BENTE KAHAN - Sing with Us in Yiddish - Children singing pearls of Yiddish folksongs
Description
1. Mir zaynen ale brider / All Brothers / Voja, Bente and choir 2:45
2. N’az der rebe lakht / When The Rabbi Laughs / Voja and choir 3:49
3. Yome, Yome Ola and Kaja 2:05
4. Saposhkelekh / Shoes / Voja and choir 2:45
5. Papirosn / Cigarettes / Voja 3:14
6. Oyfn pripetshik / In The Fireplace / Kaja and choir 2:58
7. Rebe Elimeylekh / Rabbi Elimelekh / Emilia, Bente and choir 3:05
8. Tumbalalayke Ola and Kaja 2:59
9. Belz Bente, Emilia and choir 3:35
10. Dos lidl fun goldenem land / The Song Of A Golden Land / Julia and Voja 2:22
11. Dire gelt / Money For The Rent / Emilia, Voja, Julia and choir 2:10
12. Mame, kum tsurik / Mommy, come back / Voja and choir 2:11
13. Oy vey rebenyu Voja, Bente and choir 3:46
14. Nign Voja, Kaja, Bente and choir 2:14
Arrangements - Bente Kahan
Vocals:
Voja Kahan Gleichgewicht
Emilia Borowik
Aleksandra Cyran
Kaja Gańcza
Julia Nędzyńska
Olaf Stando
Bente Kahan
Chudoba :
Barbara Ulatowska - violin
Robert Ruszczak - accordion
Jacek Ryszewski - guitar, double bass (10)
Janusz Wawrzała - drums
Piotr Florczyk -double bass
Recorded at "Echo" Studio, Św. Katarzyna, January 22 & 23, 2005
Sound engineer and mix - Robert Szydło
editor: tylkomuzyka.pl 2005
cat. no : TCD 011
All musical scores and the Yiddish lyrics in the Hebrew alphabet may be printed from the CD. The booklet includes YIVO and Polish transliterations of Yiddish lyrics, as well as translations into Polish and English.
In memory of Ester Kahan, our beloved Mother and Grandmother who would have been the first to sing with us - in Yiddish.
Ester Kahan, my dear Mame and Voja’s unforgettable Bobbe, passed away on the 27th of March, 2004. Sadly, she did not live long enough to enjoy this CD on which you hear songs which belong to my childhood, some of them sung by her to me when I was a child, and later by me to Voja. It is therefore natural for us to dedicate this CD to her - the woman who loved life; who taught us to be proud of our heritage and enthusiastic about sharing it with others.
...
It all started in Norway in the year 2000. The CD HOME, on which my father is a guest performer, had just been recorded, and Voja, who was six years old at the time, asked her Mom, “Why can’t you do a CD with me? I would like to sing the Yiddish songs too.”
And that’s how this project was born.
In 2001, our family moved to my husband’s home town, Wroclaw, Poland. Voja started at the Lauder Etz Chaim School where Jewish culture and tradition are part of the curriculum. Lucyna Rojzen, the principal, was delighted at my idea to teach the pupils to sing in Yiddish. With the assistance of a teacher at the school, Małgorzata Rzempołuch, soon the entire school knew my favorite Yiddish songs. The concert premiered at the White Stork Synagogue on June 15, 2003, during “Simcha”, Wroclaw’s Jewish Festival.
In the fall of the same year, the Polish – Jewish monthly MIDRASZ invited me to give a concert at the Warsaw synagogue. Instead of coming alone, I brought along Voja and her friends from Lauder Etz Chaim, who on the following day performed at the Lauder Morasha School in Warsaw. After listening to the recording of the children concert at the Wroclaw Vysehrad Festival of the same year, I was convinced that this was Voja’s dream CD - project. It was just a matter of time.
The release of the CD coincides with the opening of Wroclaw’s Center for Jewish Culture and Education located at the White Stork Synagogue. It is my hope that this CD, on which you hear the young, promising voices of the future, will promote the new center and its goals.
The recording is my way of extending to the listener an invitation to sing with us songs that constitute a treasure chest of Ashkenazi Jewish tradition; genuine pearls of Yiddish culture. Perhaps, after singing along, young people of today will ask their teachers:
“What language is this”? “Who spoke this language”? “What was their history?” “Why are they no longer among us?”
Bente Kahan