"I Have a Little Dreidel" (also known as "The Dreidel Song" or "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel") is a children's Chanukah song in the English speaking world which also exists in a Yiddish version called "Ikh Bin A Kleyner Dreydl", (Yiddish: איך בין אַ קלײנער דרײדל Lit: I am a little dreidel). The song is about making a dreidel and playing with it.
History
The lyricist for the English version is Samuel S. Grossman and the composer of the English version is listed as Samuel E. Goldfarb (also S. E. Goldfarb). The Yiddish version was both written and composed by Mikhl Gelbart (Yiddish: : מיכאל געלבאַרט) (pseudonym Ben Arn), but he listed the author as Ben Arn, a pseudonym referring to himself as the son of Aaron. There is a question about who composed this music, as the melody for both the Yiddish and the English versions are precisely the same. The meaning of the lyrics to the Yiddish and English versions is largely the same. However, in English the singer sings about a dreidel, whereas in the Kafkaesque original Judeo-German version, the singer is the four-sided spinning top made out of ‘blay’ (Yiddish: בלײַ), which is lead. The original version is historically accurate. In the English version the singer has a four-sided spinning top made out of clay, yet clay is not easily spun.