Early in 1919, he was commissioned by a Russian sextet called the Zimro Ensemble, which had just arrived in America from the Far East on a world tour sponsored by the Russian Zionist Organization. The members played the instruments in this work's instrumentation, and were led by their clarinetist Simeon Bellison, who was trained in Moscow and had been principal clarinettist of the Mariinsky Theatre from 1915. (Bellison would soon become principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.) They gave Prokofiev a notebook of Jewish folksongs, though the melodies Prokofiev chose have never been traced to any authentic sources.

Date of composition 1919 in New York, NY, United States
Premiered 1927, March 6th in Russia, Moscow
First published 1927 in Leipzig, Germany
Type Overture
Tonality C Minor
Catalogue Op. 34
Instruments Strings
Clarinet
Piano
Arrangements Sergei Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes, for orchestra, Op. 34bis
Autotranslations beta Sergueï Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes en do mineur, Op. 34
Sergej Sergeevič Prokof'ev: Overture on Hebrew Themes in do minore, Op. 34
Sergei Sergejewitsch Prokofjew: Overture on Hebrew Themes c-moll, Op. 34