war were blowing in Europe and Asia with the rise of Adolph Hitler as Chancellor of the Third Reich and the rise of Imperial Japan in the Pacific. This was a great time to introduce "God Bless America." Kate Smith sang it in the 1943 movie "This is the Army" which starred Ronald Reagan. And it was used in the Broadway musical of the same name which preceded it. It has been used by various sports teams and was sung spontaneously by the players and fans at the 1980 Olympics where the U. S. Hockey team defeated the mighty Soviet team in what is now called “The Miracle on Ice."
Irving Berlin assigned all the royalties from "God Bless America" to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America. And this brings us to a quote from Benjamin Franklin, "Do well by doing good." And may Almighty God, our God, truly bless these United States of America.
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance," Psalm 33:12 NASB.