Month Year Vol.:No. (Issue) Page(s) Title00. March 1978 32:3 (350) p23 "Tales of Malamud" as Opera - by Morris U. Schappes
01. April 1981 35:4 (384) pp16-19, 31 Hannah--A Jewish Feminist Opera
At U.S. Military Theater in Heidelberg02. March 1984 38:3 (416) pp5-6 Tevye in Berlin - East and West
03. June 1985 40:6 (429) pp17-18 Jewish Music Theatre in Berlin
04. December 1985 39:11 (433) p41 Remembering Martha Schlamme
05. October 1986 40:9 (442) pp28-29, 32 A New Jewish Opera
06. November 1986 40:10 (443) pp18-19 Berlin's Juedischer Musiktheaterverein Continues Its Work
07. April 1987 41:4 (448) p38 E.G.: Scenes from the Life of Emma Goldman
08. September 1987 41:8 (452) pp26-27 Red Emma, Red Rosa [excerpt] - by Carol Jochnowitz
09. March 1988 42:3 (458) p21 Our Jewish Currents Concert - by Morris U. Schappes
10. January 1989 43:1 (467) p19 Song and Dance at Our Concert -[excerpt] by Morris U. Schappes
11. March 1990 44:3 (480) p16-18 Marc Blitzstein Portrayed - by Herbert Haufrecht
12. May 1990 44:5 (482) pp29-31 BOOK REVIEWS: The Legacy of Emma Goldman - Fifty Years Later
13. December 1990 44:11 p54 (488) Tribute to Leonard Bernstein
with (subsequent) letter from and reply to Eric Gordon, April 1991 45:43 [sic] (492) p36-3714. February 1991 45:2 (490) p35 BOOK NOTES: Fighting Faiths:
The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court and Free Speech, by Richard Polenberg15. July-August 2003 57:4 (619) pp26-27 The Abel Meeropol Centennial
16. November-December 2003 57:6 (621) pp23-24 "Shir L'Shalom"
--Reclaiming a Secular Jewish Anthem17. January-February 2007 61:1 (640) pp36-37 Coming to Terms with Kathy Boudin
REVIEWED IN THIS ESSAY: Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left by Susan Braudy18. ? 2004 58:? Opera Review: Florida Inaugurates January as Jewish History Month
With Goldfaden's "Sulamith" Adapted by Ede Don‡th18A. Online [also printed] Comment on Roe v. Wade, Jan. 22, 2010:
"Fifty-seven years earlier, in 1916, after Margaret Sanger jumped bail,
Emma Goldman lectured on
"The Right of the Child Not to Be Born," was arrested, convicted,
and spent 2 weeks in Queens County Jail.
Bill Baird also went to prison numerous times, fighting for that right, thru 1972."18B. Online Comment on Leo Szilard, Feb. 12, 2010:
"Szilard's 1961 book of short stories, Voice of the Dolphins, is quite brilliant,
and highly recommended."18C. Online Comment on Mark Kingdon, Feb. 17, 2010:
"Feb. 18, 1949 is the birthday of Mark Kingdon, founder of the hedge
fund Kingdon Capital, and a funder of many important educational
projects throughout the world, esp. the Middle East. He was also the
co-writer of my first musical, The Comic Tragedy of San Po Jo, a
satire on US imperialism and atomic testing, which premiered at Roslyn
Junior High School in 1963. Forty-seven years later, classmates still
remembered and sang numbers from that show! Most memorable line:
'Beautiful singing, my people! Keep it up and you won't be
investigated by the Un-San Po Joan Activities Committee!'"18D. Online Comment [by NSL] on Schatz & Streptomycin, Feb. 21, 2010:
"Dr. Schatz's first name was Albert, not Alfred, and he did the work on
isolating streptomycin for which Waksman was given the credit.
Hence Schatz's successful suit against Waksman. Schatz died a few years ago
but his widow, Vivian, is still alive and lives in Philadelphia. If you'd like her address,
I can dig it up. - NSL"
Correction acknowledged by Larry Bush, Feb. 22, 2010:
"Typo alert: It was Albert (not Alfred) Schatz who isolated streptomycin
while working as Dr. Selman Waksman's student."18E. Online Correction to article on Danny Kaye, Mar. 3, 2010:
"'The chalice with, not from, the palace.'
Also 'the flagon with the dragon...' :>)
In Danny Kaye's Broadway debut he sang Ira Gershwin's "Tchaikovsky,"
a rhymed list of Russian composers set to music by Kurt Weill in LADY IN THE DARK.
'... Rachmaninoff ... Gretchaninoff
I really have to stop because you all have undergone enough!'"18F. Online Comment on Sol Hurok, Mar. 5, 2010:
"Funniest take I ever heard 'n Sol Hurok:
The Limelighters' version of "Tziganiki':
'I had a wife. She was a swinging chick
'Til on me they played a lousy trick.
Ah, we were happy. We were happy then
In our pad with Bartok and with Zen.
Then one day, one sad and fateful day
I took her to the Moiseyev Ballet - Hey!
That Russian kick has ruined my chick for me,
Victimized by Sol Hurokracy!
I played a tape of this song for Martha Schlamme - she was in hysterics -
during a car ride I took with her down to see my 1981 musical Growing Up Woman
(written with Clarke and Barbara Tumarkin Dunham) at Glassboro State College.
Martha had read my (first) article in Jewish Currents - on my opera, Hannah
and called my parents, wanting to meet me.
I happened to be in town, visiting from Europe, and invited her to come to the show.
Later she directed a student concert version of my translation of the
Brecht-Eisler Die Rundkoepfe und die Spitzkoepfe at Aspen.
People still write me about her, having found my Aufbau article on her through Google.18G. Online Comment on Rosenbergs, Mar. 6, 2010:
Dear Larry,
I forwarded your squib on the Rosenbergs today to everyone on the
board of the NCRRC. Dave Alman wrote me that he sent you a lengthy
response, but neglected to add details about the forthcoming June 17
memorial meeting, and asked me to send them to you as an addendum:
On Thursday, June 17, 2010 7-9pm the NCRRC will hold its annual
memorial meeting, this year for the first time at Musicians' Local 802,
322 West 48th Street in Manhattan. Speakers will include
David Alman and Miriam Moskowitz. Helene Williams and members of
The Metropolitan Philharmonic Chorus will perform words and music by
Edith Segal, Abel Meeropol, Earl Robinson (in honor of his centennial this year),
and a new choral piece from the opera-in-progress, Alger
by Leonard Lehrman & Kim Rich, along with an excerpt from
E.G.: A Musical\ Portrait of Emma Goldman, in memory of Howard Zinn (1922-2010).18H. Online Comment on Jews and Civil Rights, Apr. 2, 2010:
"For a searing commentary on the relationship between Jews and the
struggle for civil rights, don't fail to catch The Scottsboro Boys,
running at the Vineyard Theater thru 4/18.18I. Exchange with Larry Bush re Leo Baeck, May 22, 2010:
"We Jews are, as it were, the sons of the revolution, the daughters of
the revolution. We should be aware of it." -Leo Baeck, 1949
I'm curious to know your thoughts on this, Larry:
Which revolution do you think Leo Baeck was referring to in 1949? - LJL
I think he meant "the revolution" as an ideal hearkening back to Israel in Egypt. - LDB18J. Online Comment on Jerome Robbins and Fiddler on the Roof!, Sep. 22, 2010:
Larry, Robbins was not just the choreographer of Fiddler.
