The day after Charles Lindbergh reached Paris in May 1927, the only headline on the front page of the New York Times that did not directly concern the young American aviator read “Levine Abandons Bellanca Flight.” It chronicled the unsuccessful efforts of Charles Levine of the Columbia [bad word] to complete the first transatlantic flight. Later that year the thirty-year-old millionaire did fly to Berlin with Clarence Chamberlin, breaking Lindbergh’s record. Yiddish vaudevillian Charles Cohen decided [bad word] the flight in song when President Calvin Coolidge outraged Jews by receiving Chamberlin but not Levine at the White House. The song, sung in Yiddish and English, reflected the ambivalence of American Jews who were still outsiders but also wanted to be part of the mainstream. Like the Americans who greeted Lindbergh’s flight by looking forward and backward, Jews were also caught between the past and the future. [English translation follows Yiddish.] 

Es flien heldn iber groyse yamen
Un men zingt fun zey fil umetum.
Nor eyn yidn darf men nit farzamen,
Zingen loybgezangen vegn im.
Levin, levin, bist der held yetst fun yisroel,
Levin, levin, vi di oves fun amol.
Ven tsheymberlin iz gekumen dort
Bistu geven mit im bald oyfn ort.
Levin, levin, nisht geklert un nisht getrakht,
Hostu dayn nomen groys gemakht.
Fun brokhes on tsol vintsh dir dayn yisroel,
Levin mit zayn flaying mashin.
Levine, Levine, you’re the hero of your race.
Levine, Levine, you’re the greatest Hebrew ace.

We got a thrill when Chamberlain flew
But you were right there too, we’re proud of you.
Levine, Levine, just an ordinary name
But you brought it everlasting fame.
We [bad word] you home from over the foam,
Levine with your flying machine.
Azoy iz oykh in ale visnshaftn.
Vu an oyftu, dortn iz a yid.
Say in khokhme, zay in groyse kraftn
Iberal iz er bald in dermit.
Levin, levin, bist der held yetst fun yisroel,
Levin, levin, vi di oves fun amol.
Ven tsheymberlin iz gekumen dort
Bistu geven mit im bald oyfn ort.
Levin, levin, nisht geklert un nisht getrakht,
Hostu dayn nomen groys gemakht.
Fun brokhes on tsol vintsh dir dayn yisroel,
Levin mit zayn flaying mashin.