Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 20, 2024

Pittsburghers soon will get to experience an award-winning cross-pollination of Yiddish music with testimonies from women who survived the Holocaust.

To mark Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Rodef Shalom Congregation will host on May 5 the Pittsburgh premiere of Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango, whose music in 2023 hit No. 1 the first Yiddish-language album ever to do that on World Music Charts Europe.

The testimonies come from a poetry project launched at a Jewish retirement home and deal with themes of long-term trauma, sexual violence and more, said Dan Rosenberg, the former Pittsburgh-based journalist and producer bringing the show to his old hometown.

Get The Jewish Chronicle Weekly Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

The show is composed by Rebekah Wolkstein and performed by the musical group Payadora Tango. In addition to the poetry, it includes several works based on Holocaust survivor Molly Applebaums memoir, Buried Words, Rosenberg said. During part of World War II, Applebaum, now 93 and living in Toronto, was buried in a box underground at a farm outside Krakow, and forced to live among filth, insects and darkness.

Its been quite an experience sharing her story, Rosenberg said. Every single person, this is a light that was lost and a life that was shattered.

The producer said the shows inspiring songs about survival and mournful laments convey an intense emotional depth.

Rosenberg who helped stage concerts for the Grammy-nominated 2016 project Yiddish Glory: Lost Songs of World War II moved to Pittsburgh at age 11 in 1978 and became a bar mitzvah two years later at Congregation Poale Zedeck.

(He also arrived in what he called a sports paradise, catching the Pittsburgh Pirates play in a 1979 World Series game at Three Rivers Stadium. Tickets cost $10 apiece.)

Rosenberg said he later attended college at the University of Michigan and then relocated to Canada.

Silent Tears has taken Rosenberg, as a producer, around the world. Its been staged, among other places, in Australia, Brazil and throughout Europe. And he plans to take the show to Asia.

Weve had an amazing experience presenting this, Rosenberg said. And weve been lucky enough to present it all over.

Rodef Shalom Cantor Toby Glaser, an Australian who moved to Pittsburgh in July, said the first musical performance staged during his tenure at the Fifth Avenue synagogue is central to his work there.

On a professional level, its important to uplift voices of the Shoah we havent heard before, Glaser said. Its heavy material but I think theres something powerful about holding things in a new light.

The show has drawn critical praise.

Earlier this year, the Canadian Folk Music Awards honored Rosenberg and co-producer Drew Jurecka as producers of the year.

Its been quite remarkable to see both their stories being told and the musicians being honored for their word, he said. Hopefully, we can learn from these stories about the horrific consequences of bigotry and antisemitism.

The show will be presented by Rodef Shalom in partnership with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and Classrooms Without Borders.

Reservations are required. The show is free for Rodef Shalom and Temple Sinai members. Tickets for the public cost $18. PJC

Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

Read the original:

'The Last Yiddish Tango' blends music with testimonies of Holocaust survivors - thejewishchronicle.net

Category: Holocaust
Tags: