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