האַנט אין קאַלטן וואַסער נישט אַרייַנגעטאָן‎

[sovay]

Until about fifteen minutes ago, I had no idea that anyone in the U.S. had performed or recorded any of Shraga Friedman's Fidler afn dakh prior to the NYTF in 2018, but "Ven ikh bin a Rotshild" is a really distinctive translation. Jan Peerce recorded it in 1967, along with versions of three other songs from the musical (the one that differs the most has די תורה instead of טראדיציע, which makes me really curious if there's a recording of the original 1965 Israeli production to compare with) and an assortment of Yiddish folk songs, including "Oy dortn, dortn." The latter is technically what we call a schmaltzy arrangement, but I don't care, because if an entire string section can't ruin that last verse of eyes like black cherries and lips like rose-colored paper and fingers like pen and ink—you must write often to me—either it's bulletproof or I don't want to find out what could. What I really can't figure out is how I missed discovering him at Brandeis. It's not like I didn't listen to his brother-in-law. His Yiddish is slightly Southern, which makes it sound familiar to me. [edit: I make an exception for a song from Vilna. That one's supposed to have all those weird vowels.] This encore medley of Fiddler, in English, from a live concert with Roberta Peters in 1976, is adorable.

Comments

[selkie]

I'm a bit woo by all accounts, but ever looked at photos of Riga before the Communists?

[cmcmck]

I have- including stuff under the Nazis which was disturbing the say the least.

We were supposed to be visiting last year so I could try to make connections with the missing family links but of course it never happened.

[selkie]

Yeah, Ghetto Riga was... somehow even more of an enormously dehumanizing mess, because it was weirdly tiny in relation to the city and, after 1941, almost everyone in it had been displaced from Germany and didn't even speak the language.

(Oof. I grew up with Holocaust knowledge/imagery at saturation point from a very early age, but it's been hitting harder lately, given world things.)

[cmcmck]

I can imagine.

I am not myself Jewish, although my maternal great grandmother was (and yes, with that ancestry, I've heard the comment: 'so if you want to be Jewish, you're Jewish').

Knowing you have family connections to the Sho'ah can be so hard for anyone, but knowing it without anyone to talk to about it is sometimes painful.

It makes me glad to know Jewish folks on here.

[selkie]

Gawd, you can always talk to me about it! I may as well use my hyperspecializations for something good like giving someone a sounding board/venting space. (I am really a better example of second-gen than third-gen Holocaust trauma relational stuff, because I was socialized by my grandparents as a sort of late-life-whoops child of theirs.)

Also, yes, you can and could be Jewish. Let me know if you want to come to Shabbat! Inviting people to come to Shabbat is my full-time real talk day job and actually, I love it. And everything is virtual now and BST means it's an hour earlier than inviting you in the winter.

Edit: sovay I would like one gold herring, Sorele, for stomping the professional impulse to say "We were all at Sinai!"

[sovay]

sovay I would like one gold herring, Sorele, for stomping the professional impulse to say "We were all at Sinai!"

*herring burnished, plated, served*

[cmcmck]

I was brought up Anglican but became a Quaker Universalist in my late teens courtesy of a gay, Jewish Quaker (see my response to _sovay_ below) and that opened my eyes wide to the fact that you can be whoever you wish to be. Given my life experience, that has been no bad thing! :o)

I may well take you up on talking about it.

[selkie]

Any time! Standard disclaimer: belief in God not a requirement for entry and indeed monotheism is between you and god[s] in question. russetblack at gmail dot com!

(The email address is S' fault and I love it very much.)

[sovay]

Also, yes, you can and could be Jewish.

You should listen to selkie. It is literally her job.

[cmcmck]

It sounds like a good job to have.

Funnily enough, I was taught by Harvey Gillman as a teen and he had quite an influence on me.

There can't be so very many gay, Jewish, Quaker Universalists out there.

It's his fault that I ended up a poet and Quaker Universalist! :o)