At the height of the Second World War, a team of Soviet ethnomusicologists embarked on a seemingly quixotic labor: collecting recently written songs addressing the Holocaust. Lost until the early 1990s, the songs were rediscovered and recorded with an ensemble of recognized soloists. Thanks to the painstaking labor of Anna Shternshis and the talent of Psoy Korolenko, audiences worldwide can now enjoy and reflect upon this treasure trove of songs that offer a precious glimpse into an unfolding tragedy and the artistic reaction to it. Shternshis is the Al and Malka Green Professor of Yiddish and Diaspora Studies at the University of Toronto and the author of, most recently, When Sonia Met Boris: An Oral History of Jewish Life under Stalin (Oxford University Press, 2017). Psoy Korolenko is a prominent songwriter and singer and a philologist and critic who holds a Ph.D. in Russian literature. In 2018 their joint project Yiddish Glory was nominated for a Grammy.
Sponsor: Holocaust Living History Workshop at UC San Diego