"Bim Bam" Basics

The True Story of the Tot Shabbat Classic

We Jews are known as the “People of the Book.“

And yet for many Jews, the most famous words of our tradition aren’t even words at all. They are Hasidic syllables which, once begun, unleash a cascade of childhood memories, tuneful joy, and well-practiced hand gestures.

You know which syllables I’m talking about.

“Bim Bam” is perhaps the most ubiquitous kids song in American Jewish life. With its Ashkenazic rhythms and motifs, it represents authentic Jewish folkways and the soundscape of the Shabbat service. At the same time, it makes space for fun hand movements and impish interjections of “hey!”, allowing both children and adults to enjoy moments of play amidst an otherwise traditional melody.

“Bim Bam” is low on propositional content. It has only four words, and the fifth (hey!) is a later addition. But the song itself is effective at producing the aura of the Sabbath with very low-barrier lyrics that are easy to pick up.

And like most ubiquitous melodies, almost no one remembers who wrote it.

After several successful investigations into well-known kids songs like “HaMotzi” and “The Dinosaur Song,” I set my mind to discover more about the origins of “Bim Bam.” Fortunately, I received a tip directing me to the American Jewish Archives in Cinncinati, where the composer’s family had endowed a research fellowship in his honor. It was there that I first discovered the name of the true composer of Bim Bam, Naftali Frankel (1930-2001). According to his current biography on their website:

“Naftali Frankel was born in 1930 in the Mea She’arim neighborhood of Jerusalem. When Naftali was just a few years old the family moved to Jaffa where his parents owned a small hotel and restaurant on the waterfront. In 1939, after their property was destroyed by fire during an Arab uprising, the family immigrated to the United States. After settling in Chicago for a time, the family settled in Brooklyn where Naftali, his twin brother, Reuven, and his three sisters grew up.

Naftali was multi-talented. After graduating from the Juilliard School of Music and, later, Columbia University where he received his Ph.D., he became an accomplished musician, cantor, and composer. He spent many years as the director of music at Camp Massad Bet in Dingman’s Ferry, Pennsylvania in the Poconos where he wrote a “little” Shabbat song, “Bim Bam.”

This was already an interesting story: a native Israeli coming to America, graduating Juilliard, and inventing the song while working at an all-Hebrew summer camp. I previously knew of his brother, Reuven Frankel, who was a prominent rabbi and hazzan in the Conservative movement.

Yet this story also presented me a puzzle. Because the earliest known recording of “Bim Bam” did not mention Naftali Frankel at all.

In 1956, the prominent Jewish composer Sholom Secunda (the composer of “Bei Mir Bist Du Sheyn”) produced a record of his own Friday night compositions with the famous opera singer and cantorial artist, Richard Tucker. The final track of this “Welcoming the Sabbath” LP included just the second half of “Bim Bam” — the section beginning with “Shabbat Shalom.” There was no indication of Frankel’s authorship on the record or its cover.

Even the printed music attributed the entire melody to Secunda.¹

What was the truth?

Did Frankel compose the piece — and, if so, when? Did he only compose the first part, and Secunda the second? Or did Secunda borrow Frankel’s orally-transmitted composition and publish it—without attribution?

To find out, I reached out to the Frankel family directly. Very generously, Naftali’s widow, Peninah Frankel, took the time to write down her recollections of Naftali’s life and to confirm the origins of the song:

A Cabin at Camp Massad, 1949 (Source).

“I met Naftali in 1948 when we were counselors at Camp Massad Bet in Dingman’s Ferry, PA located in the Pocono Mountains. It was newly opened to accommodate the overflow of campers from Massad Aleph, located in Tannersville, PA. Naftali wanted the position of music counselor, but that job was already taken by David Alster-Yardeni, Massad’s original music and drama director since the camp’s inception in 1941. Naftali had to settle for a position of bunk counselor of ten-year old boys (Note: Sam Karff, who would later become a renown rabbi in the Reform movement, was his Junior Counselor).

In 1949 Naftali returned to camp as its music counselor, and he was always at the piano - composing music for original plays, cantatas, and Shabbat programs. So, it was in that capacity that he wrote a simple catchy tune that he called Shabbat Shalom / Bim Bam. Those campers and staff who attended Massad Bet from all over the country that summer, returned to their homes and sang the new Bim Bam song they had learned. Bim Bam became a “universal” hit but Naftali took little notice. We took it for granted. He had written other songs that we still treasure.”

Peninah established that Naftali wrote the song in 1949, and it spread orally via the campers and staff at Camp Massad Bet. Yet how did Secunda hear of it?

