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Inspired by YIVO
When I started working at YIVO in February 2016, I didn’t know Yiddish. I knew a smattering of words and phrases – those commonly used by New York Jews – but not much more. As I began learning Yiddish at YIVO and becoming acquainted with the wider world of Jewish studies, it felt like a homecoming to a Jewish world that I never quite knew existed. A world in which a simple plum can be the center of a profound poem about the power of art. A world in which the language my grandparents’ parents used to tell their secrets is also a language of erotic poetry. A world in which history, language, and culture can unite Jews across time, space, and religious and political divisions.
As a composer, the music in YIVO’s vast collection was of particular interest to me. As I started curating concerts at YIVO, reading books about its holdings, and searching through its archives, I discovered so many musical treasures. I found composers grappling with questions of what it means to be a Jew and a composer and offering a variety of deeply felt answers. This, and the wider world of YIVO, reminded me with renewed intensity of the amazing diversity of what Jewishness can encompass, and inspired me to tackle these questions in my own music.
When it came to writing my song cycle, and all the days were purple, which became the centerpiece of my debut album last April, I turned to Yiddish poetry for inspiration. My album includes settings of poetry by Anna Margolin, Rokhl Korn, and Avrom Sutzkever, building on their urgent and profound verses which search for meaning from a Jewish perspective.
I found that framing this search for meaning within a Jewish language and with Jewish themes adds a tremendous power. It grounds a modern encounter with these eternal questions within a rich lineage of struggling with God – some of which I embrace, some of which I question, all of which I am proud to be connected to. I will be forever grateful to YIVO for opening up this world to me.
Alex Weiser
YIVO Director of Public Programs