As of Me and of Mine began in a second-hand book sale in Tel Aviv, where, browsing through dusty boxes, I found a book of "120 Chassidic Melodies". This slim collection, published presumably in 1947, was assembled by Joachim Stutchewsky (1891-1982), a Ukraine-born Israeli cellist, composer, and musicologist, and includes his transcriptions of the Nigunim (melodies) of various eastern European Jewish communities. Later at home, leafing through book, I realized to my surprise that I did not know any of the melodies in the book. And yet, the loose, recitative-like improvisatory melodic contours and dancing rhythms seemed uncannily familiar to me and reminded me of much of the Jewish and Israeli music I know and love. May I claim these unknown-yetfamiliar melodies as my own, I wondered? As of Me and of Mine is my response to this question.