‘God Bless America’ was written by… a Russian! Wait, what!?

Irving Berlin at Pach Brothers Studio, 1907.

His name was Irving Berlin, born Israel Moiseevich Beilin in 1888 in the Mogilev Province (now Belarus). Almost immediately after his birth, his family (he was the youngest of eight children) moved to live in the Siberian city of Tobolsk (Tyumen Oblast). His father was a cantor in the synagogue and held services there.

The draft registration card of Irving Berlin indicates that he worked as a composer of music. Berlin's card also notes that he remained a citizen or subject of Russia at the time of registration.

When the would-be composer was five years old, the Beilin family moved to New York. The exact reasons for the move are not known, but it is likely that the family feared the Jewish pogroms that swept through the southwestern suburbs of the Russian Empire in the late 19th century. Irving's father died in 1901 and the boy had to give up his school studies to go to work. One of his sources of income was singing: on the street, in an amateur choir.

He wrote his first song for a cafe, in which he worked as a waiter, and received 37 cents for it. He decided to publish the song with this money and, due to a typing error, he became known as ‘Berlin’.

Having mastered the piano, Irving wrote several more songs, this time selling them for bigger fees.

In 1918, at the end of World War I, Irving obtained U.S. citizenship and went to serve in the army.

Irving Berlin circa 1944.

There, he wrote a number of patriotic songs, one of which is still considered the unofficial anthem of the United States: ‘God Bless America’. 

It shot to fame in 1938, when the composer came up with a new version and singer Kate Smith performed it. 

It can also be heard in the 1943 musical movie ‘This Is Army’, where one of the main roles was played by future U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

The song is still sung in the United States on national holidays.