Original: Holiday was recording for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to '' Strange Fruit '' , a song based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol , a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx .
Simplified: She heard of a song called '' Strange Fruit '' . It was based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol , a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx .