Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation Invites the Community to Last Yiddish Heroes: Lost and Found Songs of Soviet Jews during World War II

The Champaign-Urbana community is invited to take part in a unique event featuring the music of Soviet Jews during World War II.

The free event will take place virtually online on Thursday, July 2 at 7:30 pm. Registration info is below.

In 2018, Yiddish Professor Anna Shternshis and a group of passionate musicians brought back to life Yiddish songs from the World War II that were thought to be lost.

Written by Jewish Red Army soldiers and victims of Ukrainian ghettos, and lost during Stalin’s anti-Jewish purge, this program will address how these songs were found, are how they are relevant today.

Musicologist Moisei Beregovsky collected songs written by Jews in Soviet Union during the Holocaust, which were confiscated and hidden by the Soviet government in 1949.

These songs tell the stories of how Soviet Jews lived and died as a result of the German occupation and Nazi atrocities, fought in the Red Army, worked in the home front, and used Yiddish music to find solace and make sense of it all.  These songs remained lost until Shternshis found them quite accidentally in the basement of the Ukrainian National Library in the 1990’s.

Together with Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Psoy Korolenko (Moscow – New York) professor Shternshis (University of Toronto) produced and directed the Grammy nominated CD Yiddish Glory, bringing back to life these long lost songs. 

Shternshis and singer-songwriter Psoy Korolenko will present a lecture-concert telling this story which has been featured in radio, TV and printed media in over 50 countries.  

The Champaign-Urbana community will not only get a chance to hear songs featured in their past lecture-concert programs, but also some world premiere pieces.

The program should last between 60-75 minutes and will be immediately followed by a 30- to 45-minute Q&A session.

This event is free. Please register to get access information to this online event: https://cujf.org/events/last-yiddish-heroes-registration-form