Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus Sings Neil Diamond's "Coming to America"

The Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus began as a musical expression of the Jewish labor movement. It was founded in 1922 as the Freiheit Gezang Farein, an outgrowth of the leftist Morgen Freiheit Yiddish newspaper. 

In 1948, the Chorus changed its name to The Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus—likely to avoid scrutiny during the McCarthy era. Now that it's a century old, they changed the name again—to reflect the goals of learning, enjoying, and promoting the Yiddish language and Yiddish choral music.

The chorus is a multigenerational thirty-five-voice ensemble. They're students, professionals, and robust retirees, all in love with singing and committed to promoting Yiddish language and culture through beautiful four-part harmony.

Led by conductor Binyumen Schaechter, they perform each spring and fall at Merkin Concert Hall and most summers at the North American Jewish Choral Festival. They've also performed at Symphony Space, Carnegie Hall, Shea Stadium, West Point, Queens College, the World Trade Center site after 9/11, and places of worship throughout the New York metropolitan area.

Today we're sharing a video of the chorus singing Neil Diamond's "Zey kumen kin Amerike" ("They're Coming to America") as performed June 16, 2024 as the opening number of the concert on the theme of Jewish immigration, "From Varshe and Vilne to Vashington Heights," at the Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center in New York City. 

Binyumen Schaechter is the chorus conductor and Seth Weinstein is the pianist.

Enjoy!

Holiday Countdown: Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus Sings a High Holidays Medley

The Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus began as a musical expression of the Jewish labor movement. It was founded in 1922 as the Freiheit Gezang Farein, an outgrowth of the leftist Morgen Freiheit Yiddish newspaper. In 1948, the Chorus changed its name to The Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus—likely to avoid scrutiny during the McCarthy era. Now that it's a century old, they changed the name again—to reflect the goals of learning, enjoying, and promoting the Yiddish language and Yiddish choral music.

The chorus is a multigenerational thirty-five-voice ensemble. They're students, professionals, and robust retirees, all in love with singing and committed to promoting Yiddish language and culture through beautiful four-part harmony.

Led by conductor Binyumen Schaechter, they perform each spring and fall at Merkin Concert Hall and most summers at the North American Jewish Choral Festival. They've also performed at Symphony Space, Carnegie Hall, Shea Stadium, West Point, Queens College, the World Trade Center site after 9/11, and places of worship throughout the New York metropolitan area.

Today we're sharing a video of the chorus singing a medley of songs for Rosh Hashanah,  Sukkot, and Simchat Torah.

Enjoy!

The Great Yiddish Songs Revisited: A New and Fun Version of "Rumania Rumania"

The Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus is part of a modern Yiddish renaissance -- more than forty members strong, from students to retirees, a good number of whom speak or are learning Yiddish. 

Their repertoire spans a century -- exciting oratorios and operettas, labor anthems, folksongs, and popular tunes -- all in Yiddish. Committed to strengthening Yiddish as a living language, they have commissioned and premiered new Yiddish choral works by half a dozen composers.

In July we posted their Yiddish version of The Star Spangled Banner.  Today we're sharing their fun version of the Yiddish classic Rumania, Rumania, by Aaron Lebedeff. The musical arrangement is by Binyumen Schaechter, with his daughter Temma as soloist.

Schaechter is a member of a leading family in Yiddish language and cultural studies. His father, Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter, was an influential linguist of the Yiddish language, writing and editing many articles, magazines, journals, terminologies and textbooks in Yiddish and on Yiddish. His mother, Charlotte (Charne) Schaechter, spent much of her life as an accompanist to Yiddish singers. His aunt, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, was a Yiddish poet and songwriter and spiritual guide to many of the Klezmer musicians in the world today. 

Among his three sisters, Rukhl Schaechter is a journalist with the Yiddish Forward, and host of the on-line Yiddish cooking program, Est gezunterheyt! (we posted 24 episodes of this cooking program during the last 8 years); Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath is a Yiddish poet and editor, and she sings in the Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus; and sister Eydl Reznik teaches Yiddish among the ultra-Orthodox community in Tsfat, Israel. Schaechter and his sisters all speak only in Yiddish with their children, giving their parents 16 Yiddish-speaking grandchildren. Binyumen's cousin, Itzik Gottesman, was an editor of The Yiddish Forward and the Tsukunft, and is continuing his work as a scholar of Yiddish folklore. 

Enjoy! 

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