Bernstein’s and Pisar’s Kaddish at Carnegie Hall
Bernstein’s “Kaddish” Symphony, 1/29/2025, Credit: Fadi Kheir.
On January 29, 2025, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where hundreds of thousands of Yiddish speakers were murdered, Carnegie Hall presented Leonard Bernstein’s choral symphony Kaddish, with the libretto, “A Dialogue with God,” written by Samuel Pisar.
Samuel Pisar (1929 – 2015) was a Jewish Polish-American lawyer, writer and a Holocaust survivor who was sent to as many as six death camps: Majdanek, Bliżyn, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, and Dachau. He stated that the idea to write the libretto came from Bernstein who felt Pisar could bring a more authentic voice to the symphony than he could, not having gone through the Holocaust himself.
Samuel Pisar
Apart from the orchestra, choir and soloist soprano there is also the reader’s part in the symphony’s score; according to Pisar’s will, after his death only his family members would be allowed to perform it. The performance began by the former US secretary of state Antony Blinken who led his mother, Judith, and sister, Leah, on stage to introduce the concert. He shared the story of his late stepfather, Samuel Pisar, and spoke of the importance of remembrance and vigilance in fighting fasсism and antisemitism.
Leonard Bernstein
The performance played to a full house and received a lengthy standing ovation, attended by prominent members of the diplomatic community, as well as religious and civil society leaders.
Bernstein’s “Kaddish” Symphony, 1/29/2025
Photo credit: Fadi Kheir.