Anna Shternshis: Yiddish Glory

Interview with Anna Shternshis, Associate
Professor of Yiddish Studies at University of Toronto. The
interview is presented in memory of 12 August 1952, when
thirteen Jews were executed in Lubyanka Prison in Moscow,
five of them Yiddish writers Peretz Markish, Dovid Hofstein,
Itzik Feffer, Leib Kvitko, and Dovid Bergelson. Dr.
Shternshis was executive producer of the recently released CD
Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II, based on her
research on Moisei Beregovsky's archive, which the Soviet
authorities confiscated in 1947, arresting Beregovsky a short
time later. The Yiddish Glory CD contains songs written in
Yiddish by Jews in the Soviet Union during World War II. The
CD's songs have music thoughtfully composed by Shternshis's
collaborator Psoy Korolenko. There is a large ensemble of
talented musicians and singers on the CD. Key musical
personnel include Psoy Korolenko, composer and singer; Sophie
Milman, singer; and Sergei Erdenko, musical director,
violinist, and singer. The CD includes a booklet with high
quality English and Russian translations. Dr. Shternsis and
Psoy Korolenko have recently toured extensively in the past
year in support of the CD, bringing these once-lost songs to
an ever widening audience. For more information on the
Yiddish Glory CD:
https://www.sixdegreesrecords.com/yiddishglory/




Anna Shternshis is also author of two books, Soviet and
Kosher: Jewish Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1923 -
1939 (Indiana University Press, 2006) and When Sonia Met
Boris: an Oral History of Jewish Life under Stalin (Oxford
University Press, 2017).




The interview is conducted by Sholem Beinfeld, a regular
contributor to the Yiddish Voice, co-Editor in Chief of the
Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary, and Professor of
History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis. Dr.
Beinfeld served as principal consultant on the film
"Partisans of Vilna" (credited as Solon Beinfeld). He was
senior consultant and historian to the Kovno Ghetto
Exhibition project of the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum and consultant to the Museum on the Ghetto archive
holdings in the Lithuanian State Archives in Vilnius.




Songs from the CD Yiddish Glory:


Misha tserayst Hitlers Daytchland

Babi Yar

Yoshke fun Ades

Shpatsir in Vald

Afn Hoykhn Barg

Kazakhstan





Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental
track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz




Air Date: Aug 8 2018