Dmitri Shostakovich in Yiddish
Dmitri Shostakovich in Yiddish
Our Internet portal is glad to announce the publication of unique materials dedicated to Dmitri Shostakovich’s vocal cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry”. Not being himself a Jew, this great composer considered Jewish folk music unique, had deep feelings towards it and believed that it echoed in the works of many great world composers. In 1948, during the darkest moments of Stalin’s terror against the Soviet Jewish intelligentsia, Shostakovich created a series of 11 music pieces based on folk lyrics originally published in Yiddish.
The visitors of our website have now the opportunity to become acquainted with the original collection of Yiddish folk songs by Yekhezkl Dobrushin and Avrom Yuditsky, which formed the basis of Shostakovich’s genious songs; with the book of the Israeli musicologist Joachim Braun, where the Yiddish original texts are reworked according to the melodies (the composer himself used Russian translations, which sound somewhat different from the originals); as well as with full music scores. Most importantly, our site offers a recording of these songs in their original language: Yiddish. It was made in 2000 in Moscow, performed by Eva Ben-Zvi, Elena Goubina and Nikolay Kurpe. Our newly created video of this performance is illustrated by art works of famous Jewish painters.
On March 23, 2023, the Babel bookstore in Jerusalem hosted a presentation of Velvl Chernin’s collection of short fantasy and science fiction stories, which the author himself had translated from Yiddish into Russian. The book was recently published by the St. Petersburg publishing house Jaromír Hladík Press.
On March 13, 2023, before St. Patrick’s Day, the Jewish Community Center of St. Petersburg hosted a lecture on connections and parallels between the Jewish and Irish culture by the writer and journalist Yoel Matveyev. A particular attention was paid to the development of the Yiddish and Irish language in the 21st century.
On March 8, 2023, the famous Israeli actress, radio host, singer and journalist Leah Shlanger passed away at the age of 91. Her Yiddish radio broadcasts were heard for many decades on the New York radio WEVD and the Israeli station Kol Yisrael. During the last years of her life, she published essays in the American Internet magazine Yiddish Branzhe.
The McGill–Queen’s University Press, a Canadian joint venture between McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, has published Dr. Rebecca Margolis’ book “Yiddish Lives On”. The author, formerly an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, is a professor and Pratt Foundation Chair of Jewish Civilisation at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University, Melbourne.