He was the director, and the whole concept was his: he made [Joseph] Stein rewrite the book (not the
screenplay; that came later) many, many times. My favorite story about the show is one
which lyricist Sheldon Harnick has told repeatedly: At the Japanese premiere, in
Japanese, he was asked: "How did you know so much about the Japanese family!?"
Harnick has also stated that many of the songs in the show had their melodies written
first, with words afterwards, in the creative style of Rodgers & Hart rather than Rodgers & Hammerstein.
And several of those songs were dropped, but have achieved a cabaret life of their own:
"The Richest Man in Town," "Any Day Now," and "When Messiah Comes" -
the latter related, perhaps, to (y)our "When Moshiach Comes"!
I remember everyone saying around its opening that it had to be a success, or what else
could be sung at Jewish weddings? - since the klezmer and Yiddish theatre traditions
were beginning to be considered moribund.
Best -
Leonard J. Lehrman
(first Jew to conduct FIDDLER in Berlin, at Theater des Westens, 1983;
composer of "When Moshiach Comes" :>)
P.S. Please see, also, my article in the March 1984 Jewish Currents:
"Tevye in Berlin - East and West" posted at
http://www.LeonardJLehrman.com/articles/jewishcurrents2.html.18K. Online Comment on Luis De Torres, Columbus' converso interpreter, Oct. 12, 2010:
LDB: "Since Columbus believed he had arrived in Asia and expected to encounter
descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, it is very possible that theÊfirst words
addressed to the natives of Hispaniola by Europeans were spoken in Hebrew."
LJL: "Composer & Co-Librettist (with Joel Shatzky) of "New World: An Opera About What Columbus Did to the 'Indians,'" commissioned by TheÊPuffin Foundation, in which De Torres
greets the Tainos with the word: "Shalom!" and becomes convinced he's found
the Ten Lost Tribes. Columbus, on the other hand, offers them "eternal life,"
to which they respond: 'What does that mean?'"
Please see http://www.LeonardJLehrman.com/NewWorld.html.18L. Online Comment on Elie Siegmeister, Jan. 14, 2011:
LJL: Tomorrow, Jan. 15, is the 102nd birthday of Elie Siegmeister,Ê
composer of important works of both Jewish interestÊ
(the Malamud operas Lady of the Lake and Angel Levine
and social consciousness (the cantata I Have a Dream
and songs like "The Scottsboro Boys Shall Not Die" and
settings of Mike Gold's "Strange Funeral in Braddock"
and Langston Hughes' "The Face of War").
Will he, I hope, mention a Jewdayo mention?
Will you want more information?
Please see www.LeonardJLehrman.com/ElieSiegmeisterSociety.html.
LDB: Sorry, Leonard, it's Stanley Levison, MLK Jr.'s key aide, for MLK Jr's birthday
but I'll put Elie Siegmeister into the hopper, thanks, for future editions!18M. Online Comment on Gertrude Stein, Feb. 2, 2011:
How DID Stein manage to remain, even though she was Jewish?
Did the Nazis somehow not know that?18N. March 8, 2011 Online Comment on Jewdayo entry for Marc Blitzstein
18O. Online Comment Re Aviva Cantor on the Book of Esther, Mar. 6, 2012:
I remember playing Mordecai in a 1950s Sholem Aleichem Folkschule Purimspiel.
While researching my opera Hannah (written up in Jewish Currents in 1981), about the sister
of the Maccabees, I discovered that scholars have found the book of Esther to be not
only derived from the legends of Ishtar and Marduk, but also to be Maccabean
propaganda, urging Jews to feel empowered to take up arms to defend themselves,
even on the Sabbath.
Max Dimont's "Jews, God, and History" is very enlightening on this.
My personal distaste for the Esther story, though, derives from the merciless killing not only of
Haman but of all his sons. In Charlie Kondek's libretto for Hugo Weisgall's opera on the
subject, at least she has some ruminative after-the-fact thoughts about it.
I love reading Aviva Cantor, and have always found her - and Lilith - inspiring. Readers who
would like to see the 1995 video of my play "Adam & Lilith & Eve" should write me
at ljlehrmandma@gmail.com18P. Online Comment Re Civil Rights [Fair Housing] Act of 1968, Apr. 10, 2012:
In 1999, when we bought our house in Valley Stream,
we considered trying to buy one in Rosedale, where prices seem to be lower.
Agents told us they had not sold anything in Rosedale to white people in decades,
and did not think we'd be happy there.
All best - Leonard (& Helene) Lehrman18Q. Online Comment on Studs Terkel, May 15, 2012:
In November 1991, Studs Terkel taped and broadcast on WFMT in Chicago an interview with
Helene Williams and me on Emma Goldman and the musical we had performed for
Jewish Currents in 1987. We did excerpts from the show for him, and interviewed HIM
on a major character in it, Ben Reitman, Emma's manager and lover from 1908 to 1917,
whom Studs had heard speak, and told us about.
It was quite an experience, learning from and being a part of history.18R. Comment on "The Great Society" and Doris Kearns, May 21, 2012:
Doris Kearns (Goodwin) is also not Jewish.
She was, BTW, a tutor in Dunster House at Harvard my senior year,
the first year that women lived in that house (officially).
She instituted the practice of coming to breakfast in bathrobe and slippers,
which many of us imitated, and which engendered many spirited historical and political discussions,
which both she and I have fondly remembered, a number of times we've seen each other since. :>)19. May 23, 2012 (posted online at http://jewishcurrents.org/leonard-lehrman-malamud-and-music/) Malamud and Music
19A. Online Comment on Sacco amd Vanzetti, May 30, 2012:
It is absolutely not true that "Whether Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent or guilty has never been
thoroughly established."ÊÊThey were not guilty of the crimes of murder and robbery for which they were
convicted. Herbert Ehrmann found the guilty parties, professional thieves, and showed their
photos to witnesses who had mistakenly identified the defendants, and recanted their testimony,
but were never able to do so at a new trial, as it was never granted by the original judge, who had
the only jurisdiction. (Subsequent legislation would change that, but could not do so
retroactively.) In July, 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis exonerated Nicolo Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti.ÊÊHe did not "pardon" them because, he told me in a phone conversation on
June 19, 2001, "that would have meant they were guilty, and they were not."
There are three operatic treatments of the story of Sacco and Vanzetti.
Two of them, one by Anton Coppola in Italian & English, and one by a Belgian team in Flemish,
emphasize the defendants' persecution as Italians, but leave open the question of whether they
were innocent or not.ÊÊThe third one, conceived by Marc Blitzstein and completed by me, asserts
their innocence, based on Blitzstein's meetings with Ehrmann and my conversation with Dukakis,
who appears at the end of (my completion of) the opera (approved by the Blitzstein Estate),
reading his statement of exoneration.
The whole thing is on YouTube; links to the 17 segments can be found at
www.LeonardJLehrman.com/SaccoAndVanzetti.html.19B. Comments by Leonard J. Lehrman on Barnett Zumoff's article,
"Some Thoughts about Translating Yiddish Poetry into English"
May 30, 2012 + June 14, 2012 Correspondence with Larry Bush:
Translating poetry is an art in itself, especially when music is involved.
