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:
Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz
Air Date: Aug 8 2018
