Yiddish Glory Concert
By Clara Giorgis ‘21
This past week, Dickinson College had the honor of hosting Pavel Lion and Anna Shternshis. This scholar and performer duo have worked together to produce the lecture-concert Yiddish Glory, which brings to life songs written by Ukrainian Jews during the Holocaust. These Yiddish songs, collected by the scholars Moisei Beregovsky and Ruvim Lerner in the years immediately following World War II, provide an eyewitness account of the pain and suffering of the war. For years, these songs remained in the archives of the Soviet Government and were brought to light only recently. Many of the songs lacked a melody and so, to bring them to life, Shternshis and Lion worked to blend popular melodies and themes of the time with these lyrics. The painstaking efforts taken to recreate these melodies and convey the emotions of these songs shines through in their Grammy Nominated performance Yiddish Glory, which was presented over YouTube for the Dickinson College community. In response to the present moment, this special performance highlighted the songs which addressed the diseases which swept through Ukraine during the war and included several world premieres. For more information about the Yiddish Gloryproject, see: www.yiddishglory.com.