It's a shame the late Aaron Kramer,
who wrote quite a bit for Jewish Currents, is no longer alive.
I think he would have appreciated Barnett Zumoff's article,
and efforts, as much as I did.
Kramer's English translations from the Yiddish ranged from fair to
pretty good. One of his best, I think, was "I Saw A Swallow In Its
Flight," a translation of a Yiddish poem by Dora Teitelboim that was
set to music by the Israeli composer Mordecai Yardeini in 1962.
This coming Saturday, June 2, 2012, at 2:30pm, Teitelboim's niece
Lee Weintraub will read the original poem in Yiddish, and the English
translation will be sung by Helene Williams to Yardeini's music, for
the first time ever, we believe, at the 10th Annual Court Street Music
House Concert/Student Recital in Valley Stream.
My own translations have often been collaborative efforts, into
French, Russian, and especially German, but mostly from those
languages into English. I was, however, inspired by Lazar Weiner to
study what he called (correctly) "great" Yiddish poetry, and am
proudest of my 1981 translation of "In der Fremd," a poem by Leyb
Naydus which appeared in Ruth Whitman's 1979 Anthology, the same source
that Barnett Zumoff cites for his initial inspiration and efforts.
Here is her unrhymed, literal translation, followed by my freer,
rhymed version.
IN AN ALIEN PLACE (Ruth Whitman)
For whole nights (don't ask how many)
I was rich with suffering and dreams...
I longed for you as a sailboat longs
for the cool swell of the river.
I longed for you as a dark soft curl
of woman's hair longs for a flower,
as the blueness of the sky longs
for the rhythmic fables of bells.
Longed, as an empty cradle longs
for someone's tremulous sleep,
as the mirror longs for reflection,
as the beginning longs for the end.
In der Fremd (Leonard Lehrman)
For whole nights long (don't ask how many)
I have been rich in dreams and woe
Longing for you, just as a jetty
Longs for the tides to ebb and flow,
Longing for you, as a young girl's hair
Longs for adorning asphodels,
Or as the sky above and the clear air
Long for the sounds of ancient tolling bells,
Or as an empty cradle beckons
Someone to sleep, someone to tend,
A looking glass longs for reflections,
And the beginning for the end.
Here is a transliteration of the Leyb Naydus original:
'Khob gantze Naecht' (ach, fraeg nischt vifl!)
Geveyn mit Leid un Traeumen reich...
Gebaengt noch dir, wie 'sbaengt a Schiffl
Noch kille Vellen fon dem Teich.
Gebaengt azoy vi noch a Bliml
Der tunkel vaykher Fraeuenlock;
Wie 'sbaengt di Blaeukeit fon dem Himmel
Noch Meschios ritmische fon Glock...
Gebaengt vi 'sbaengt a puster Viegl
Noch vemens tzitterticken Schlof
Vi 'sbaengt noch Abspieglung der Spiegel,
Vi 'sbaengt der Anhaeub noch'n Sof...
The piece can be heard, sung in English, at
http://amc.net/library/composition.aspx?CompositionID=71417
and in the original Yiddish at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8LsEG6hU1U
The musical setting of this poem was dedicated to Lazar Weiner's
memory and was, along with his setting of the poem "Yiddish," the
first Yiddish art song sung on German television in conjunction with
the founding concert of the Juedischer Musiktheaterverein Berlin, in
the spring of 1984. (In 1998, it became the first Yiddish art song
sung in a concert during the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth.) Jewish
Currents covered many of the Verein's events while it lasted, thru
1986. One of those was the first performances, in Berlin, of E.G.: A
Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman (later expanded and performed at a
Jewish Currents concert in 1987). Another was the European premiere
of Mira J. Spektor's opera, "The Lady of the Castle," based on an
Israeli play, in an English translation. For the Berlin production,
Miriam Walter and I made a German translation which rhymed many of the
lyrics, that had sounded, to us, as if they should have been rhymed in
the English. In this case, even the composer admitted, the work
"loses in the original." Cf. "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam," which is
a major work of English literature in the Edward FitzGerald
translation, but only a minor work of Persian literature in the original.
I would thus disagree, not in principle, but at least in exceptional
cases such as these, with Zumoff's statement:
"One should never make a rhymed translation where the original is
unrhymed - that is being too clever by half and untrue to the original
- and it is also an order of magnitude harder to do."
Of course it's harder to do; but the results can often be quite edifying.
Thanks again for this very interesting article.
Sincerely,
Leonard J. Lehrman
Dear Leonard,
Regarding your translation letter: Is the transliteration of the Naydus poem yours?
It seems very German, not Yiddish.
Larry
Yes, the transliteration is mine, and was written in Germany,
where it was sung by a German singer.
Feel free to rewrite it if you like.
I've always had trouble with "standard" transliteration of Yiddish & Hebrew.
"Aleichem" looks so funny as "Aleykhem"
but is in danger of being mispronounced otherwise.
I'll never forget the well-meaning organist at an AGO meeting
who talked of his experience playing in a Reform synagogue, beginning with the "Barchu," which he pronounced "Bar-Chew"!
That's why I always spell it "Bar'khoo"...
Best - LJL
19C. On Morris Schappes, June 3, 2012:
You can watch a video of Morris U. Schappes speaking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D85Ll4q8koQ19D. December 16, 2012 Online Comment on Judith Malina's Korach
[in need of restoration!]19E. Jewdayo: Elie Siegmeister, Jan. 15, 2013:
Music composer, educator and writer Elie Siegmeister was born in Harlem on this date in 1909. The creator of nine operas and nine symphonies, as well as ballets, chamber works, and over 100 songs, Siegmeister was also the inspiring teacher of numerous composers at Hofstra University, where he was composer-in-residence for a decade and organized and conducted the Hofstra Symphony. According to the Milken Archive of Jewish Music, Siegmeister is "best remembered for his lifelong mission to forge a distinctive American compositional idiom consistent with his unwavering political and social commitment. . . . Siegmeister remained throughout his life an emblem of artistic social consciousness and an advocate of art and serious concert music for the common folk." He also composed for Hollywood, helped to organize the American Ballad Singers and the American Composers Alliance, and produced several important books on music, including Treasury of American Song (with Olin Downes) and The Music Lover's Handbook. In 1978, he organized the Kennedy Center's National Black Music competition. Siegmeister's work and reputation have been actively preserved by one of his students, composer Leonard Lehrman, through the Elie Siegmeister Society, founded posthumously in 1999.
"The 1930s were a great big time of discovery or rediscovery, or renaissance . . . of the American folk tradition . . . when a certain number of musicians, or even non-musicians, began to be aware: 'We're got this great background of wonderful stuff out there. It's exciting and we ought to know about it! And it's our own!'"--Elie Siegmeister19F. On Beverly Sills, May 24, 2013:
It would be more accurate to say that Bing used almost exclusively European singers (not just Italian).
I had the pleasure of working in the Met production of Thais with Beverly Sills in the 1977-78
season, and "sharing a stool" with her. I conducted the Meditation backstage, as well as the
offstage women's chorus behind her in the final act. She used to sit on a stool stage left, and then
vacate it to go onstage, at which time I would stand on it to conduct the women.