Sholom Secunda already had a reputation for publishing other composers’ melodies under his own name, often (but not always) after paying them a modest check. But Secunda and Frankel also spent time under the same roof: Naftali led music classes and choir for young students at the Brooklyn Jewish Center in 1950, where Sholom Secunda served as the music director. “The BJC was a large prestigious place and Naftali was a minor person there,” Peninah wrote, and it was not obvious to her that they would have exchanged compositions or ideas. But it’s not difficult to imagine the melodious sounds of “Bim Bam” wafting through the BJC hallways and into Secunda’s keen muscial ear.

Another piece of the “Bim Bam” story comes through Naftali’s nephew, Cantor Mayer Davis. Cantor Davis was the longtime cantor of Kehilath Jeshurun (1987-2018), the largest orthodox synagogue in Manhattan, and has a long history of Jewish communal service and musical recordings (including by his band, Tayku, above).² The son of Naftali’s sister Esther Frankel and Cantor Avrum Davis (who famously recorded the traditional Ashkenazi service on LP), Mayer heard Bim Bam directly from the composer himself. Remembering him singing at the piano in the early 1950s, he recalled the composer’s original harmonies for the song, reproduced here for the first time:

The original harmony to Bim Bam, as recalled by Frankel’s nephew, Cantor Mayer Davis.

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Naftali Frankel began life in America as an aspiring professional musician and composer. He wrote many new works (including Ani Yeshena, above, composed for his own wedding). He made records, led Jewish choirs, and even got one of his two operas —“The Golden Land” and “Moses and Aaron”— in front of Met Opera conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos. But he was ultimately destined for a more domestic life in Cincinnati with his beloved Peninah:

“Naftali and I were married on January 28, 1951 and we lived in Brooklyn while I attended NYU. Naftali had graduated Juilliard and he was attending classes at Columbia U. to attain a PhD in Musicology, Conducting and Composition while teaching music at City College and at Shaarey Tzedek, an orthodox Synagogue in Far Rockaway. He wanted to pursue a career of composing background music in the movie industry. He loved the movies! However, in 1953 when Naftali traveled to LA, Hollywood was firing, not hiring. The movie industry was in trouble then with the advent of television. We had left NYC in June 1953 to return to my hometown to give birth to our first child and then to move to LA. Disillusioned by his experience in Hollywood, Naftali returned to his family in Cincinnati, uncertain of his future path. Due to his affable personality, Naftali quickly made friends and was invited by two of them to form a real estate company. His transition from music to real estate was a happy accident. He was smart and a fast learner - and he enjoyed the challenges. He worked in the business for 47 years, until his untimely death at age 71 (by 3 days) on November 3, 2001. But his passion was always music.“

Throughout his days in real estate, Naftali continued to contribute to the world of Jewish music. While without formal cantorial training, his fourteen years in yeshiva gave him the knowledge of nusach and liturgy to work as a High Holy Day cantor, including forty-four years at Beth Israel in Hamilton, Ohio. “He never stopped composing,” wrote Peninah: “song cycles, concertos, elegies, sonatas, etc. which were performed by professional musicians, usually in groups of five or six, in different venues throughout the city.” He also wrote new musical works for family occasions: A full Kabbalat Shabbat service for his daughter’s bat mitzvah; a wedding suite for his son and daughter-in-law; a Priestly Blessing for his grandson’s bar mitzvah; and Passover melodies for the family seder. And he also completed two major orchestral works: A symphonic essay “Oseh Shalom” and the Niggun Cello Concerto, completed just months before his death in 2001.

Courtesy of Cantor Davis, here is its first movement of the cello concerto:

Naftali’s many compositions enjoyed performances around Cincinnati, but most remain little known to the general public. Yet they are still remembered and cherished by the Frankel family as expressions of his passion for music, his yiddishkeit, and his love.

While some of our life’s contributions may never be widely attributed to us, their meaning in the hearts of those who carry them forward is never forgotten. Nevertheless, the next time you sing “Bim Bam,” please remember its true author, Naftali Frankel — a traditional Jew who was passionate about music and gifted us a piece of music that elevates the beauty and joy of Shabbat for millions.

Naftali Zvi Frankel z’’l (b. October 31, 1930; d. November 3, 2001)

1. My thanks to Cantors Ted Prosnitz and Sam Weiss for checking their copies of the record for confirmation. Thanks also to Hazzan Lance Tapper for sending me images of the published version of Secunda’s service.

Transcontinental Publications over the last three decades have consistently indicated the melody’s composer as “Nachum Frankel,” likely an orally-misheard approximation of the composer’s name. Other arrangements on the website attribute melody in part to Secunda, likely due to its inclusion (without attribution) in his 1956 Friday night service.

2. Original members of Tayku include limelights in the world of Jewish music, including Mayer Davis, Reuven Davis, Matthew “Mati” Lazar, David Burger, and Ira Epstein. Their concerts were among the original inspirations for Joel Sussman and the famous Jewish rock band, Safam.