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!

Folksbiene Theatre Sings "This Land is Your Land" in Yiddish at Summerstage Festival in Central Park

Last Wednesday night New York's Central Park was filled with the sound of Yiddish song as the Grammy Award winning ensemble, The Klezmatics, was joined by an all star line up of Yiddish concert and theatre stars: Joanne Borts, Josh “Socalled” Dolgin, Cantor Magda Fishman, Avi Fox Rosen, Sarah Mina Gordon, Daniel Kahn, Elmore James, Lea Kalisch, Daniella Rabbani, Eleanor Reissa, Lorin Sklamberg and Special Guest Dudu Fisher.

The event was presented by Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage in collaboration with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

During the event, lyrics were projected on a giant screen, and made available on audience cellphones via QR codes, as the singers led the audience in an unprecedented community chorus, joyously celebrating our precious cultural legacy. The event included an unprecedented 4000-voice sing-along, celebrating the launch of YiddishSongs.org, home of The Yosl and Chana Mlotek Yiddish Song Collection.

Here is a video clip of the ensemble singing This Land is Your Land in Yiddish.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Lea Kalisch Sings a Yiddish Classic - "Oyfen Pripetshik"

Oyfen Pripetshik is a is a Yiddish song by M.M. Warshawsky (1848–1907). The song is about a rabbi teaching his young students the aleph-bet. By the end of the 19th century it was one of the most popular songs of the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, and as such it is a major musical memory of pre-Holocaust Europe. The song is still sung in Jewish kindergartens.

Here it is sung by Lea Kalisch, a multi-lingual and multi-disciplinary New York City based performer. Originally from Switzerland, Lea moved to NYC in 2014 to study at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. She earned a BFA in Musical Theater from The New School.

Lea has an insatiable curiosity for life and loves to use her vigorous enthusiasm to entertain and challenge audiences as much as herself.

Lea is a former professional figure-skater who always enjoyed ice-shows much more than competitions, and yet her art is her sport.

She is Jewish with all her heart and feels Latin with all her hips.

What is Swiss about her? She has an obsession for everything that contains chocolate and she ticks like a Swiss Swatch.

Lea is accompanied on guitar by Rabbi Tobias Divack Moss, a rabbi at Temple Israel of Minneapolis.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Tumbalalaika Around the World: Sharsheret WIZO Choir from Sao Paolo, Brazil

The Yiddish folk love song Tumbalalaika originated in Eastern Europe in the 19th century, but its exact origin is hard to pinpoint. 

That hasn't prevented it from being sung and played over and over, not only in places where Yiddish songs are sung, but just about everywhere in the world, in vocal and instrumental versions, in cabarets and in the movies.

Just as we have followed the songs Hava Nagila, Adon Olam, Hevenu Shalom Aleichem, and Abanibi as they took different forms as interpreted by a wide variety of singers, musicians, and dancers, we've been posting many interpretations of this universal courting and love song.
 
This version is performed by The Sharsheret WIZO Coral , a female choir which has been active since the 1980s, whose members are volunteers from WIZO São Paulo, a charity for women and children. They are amateur singers, but they have already recorded 6 CDs, with Jewish songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino, and Brazilian songs, in Portuguese and some translated into Hebrew.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Tumbalalaika Around the World - In a Mexican Cafe

The Yiddish folk love song Tumbalalaika originated in Eastern Europe in the 19th century, but its exact origin is hard to pinpoint. 

That hasn't prevented it from being sung and played over and over, not only in places where Yiddish songs are sung, but just about everywhere in the world, in vocal and instrumental versions, in cabarets and in the movies.

Just as we have followed the songs Hava Nagila, Adon Olam, Hevenu Shalom Aleichem, and Abanibi as they took different forms as interpreted by a wide variety of singers, musicians, and dancers, we're continuing this series that we started in 2012 that will bring you many interpretations of this universal courting and love song.  We'll post other versions from time to time.

 This version was recorded by the instrumental group Trio Nu in the Idish Cafe in Mexico. Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.) 

 

Thousands Brave Weather in Central Park to See Yiddish Soul Concert

Photo by Shimon Gifter - VINnews.com

Thousands of concertgoers braved threatening skies to attend a lively concert of all types of Jewish music at Summerstage in Central Park on Monday night. 

The show was one of the 100 events that are taking over Manhattan all this week to celebrate KulturfestNYC, the 100th anniversary of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene.

As the Vos Iz Neias website reported yesterday,

While the notion of Yiddish music and chazanus might seem to appeal only to the older set, concert goers of all ages were swept up by the music during the program, which ran over two and a half hours and was hosted by radio personality Nachum Segal.  Even the attire of the performers, from Malovany’s white dinner jacket to Schmeltzer’s white derby and colorful bow tie, seemed to echo the message of the night:  that Jewish music is alive and well with something to appeal to everyone.

Having five of Jewish music’s top performers taking the stage in the midst of the most visited urban park in the city and one of the most filmed locations in the world seemed surreal for some.

“Chazzanut in a park? Impossible,” said Chazan Yanky Lemmer. “Yiddish to young teenagers from across a wide spectrum of backgrounds? Impossible. Well that’s exactly what happened and from the reactions we know it was effective. Towards the end, the crowd was on fire! The blend of the two and the way the program kept escalating was superb.”

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

KulturfestNYC Opening Night Sets Tone for Week of 100 Jewish Cultural Events

Last Sunday evening more than a thousand people assembled in the Winter Garden atrium in the upscale shopping mall at Brookfield Place upscale in lower Manhattan for the opening concert of KulturfestNYC.

The two hour concert featured appearances by many of the stars of the Yiddish stage and films as a preview of the 100 events that are being performed this week up and down Manhattan to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene.

As Seth Rogovoy wrote in The Forward,

The event was held at at Brookfield Place, and if you’ve never seen a concert there, don’t feel the need to rectify the omission, because it’s actually a shopping mall atrium. Nevertheless, every seat was occupied, every inch of staircase was taken up by concertgoers, and the rest were left standing on the sidelines or hanging over the railings of the balcony level of retail stores.

The concert – functioning as a sampler or smorgasbord of all the musical artists who will be performing in the festival through next Sunday – included the obligatory rendition of “Rumenye”; a nod to the tradition historically embodied by Paul Robeson of African-Americans singing Yiddish through a lens of spirituals, here delivered by Elmore James; and a set-closing appearance by pop legend Neil Sedaka, who accompanied himself solo on the Steinway Grand with a poignant rendition of “My Yidishe Mame.”

We were among those hanging over the railings and managed to video a portion of the concert to share with you. Here's a clip of Bernard Hiller singing Rumania Rumania.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

Tumbalalaika Around the World: Mike Burstyn's Yiddish Lesson

In November 2012 we started a series tracking the Yiddish song Tumbalalalaika around the world, sharing versions performed in Amsterdam, Milan, Russia, and Belarus.

In 2009 Yiddish actor and singer Mike Burstyn performed the song at Kehilath Israel Synagogue in Overland Park, Kan. 

The concert was one of a series of events celebrating the traditional synagogue's 100th anniversary. Burstyn presented the song in the form of a Yiddish lesson, by translating the song from Yiddish to English. Bur judging from the audience reaction, they didn't need much translation.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)