Du Shtetl à New York

I’ve just bought the most wonderful CD – ‘Du Shtetl à New York’ with the Sirba Quartet and Isabelle Georges… see http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JAvH88zFJP0

and... http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KuipfheDSnk

From the shtetl to New York, 'Rozhinkes mit Mandlen' to 'Funny Valentine', from Yiddish theatre to Broadway musical, from klezmer to ragtime...

Between the end of the 19th century and the second world war, approximately 600,000 jews fled their homeland from the pogroms of Eastern Europe. Adults and children left their shtetls for the land of milk and honey. Once on Ellis Island and Castle Garden, before placing a toe on American soil, they were inspected and those without friends or family, no letters of employment or recommendation and without money were sent to Ward’s Island. Here they were placed in hospitals and asylums. Some were employed on the spot, but the majority just had to wait. Those who passed the physical examinations successfully were allowed to board a barge bound for Manhattan Island. The long journey was at its end, the progroms and persecutions, the terror and the poverty at last behind them. Ahead…what lay ahead? The streets of America paved with gold and opportunity!

Even though they were used to poverty, the first generation of immigrants found it very hard to adapt to the American lifestyle. In the shtetl, social structure was based on education. There in America, it was based on money. 90% of Russian jews settled on Lower Side. The houses were in a pitiful state, the apartments overcrowded, the streets dirty and dangerous. However, if the neighbourhood was disagreeable, its geographical situation put them right in the heart of city industry. The first generation of these jewish immigrants worked their fingers to the bone in sweatshops generally found in basements without windows or ventilation. Adults and children worked 6 days a week, 12-16 hours a day and received salaries of between 50 cents and $1.50 a week.

On the continent, life had been completely different. On this strange planet where the language was totally unknown,  Yiddish became the tongue of these jews from eastern Europe. It was the language of the street, the boutiques, the factory, the home and the synagogue. Newspapers, magazines and books were all published in Yiddish.

The Yiddish theatre performed satire plays on the  immigrants' way of life, their hopes and ambitions. All the immigrant jews young and old, workers and bosses, both rich and poor found a way of forgetting the hardships of every day life. So wealthy in the culture of their origins, many of these immigrants went on to transform the face of America through artistry and creativity. They were set to build their American dream - that of an ideal community in which everyone had the right to hope and furthermore, succeed.

They expressed their hopes for the future on the pages of their musical scores and on the stages of their theatres, some of them becoming huge hits through musicals and jazz. The heroes of this incredible journey both human and musical included Israel Isidore Beilin (Irving Berlin), Jacob and Israel Gershowitz (George and Ira Gershwin), Rogazinsky (Richard Rodgers), Asa Yoelson (Al Jolson), Sonia Kalish (Sophie Tucker)…

This CD is a perfectly integrated blend of Broadway and Yiddish music. 'Bei Mir Bist du Scheyn' (you can hear it if you click on the first link above) meaning 'To Me, You're Beautiful' was written in 1932 as an original music hall number. As the story goes, the composer abandonned his rights for $30 to Kammen the editor before the Andrew Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald or Judy Garland made the theme unforgettable. Oops!

Ivan Levaï on Isabelle Georges: 'to me, she is beautiful. Beautiful when she sings, beautiful when she dances. Beautiful when she brings together the different emblems of the arts, threading her way from French to English to Yiddish, and travelling from the shtetl to the lights of Broadway. From the shtetl to New York.'

That said, what are you doing still sitting there?! Go buy it!