I remember
when we took that production on tour, a reporter in Memphis asked her if she had thought of
doing the finale of Act I the way Carol Neblett did it in New Orleans, "in the altogether"
(Ross Allen's delightful phrase). Her response was: "At my age!? You gotta be kidding!" -
Leonard J. Lehrman19G. On Gad Beck, June 30, 2013:
Gad Beck was a very dear friend, and advocate, of mine, during my years working in Berlin, 1983-86.
He was able to prevail on his immediate superior, Heinz Galinski, to foster the creation of and co-sponsor many of the productions of the Juedischer Musiktheaterverein Berlin, which I founded after being the first Jew to conduct FIDDLER ON THE ROOF in that city, in November 1983.
The Verein's activities were covered extensively in articles in Jewish Currents,
and many are now available on YouTube, best accessed through the following playlists: Gala Opening Concert at Juedisches Gemeindehaus 4/30/84
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmhHI8m9j-Xu83eQnjBQYsvvMzgJJBf0h
GROWING UP WOMAN (song-cycle musical), also at Juedisches Gemeindehaus 4/30/84
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmhHI8m9j-Xv_XcCPQAG0kuNJioOfGIt8
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmhHI8m9j-Xst8i8OfZDIvB8qZTds8MvO
Leonard J. Lehrman
http://LeonardJLehrman.com19H. On Victor Rabinowitz, July 1, 2013:
Êalways admired Victor Rabinowitz, and Leonard Boudin, and attended both their funerals, where I met and talked with Bernadine Dohrn and Alger Hiss, respectively. Surprised to learn his father invented bra-strap hooks! Wonder what he would have thought of The Booby Trap or Off Our Chests, based on studies showing links between bras and breast cancer!Ê
See https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmhHI8m9j-XtqhrkUuMhGrWpFZ97F-3bx
and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmhHI8m9j-XsbDnt-4ErpQh2J1sKxiFHZ.
Leonard J. Lehrman19I. On Kenneth Koch, July 6, 2013:
Ned Rorem's one-act opera Bertha, for which Koch wrote the libretto, is a masterpiece.19J. On Peter Dreier's "When Is the Word 'Jew' Offensive?", July 19, 2013:
When Marc Blitzstein wrote "Poor people get gypped," which later became "Joe Worker gets gypped" in The Cradle Will Rock, I'm sure he was not thinking of gypsies, and neither was anyone else singing that song who saw it as a criticism of the treatment of the working class by the ruling class.19K. On Lily Brik, Aug. 3, 2013:
I didn't know Lily Brik was Jewish. But her daughter, Patricia Thompson, came out as Mayakovsky's love child at the time of his centennial celebration in 1995, at Lehman College. I was there (accompanying Charles Samuel Brown in my setting of Mayakovsky's "My University," in Russian and in English), along with the poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko, who read from his works. Pat hosts a Christmas party for the Russian community in New York every year. I was invited to and attended her most recent one, Dec. 1, 2012.19L. On Giacomo Meyerbeer, Sep. 4, 2013:
Larry, this is not the finale of the opera [Les Huguenots]; it is the finale of the second act; there are five acts. It was also not written in 1936, obviously, but in 1836.
This performance stars Joan Sutherland, conducted by Richard Bonynge,
and seems (I think) to be from the 1990 Sydney Opera House production,
which is also available complete on YouTube,
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IF3lHQ0O08 (Pt 1)
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zICDpZwT1QQ (Pt 2)
though without the English titles this excerpt has.
Thanks for posting, but do please correct.
As ever - Leonard J. Lehrman20. Autumn 2013 68:1 (670) pp68-70 also posted online at http://jewishcurrents.org/emma-goldman/:
Emma Goldman's "Morose Moon": Alexander Berkman's Passionate Anarchism
DISCUSSED IN THIS ESSAY: Sasha and Emma:
The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, by Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich21. Autumn 2013 68:1 (670) p76 Letter re Yiddish Theater, Rosenberg, and Dershowitz
+Message from Sheldon Harnick21A. On Chaplin's "Great Dictator", Oct. 14, 2013:
"Chaplin repeated said, after the war, that had he known the extent of Nazi barbarity, he would not have satirized Hitler."
I think Chaplin meant by his remark that he would not have poked fun at Hitler, had he known more than he knew at the time;
not that he wouldn't have taken aim at him, but that the gentleness of his satire seemed too gentle, in hindsight.21B. JEWDAYO, Jan. 24, 2014 [also ran Feb. 6 & other dates up to Feb. 23]:
Brain frozen from Snowden? Tired of the Assange mŽlange? Unmanned by Manning? Well then it's time for SUPERSPY!: The S-e-c-r-e-t Musical Book by Joel Shatzky, Music by Leonard Lehrman, Lyrics by Both ÊStarring Helene Williams with the Composer at the Piano - about a spy whose mission is sooo secret... even HE doesn't know what he's doing! for more information. [http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs119/1105173317608/img/944.jpg]22. Jan. 27, 2014 (posted online at http://jewishcurrents.org/visiting-david-gilbert-prison/) Visiting David Gilbert
22A. On (Death of) Pete Seeger, Jan. 28, 2014:
You know what Pete would say, don't you? He'd quote Joe Hill:
Don't mourn! Organize!
I was proud to have performed with him on a number of occasions.
One of them is here on YouTube (thank you, Connie, and Art, and Joe Friendly):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5oiKkdSC18
Also never to be forgotten:
"Where Have All the Flowers Gone"
http://youtu.be/sgzSzQXTAQE
"Both Sides Now" (an additional verse to Joni Mitchell's song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw1PJGgJSDo
and the words he wrote, inspired by the Xhosa, and challenged us to set to music:
"We've been waiting here too long; perhaps we should use the stairway."
"No, the stairway is dark; it's dangerous; don't use it."
"If we all go together, I'm sure it's safe to use the stairway!"
He should have received the Nobel Peace Prize -
thousands nominated him for it.
The last American who did ought to honor him in his speech tonight...
Leonard J. Lehrman23. Feb. 18, 2014 (posted online at http://jewishcurrents.org/marc-blitzstein-yiddish/)
Completing Marc Blitzstein's Incomplete Works:
In Honor of the Composer's 50th Yortsayt, January 22, 2014
and the First Performance of His Work in Yiddish, March 6, 201424. Spring 2015, p.16 EMILY R. LEHRMAN (March 1, 1923 - January 13, 2015)
25. May 17, 2015 Online Review of Karl Rodman's Comes the Revolution
25A. May 22, 2015 Online Comment on Langston Hughes
25B. Comment, Dec. 11, 2015 re article [that needs re-posting!]
http://jewishcurrents.org/o-my-america-the-jewish-taliban-40151
My take on Mattathias is that he was under tremendous pressure
before taking the action he took and then justified it with these words -
sung in my opera HANNAH (video posted here).
"We must stop the destruction of our inheritance!
Much as I abhor violence,Ê
I am the manÊ
who was first to raise my handÊ
against oppression.ÊÊ
Let us never take possession
of other men's land,Ê
but let us defend ourselves, until death if need be.
...Some laws, we have learned, must NOT be obeyed
for the spirit of God and of justice to prevail.
Be of strength and good courage, and do not be afraid
For I do not believe we can possibly fail.
Whoever shares this sentiment,
Whoever will stand by the covenant,
Whoever believes that the oppressed must be free,
To the mountains of Ephraim, let him follow me!"25C. April 9, 2016 Online Comment on Tom Lehrer
26. December 19, 2016 Fear of Hillary in (Bela)Russia; was also [but no longer is] posted at http://50wire.com/id/16445697872.
26A. Oct. 18, 2017 Comment on Bennett Muraskin's premature death notice:
"Nothing resembling a workers' revolution has ever occurred in American history."
Really? What about Shays' Rebellion? Or Coxey's Army?
I remember hearing Howard Zinn speak about how he was interviewed on mainstream media
after the fall of the Soviet Union, when he was expected to admit that socialism was
dead, and instead he said No, the tyranny of the Soviet system was dead, but now
socialism had a new chance at a lease on life.
He was then, of course, he said, never invited to speak on mainstream media again!
How I wish he were alive to take issue with this characterization as "the saddest argument" his
fervent, hopeful belief that indeed there are many roads to socialism, and the right ones
just haven't been found yet!
Carol Jochnowitz: I believe Shays Rebellion was specifically an agrarian rebellion.
Coxey's Army was indeed an industrial protest.
LJL: I'm sure you're right, but I remember Howard Zinn specifically used it as an example of
people taking destiny, and justice, into their own hands, which was exactly what the
framers of the Constitution feared most, in strengthening the federal govt.
Love - LJL26B. Oct. 20, 2017 on the Messiah:
How long do we have to wait until the Messiah comes?
Until the Messiah comes! :>)
See https://youtu.be/6WaFvoy7rAY
https://youtu.be/BzdndQnEnD8 and
https://youtu.be/lZE8L5dp3rs.
I daresay, one of the reasons socialism has often seemed so attractive to so many Jews
is the messianic promise it embodies that a better world is coming for the downtrodden.
Why are we further away from socialism now?
Well, I daresay the fascist in the White House has something to do with it.
But so does the neocon belligerence against Russia.
And are we really in fact "further away"?
Not since Henry Wallace has a politician labeled
socialist come so close to actually winning the presidency and, unlike Wallace,
in defeat has become the most popular politician in America!
I think one can still believe there are many roads to socialism, roads that may lead through
Seattle and/or Vermont! (though not, I fear, the Green Party:<(
And here's another song which shows the relationship between Jewish messianism and socialism:
"Any Day Now," written for but cut from the film of
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF: https://youtu.be/HHQbF2nZRm4.
26C. On Women Strike for Peace, Nov. 1, 2017:
My mother was a member of Women Strike for Peace,
and took me to my first Ban the Bomb demonstration at the UN in 1962.
I still have one of the posters. I think Code Pink is the organization's natural successor.
What I most remember is Dagmar Wilson being asked by HUAC
whether they allowed Communists to become members
Êand replying, "We accept anyone."
"What about fascists, if they'd want to join?" "If only they would!"
That's a paraphrase, not a precise quote. Maybe someone can cite the exact words?
Larry Bush: Her answer has: "If only we could get them!"
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/30/local/la-me-dagmar-wilson-20110130The following items, 26D-K, all formerly posted by Jewish Currents, were unfortunately taken down:
26D. On Astros' World Series Win, Nov. 4, 2017, posted as correspondence to Mitch Abidor article here.26E. On The Sound of Music, Nov. 15, 2017, posted with correspondence to article here.
26F. On Jewish Chosenness and Israeli Chauvinism, with correspondence to article by Alan Rutkowski, Nov. 16, 2017 here.
26G. On George Wald, Nov. 17, 2017, posted with correspondence to article here.
26H. On Emma Lazarus, Nov. 18, 2017, posted with correspondence to article here.
26I. On Judah P. Benjamin, Nov. 21, 2017, posted with correspondence to article here.
26J. On Clara Lemlich, Nov. 21, 2017, posted with correspondence to article here.
26K. On Jon Stewart, Nov. 28, 2017, posted with correspondence to article here.
26L. On "What Is the Sin that Will Land Me in Hell?" Dec. 3, 2017:
No, it's hard to kid around anymore with lines like that, or even the milder version that Sam Levine
as Nathan Detroit uttered as a refrain in his song from the original GUYS & DOLLS: "Sue me!"
Unfortunately, that's just what the monster in the White House today has been daring folks to do all
his life. We can only hope, and work toward it, that some day, preferably after table-turning
elections in 2018, a suit will be successful against both creatures who occupy the positions of
president & vice president now, so the country can be healed from the scourge at the top we now
suffer from.
On a personal note regarding sin, Larry: Please overcome your feelings of pride and fears of
inconvenience to come attend a performance of the only musical setting of your words that I know
of (are there others?): "When Moshiach Comes." * We've planned to do it at our house concert in
Valley Stream every year - next year it will be Sunday afternoon, June 3rd. But you've never come...
*See https://youtu.be/6WaFvoy7rAY.Ê
With much love, even if some of it may feel tough -
Leonard (& Helene) Lehrman26M. On Jewish Currents Music Calendar, Dec. 16, 2017:
Dear Larry,
Opening the new 2018 Jewish Currents Music Calendar to the month of August,
imagine my delight and surprise
to find my name listed as composer as the entry for the 20th of that month!
I think this is the first time my name has appeared in a calendar this way, and I'm deeply touched
to be in the company of composer Leonard Bernstein 5 days later.
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'm afraid I must comment
that the term songwriter is really not justified for Kurt Weill and Stephen Sondheim.
Both are composers, the latter also happening to be the greatest lyricist of the 20th century.
And why are the names of two other very important Jewish composers,
who have been featured in Jewdayo,
Elie Siegmeister (Jan. 15) and Marc Blitzstein (Mar. 2), not included?Ê
Will there be future editions that can include them?
In any case, thanks so much for sending the calendar, and thanks even more for including me!:>)
With best regards - Leonard J. Lehrman26N. Letters to Larry Buch, Jan. 3-4, 2018:
Larry, your Holocaust Museum skit is rather good.
There are a number of typos which should be corrected, though.
Would you like me to point them out specifically for you?
I'm wondering if you'd consider January 13 as a day to commemorate. On that day, this year,
a Russian website in Boston devoted to the memory of human rights activist Anatoly Yakobson
will be posting, in 3 parts, an essay with archival materials on two Jews who died that day:
Solomon Michoels (who died in 1948) and his Boston interpreter Emily R. Lehrman (who died in 2015).
The essay is titled "The Girl from Leningrad and Solomon Michoels."
It took many weeks to put this 3-part article together, in Russian, and there are a number of references in
it to Jewish Currents. Once it's posted in Russian, I have the green light to publish my English
version of it. A London blog has already expressed interest, and I'm hoping there'll also be interest
on the part of the Boston Globe, the Jewish Advocate, and especially Jewish Currents.
I sent it to Carol Jochnowitz, who (at least so far :>) found no fault in it. May I send it to you?
Thanks and best wishes -
Your admirer & JC life member
Leonard J.ÊLehrmanÊ
Should have noticed, before I wrote you my last message, that you did have something on Michoels
(and the Doctors' Plot) back on Jan. 12-13, 2010, with comments coming in several Januaries
afterwards. I guess I should send in the link to the 3-part article in Russian as a comment,
which I can do as soon as each part is posted. But I'd also like to get the English version posted,
not quite sure where, though a blog in London has offered to do it. We'll see.
I'd still love you to have a look at it, if you think you'd have time. (?)
Hope you're weathering the current Russian weather well.
LJL26O. Quoting Mitch Abidor on Jewish Film Festival, Jan. 4, 2018:
"In the film Tracking Edith, ... A convincing case is made by several people in the film, most of
them former KGB men, that Edith [Tudor-Hart] and the Cambridge spies played a large
part in keeping the world safe from use of the A-Bomb by helping the Soviets obtain it,
thus neutralizing the American threat."
That's exactly what some defenders of the Rosenbergs have said, for many years....
Leonard J. Lehrman, former Co-Chair/Corr. Secy, NCRRC
[cc: Michael Meeropol]26P. On "Bread and Roses," Jan. 10, 2018, posted with correspondence to article here.
26Q. On Michoels, Jan. 12, 2018, posted as comments to article here.
Additional correspondence with Emily's cousin Muzza Eaton, Jan. 13, 2018:
Did Emily know of the murder of Michaels as an anti Jewish action? When did she learn of this?
Are you planning to use all this material--for what?
What is the meaning of Jewishdayo?
Who publishes Jewish Currents?
In answer to your questions:
No one outside Russia knew Michoels had been murdered, as opposed to killed in a car accident, until after Stalin's death.
The material is a memorial, which I'm planning to post in English on a number of possible websites.
Jewdayo is a daily blog put out by Jewish Currents, often with interesting articles and comments.
Jewish Currents is sponsored by the Society for Secular Judaism. I've been writing for it since 1981; Dad longer than that.
I should be home around 9pm and up until 11. Call if you'd like.
Love -
Lyonya26R-X are also, alas, no longer posted:
26R. On Joe Hill, Jan. 19, 2018, posted with correspondence to article here.26S. Comment on Rebecca Boroson's "The Child Bride," Jan. 24, 2018 posted here.
26T. Comment on Jack Benny, Feb. 13, 2018, posted here.
26U. Comment on Danny Kaye, Mar. 2, 2018, posted here.
26V. Comment on Rosenbergs, Mar. 6, 2018, posted here.
26W. Comment on "Yip" Harburg, Mar. 6, 2018 , posted with Feb. 12, 2014 article here.
26X. Comment on Barbie, Mar. 9, 2018, posted with article here.
26Y. Correspondence re Mitch Abidor's article, Mar. 13, 2018: https://jewishcurrents.org/the-uncivil-servant-revolutionary-bandits/:
Very interesting review, Mitch.
Curious to know what Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman thought of the French illegalists.Ê
Kronstadt was the straw that broke their back in terms of supporting the Bolsheviks.
Thanks, Leonard. Since I'm writing a bio of Victor Serge i had all those facts down cold.
As for emma and Sasha and illegalism, Berkman carried out propaganda of teh deed, so illiegalism
wouldn't be a stretch for him. As good anarchists, they'd have at the very least believed it was a method
among others and would ahve protected anyone guilty of it. The anarchist movement had defined it
as another weapon in the struggle.
Mitch
Hope you don't mind, Mitch, but I'm cc-ing two friends who are experts on Emma and Sasha.
I think they'll agree with me when I mention to you that after Berkman's "propaganda of the deed,"
both of them had second thoughts about the virtue of violent acts on behalf of the cause of anarchism.
They concluded that revolution had to be "within," and as I wrote you, drew the line at Kronstadt,
a line which Victor Serge, from what you have written, seems to have straddled, at least at first, no?
BTW, Emma's "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution" is about to be performed in Hamburg, May 26.
We'll be there, hoping maybe some of our friends in German
(including my collaborator Karen Kramer) can join us... (?)
Fond regards -
Certainly, Leonard. I was going to tell Leonard to refer to Emma and Sasha to answer his question.
Illegalism was an individualist tactic, and neither Goldman nor Berkman were individualists.
The anarchist movement had officially endorsed propaganda of the deed, not illegalism
specifically. Nevertheless, the right to asylum was sacrosanct to anarchists, and it's inconceivable
that they wouldn't have adhered to it had the need arisen. Illegalism was not important here, the
way it was in France and Argentina, where Durrutti engaged in it, so it wouldn't have been as
central to them as it was to anarchists of all stripes in France, who had to answer for Jacob and
Bonnot. Most condemned the illegalists; all protected them against the bourgeois enemy while
attacking it as a tactic.
MitchComments 26Z-AD & AG-AJ no longer posted...
26Z. Comment on Sol Hurok, Mar. 15, 2018, posted here.26AA. Comment on Marc Chagall, Mar. 27, 2018, posted with article here.
26AB. Comments on Dr. King, Apr. 4, 2018, posted with correspondence & article here.
26AC. Comments on Daniel Ellsberg, Apr. 6, 2018, posted here.
26AD. Comments on Rabbi Sally Priesand, June 3, 2018, posted here.
26AE. Comment on "The Talmud in Flames," June 18, 2018:
Heinrich Heine noted, in a number of places, that those who burn books are soon likely to burn people.26AF. Comment, June 23, 2018, on article by Clifford Kulwin on Joachim Prinz, June 20, 2018:
The article on the correspondence with Joachim Prinz, whose Aug. 28, 1963 speech in Washington
I heard and remember vividly, is one of the best Jewish-Christian dialogues I have read.
I shall share it with my Christian friends.
Thanks - Leonard J. Lehrman26AG. Comment, July 10, 2018, on Camille Pissaro, posted here.
26AH. Comments, Aug. 24-25, 2018 on Leonard Bernstein, posted here.
26AI. Sent but unposted comment on Viktor Frankl article, Sep. 2, 2018:
Tried to post this question as a comment on the Frankl article,
but it keeps being rejected as "Spam"!:
Small quibble with lovely article:
Anne Frank died at Bergen-Belsen, but of malnutrition and typhus.
The camp was an internment camp, not a death camp, like Auschwitz or Sobibor.
Was Frankl's wife really "executed" there?
26AJ. Comment, Sep. 3, 2018, posted on William Kunstler here.
26AK. Correspondence re Mitch Abidor review, "What Marx Got Wrong", Sep. 21, 2018:
I would like to comment on Mitch Abidor's article,
but don't see a way to do so except by replying to this email message, cc-ing him.
I have immense admiration and respect for Mitch's knowledge and erudition, but I think he writes
Marx off just a bit too glibly here. Faith that salvation will come from an enlightened working class
was a faith shared by visionaries like Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, Rosa Luxemburg,
Karl Liebknecht, and although they were discouraged by the actions of the lumpenproletariat, and
their faith was indeed disparaged as unrealistic by Marcuse & others Mitch cites, I don't think that
faith was ever entirely lost; nor should it be. I remember Howard Zinn saying that just because the
USSR failed and folded, that did not mean socialism was finished; on the contrary, it had a chance
for a new beginning, and to be done right. I think Bernie Sanders would probably agree.
Mitch Abidor:
Dear Leonard: I think the days of commenting at JC are over...
I thank you for your email, but I stand firmly behind what I said. The working class, if it ever was truly the revolutionary class has not been so for decades, at least in the west ( which was Marx's focus) and sad facts and reality are there to prove it. Theory proves nothing. Admirable as they were, Goldman and Berkman were every bit as wrong as Marx. The working class was not revolutionary in May 68 in France, and only aÊfraction was in Italy during the Creeping May, both of which were situations that were crying out for the workers to demand that the world be theirs. In the US the working class has given us Trump and gave Britain Brexit. Wherever there is a poisonous movement anywhere in the world, look for the workers to be backing it. Perhaps they'll change, but it won't matter: Marx was wrong about them becoming the largest part of the population and so the natural heirs of the world. Trump has an almost Marxist vision of the heroic worker producing wealth by the sweat of his brow in the mills and mines. But there are 65,000 coal miners in the US and several million working at Walmart and Target. Store Greeters of the World Unite! You can't have a working-class revolution without a working class. And a white working class as consumed with xenophobia and racism as it is all over the West, as Marcuse warned, a revolution would not have to be one of the left.
A slightly more measured historical take can be find here, in an article I wrote for NYRB on France in May 68:
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/04/19/1968-when-the-communist-party-stopped-a-french-revolution/
Mitch
LJL: Very interesting, Mitch. Thanks for sending the NYRB article link.
Your observations and reporting are certainly grounded in realism,
and there's very little here one can reasonably disagree with.
Faith in an eventual progress to socialism may indeed be messianic.
But that doesn't mean it's to be abandoned forever.
I think Jewish Currents is one of the few places keeping that faith alive,
and I'm sorry dialog on its postings seems to have been curtailed.
In any case, a Happy New Year to you & yours!
Leonard J. Lehrman26AL. Letter of Sep. 28, 2018 re Larry Bush's Oct. 14 Retirement Party:
Thank you for sending me this notice Susan, only please update my email address to
ljlehrman@nassaulibrary.org.Ê[Now: ljlehrmandma@gmail.com]
As a contributor to Jewish Currents since 1981,
life member since 1990, and I believe the only composer to set Larry Bush's poetry to music,
I would dearly love to be there October 14, except that's the very day of the world premiere
of my new piece for baroque ensemble, "The Last Word," on a poem by Alex Skovron
(born in Poland, emigre via Israel to Melbourne). I knew about the new young hires at JC,
but did not realize Larry had been even considering retiring. I do hope to be able to work
with the new editor(s), despite my being even older than Larry!
Sincerely,
Leonard J. Lehrman
LeonardJLehrman.com26AM. On Vitebsk, Oct. 7, 2018, posted here, not including url:
The picture of us on my facebook page (for Leonard J. Lehrman) has Vitebsk in the background: https://www.facebook.com/ljlehrman/?eid=ARD3beuGqVXi6r27vxbajE1IIKIQ6HY12-2x3ys-Cz7QGgUBr0u_Ualu3X7V7sHe6gHAbwIzEjkpbHIe.26AN. On The Limeliters, Oct. 9, 2018, posted here.
26AO. On Paul Simon, Oct. 12, 2018:
Once again, tried to post a comment, and once again "blocked as Spam."
Very frustrating.ÊBut here it is:
When he was very young, Paul Simon wrote some songs with a friend of
Leonard Bernstein's, Ouida Mintz, later the piano teacher of a friend
of mine. He actually paid her NOT to have them performed or published. (!)
Apart from "The Sound of Silence," to me Paul Simon's most memorable
words were those he gifted Bernstein for use in MASS:
"Half of the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half of the people have drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction."Comments 26AP-R, AU-AX, & AZ-BZ no longer posted.
26AP. On Sholem Asch, Oct. 31, 2018, posted here.26AQ. On Yitzchak Rabin, Nov. 3, 2018, posted here.
26AR. On Ben Reitman, Nov. 6, 2018, posted here.
26AS. Nov. 28, 2018 Correspondence with Jacob Plitman:
Hi Leonard,
Lovely meeting last night i hope you enjoyed the show. Looking forward to more info on your upcoming
show, send along when you can!
Thanks,
JP
Lovely meeting you too, Jacob.
Carol Jochnowitz just scanned and sent me her seminal Sep. 1987 JC article
on Emma Goldman and Rosa Luxemburg, which I'll forward to you.
It would be great if you could reprint it in the magazine
and/or post it on Jewdayo, in conjunction with the upcoming opera on Rosa.
I'll also send you the recent 4-part Jewish Advocate on my mother, Solomon Michoels,
and Russian War Relief, as well as links to the two Boston concerts we did Nov. 11 & 12, honoring them.
A press release re the January concerts will follow soon.
Thanks again for your interest.
Might you be interested in a preview article, or perhaps having someone review us?
All the best -
Leonard J. Lehrman
LeonardJLehrman.com26AT. Dec. 7, 2018 response to article:
I would like to comment on Jewdayo article on Marc Lamont Hill, but can't figure out how to do so.
I believe he did do something wrong, very wrong.
It's one thing to criticize the Jewish State of Israel's policies and politics.
It's another thing to call for its eradication, and that's what the "from the river to the sea" chant means.
Leonard J. Lehrman26AU. Dec. 13, 2018 letter on Creek Indians, posted with article here.
26AV. Dec. 15, 2018 letter on Susan Estrich, posted with article here/
26AW. Dec. 18, 2018 letter on Phil Ochs, posted with article here.
26AX. Dec. 21, 2018 letter on Ding Dong School, posted with article here/.
26AY. Jan. 12, 2019 to Larry on Pinko Jew:
Dear Larry, and Dear Jacob:
Your book, arrived, Larry, with the lovely inscription.
which we all (Helene, Dad & I) enjoyed and appreciated very much.
I've shared some nuggets with each of them,
and spent a few hours studying it myself.
Good that each essay has a year attached to it,
but I would have liked to have been informed which pieces were previously published
and which weren't. Numerous times I'd start reading and then say to myself:
"I've read this before," which of course I had!
Your reminder of the phrase in Dr. King's speech about "many white brothers"
recognizing how "their destiny is tied up with our destiny"
has prompted me to mention that lineÊin my spoken introductions tomorrow,
which Elie Siegmeister set beautifully in his I HAVE A DREAM Cantata,
even though we're not singing it, just the last 3 movements of the piece:
Jan. 13 4pm Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck
Jan. 20 2:30pm Community Church Worship Hall 40 E. 35 St.
Jan. 26 2:30pm Long Beach Public Library
I was honored to have my birthday listed Aug. 20 in your Music Calendar last year,
but sad you didn't mention Elie Siegmeister Jan. 15, even though he was a Jewdayo subject.
This coming Jan. 15 we'll be honoring him, and Dr. King, and Rosa Luxemburg
(whom I see you quote very aptly in your book) who died that day, in 1919.
Also at Community Church, the Assembly Hall, also at 2:30pm.
I hope Jewdayo and/or Jewish Currents will make something of it.
I've made copies to distribute of Carol Jochnowitz's Sept. 1987 JC "Jewish Women Now"
article on "Red Emma, Red Rosa," which helped inspire both the reception of my
E.G.: A Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman and the new musical portrait,
premiering Jan. 13, 15, 20 & 26, and in Germany Feb. 9 & Oct. 10:
"A Loveletter from Rosa Luxemburg"
The opera was commissioned by The Puffin Foundation, the contact with whom
I owe to Jewish Currents. This is our 10th Puffin grant, and my 5th opera
to be so commissioned (the others were
"New World: An Opera About What Columbus Did to the 'Indians'," "Suppose A Wedding,"
"Sacco and Vanzetti," and "The Triangle Fire).
It would be so wonderful if you could join us, and receive the acknowledgment we owe the magazine!
Please let us know if you can. And you too, Jacob.
With thanks and very fond wishes - always -
Leonard (& Helene & Nat) Lehrman26AZ. Jan. 19, 2019 on Joe Hill, posted with article here.
26BA. Mar. 2-5, 2019 on Marc Blitzstein, posted with article here.
26BB. Mar. 5, 2019 on Rosa Luxemburg, posted with article here.
26BC. Mar. 5, 2019 on The Weatherman, posted with article here.
26BD. Mar. 21, 2019 on Stephen Sondheim, posted with article here.
26BE. Mar. 25, 2019 on Scottsboro Boys, posted with article here.
26BF. Apr. 8, 2019 on Tom Lehrer, posted with article here.
26BG. Apr. 23, 2019 on Gaon of Vilna, posted with article here.
26BH. May 1, 2019 on McCarthyism, posted with article here.
26BI. May 13, 2019 on Sholom Aleichem, posted with article here.
26BJ. May 26, 2019 on Kissinger, posted with article here.
26BK. July 10, 2019 on Vitka Kempner, posted with article here. Follow-up correspondence with Zalmen Mlotek and Ryna Kedar in Tel Aviv:
Do you know if she's still alive, compus mentis, and able to receive/respond to mail?
At 99, Vitka Kempner is still alive!? Is there an address where one can write to her?
Does she answer mail?
She's the heroine of one of the greatest songs that emerged from the Holocaust:
Hirsh Glik's "Shtil di Nakht."
Watch our performance of it in Bobruisk in 2016 here: https://youtu.be/KSUG5N3SDh8.
Pete Seeger sang it all over the world: https://youtu.be/0k1ngbHa9kQ.
I think he learned it from Martha Schlamme (as did we): https://youtu.be/bBOtegK-bPo
Thanks! - Leonard J. Lehrman
Hi Leonard
I'd love to know that as well
Hope you're well
Zalmen
Hi Leonard,
Impressive concert schedule!
Vitka Kmpner died in 2012. Sending you the bit from Wikipedia.
Kempner and Kovner married in 1946.[4][5]In the same year, they moved to British Palestine,
where they had two children. Kovner became a poet, and Kempner a clinical psychologist.
They had forty years together before Kovner died in 1987.
Kempner died in her home in Israel in 2012.
Regards to Helene,
Ryna
Ryna Kedar
Head, Acquisitions & Cataloging Division
The Felicja Blumental Music Center & Library
Tel-Aviv, Israel26BL. Aug. 5, 2019 on Marilyn Monroe, posted with article here/
26BM. Aug. 15, 2019 on Wanda Landowska, posted with article here.
26BN. Aug. 20, 2019 on Ilya Krichevksy, posted with article here.
26BO. Sep. 5, 2019 on The Blood Libel, posted with article here.
26BP. Sep. 28, 2019 on Harpo Marx, posted with article here.
26BQ. Sep. 29, 2019 on the World Series, posted with article here.
26BR. Oct. 1, 2019 on Stalin's Cartoonist, posted with article here.
26BS. Oct. 6, 2019 on the Achille Lauro, posted with article here.
26BT. Oct. 8, 2019 on Days of Rage, posted with article here.
26BU. Dec. 16, 2019 on Judith Malina's Korach, posted with article here.
26BV. May 31, 2020 on Sacco and Vanzetti, posted with article here.
26BW. June 5, 2020 on AIDS, posted with article here.
26BX. June 7, 2020 on $64,000 Question, posted with article here.
26BY. June 11, 2020 on "Against Analogy," posted here.
26BZ. June 13, 2020 on Purim & Jewish Power, posted with article here.
27. June 2, 2020 Obituary for Joel Shatzky, co-written with his widow, Ilana Abramovitch
27A. On BDS, Nov. 25, 2020 (not posted):
My family has been contributing to Jewish Currents for 58 years
(my father beginning in 1962, I beginning in 1981).
Yet since the end ofÊJewdayoÊlast June, there has been no medium for feedback.
Thank you for welcoming it now, if you really are welcoming it.
The continuing criticism of Israel for human rights abuses
and of the US administration for encouraging them,
or at least not effectively resisting them, is worthy of support.Ê
But tacit acceptance of BDS and devaluing of the importance
that Israel continue to be a Jewish State should not be unquestioned.
My father was both a fighter for human rights and a Zionist.
The Christian Right's embrace of Zionism, for all the wrong reasons,
should not be sufficient to impel us to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
It occurs to me that the one nation likely to award Trump a hero's welcome
and quasi-coronation as the New Messiah is Israel. That will have to be resisted.
But like the proverbial Vietnamese village,
the only Jewish nation must not be destroyed in order to "save" it.
Leonard J. Lehrman27B. Letter of Jan. 15, 2020:
Thank you for sending this latest Shabbat Reading List.
I was grateful to learn about the service tonight at which Gina Belafonte will speak,
and for the opportunity to sign up to hear her, which I have just done.
I was also glad to read whatever Mitch Abidor writes, which is always intelligent and often interesting.
But I must say I am more than slightly appalled to read a dialogue between two interns charged with
writing a history of Jewish Currents which never mentions either Morris U. Schappes or Larry Bush.
Each of them was a guiding light without whom there would have been no magazine.
I once called Morris "the I.F. Stone of the Jewish Left," which he told me brightened his day.
And Larry, as an artist, had a distinctive vision, one I didn't always agree with,
but always respected and often enjoyed.
The attempted marriage of the communist and socialist wings, in the unity of JC and Workmen's Circle
is alluded to, but its demise, due to the horrible misdeeds of Bernie Madoff, is not mentioned.
Nor is the wonderful poem of Larry's it inspired, "When Moshiach Comes,"
which I had the joy of setting to music and performing with Helene Williams
in commemoration of Morris's centennial:
https://youtu.be/6WaFvoy7rAY.
(In this video, by Carol Jochnowitz, Larry takes a bow.)
I deeply, deeply identify with the unnamed interviewee "who had been a writer since the 1980s and
is still technically a contributor to the magazine. He told me that he thought Currents would never
publish anything by him ever again." That is exactly how I feel, having first written for the
magazine in 1981, and frequently thereafter until,
with the demise of Jewdayo, everything I've written - except obituaries for my collaborator Joel Shatzky
and my father Nat Lehrman - seems to have been completely and utterly ignored.
Why? Why, Jacob? Why, Cynthia? Why, Arielle? And why, David Klion,
who has recently critiqued my tribute to my father, but whose email address I've tried in vain to find.
Perhaps the younger generation now in charge of JC expects us to retreat to the Alte group.
But they don't seem to be terribly interested in what I have to say either.
So I write on Facebook, and continue to create videos on YouTube -
over 3500, with close to a million views, to date.
And hope that someday the younger generation will re-discover
the value of work I've done on
Martin Luther King, Sacco and Vanzetti, the Rosenbergs, Emma Goldman, Rosa Luxemburg,
Edith Segal,ÊElizabeth Gurley Flynn, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Marc Blitzstein, Leonard Bernstein,
Elie Siegmeister, the Shir L'Shalom,
and other items that once-upon-a-time were deemed of interest to readers of Jewish Currents.
Sincerely,
Leonard J. Lehrman
LeonardJLehrman.com28. Jan. 19, 2021 Yortzayt Tribute to Nathaniel S. Lehrman (May 26th, 1923-January 19th, 2020