Out of the Desert, Into the Whirlwind

Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) begins tonight. Just as Jews around the world finish celebrating the exodus from Egypt, we are faced with one of history’s most tragic events. But can we see this, too, as a narrative on which we can build a new future?

Close to the end of her diary, with diminishing hope, Anne Frank writes of humanity’s compulsion for destruction and the subsequent need to begin again. This theme of rebuilding from the literal and metaphoric fires of the Holocaust—along with the maxim to never forget—was taken up as a mantle by many Jews around the world.

In America, Jewish musicians—many of whom were born in and escaped from pre-war Europe—responded in the most powerful way they could, by lending their voices to those who lost or nearly lost theirs. Their work is featured in Episode 11 of American Jewish Music from the Milken Archive with Leonard Nimoy, which will be streaming from our website for the remainder of the month.

Listen now to: American Jewish Music from the Milken Archive with Leonard Nimoy Episode 11: Holocaust

The Holocaust sent shock waves, the ripples of which can still be felt, throughout the Jewish music world, giving rise to a host of musical attempts to come to grips with inexplicable tragedy. Many composers turned to poetry that came from the same place: works by Gershon Kingsley (“Voices from the Shadow”) and Robert Stern (“Voices of Terezin”) drew on poetry that had been written in the concentration camps or by inmates who survived. Lazar Weiner set the poem Yidn zingen ‘ani mamin’ (Jews are Singing "I Believe") by H. Levick.  And Max Helfman took on Itzik Fefer’s epic about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He construed the fruits of that labor, Di Naye Hagode (The New Haggada), as a “new narrative” for a post-Holocaust world.

All of the above—as well as important works by Lukas Foss, Robert Beaser, and Bruce Adolphe—are featured in Episode 11, which concludes on a hopeful note with David Stock’s A Little Miracle, a story of survival through faith and courage.

Passover and the Holocaust are two events separated by millennia, one ancient and obscure, one modern and still palpable. But both indelibly shaped the history and destiny of the Jewish people. We hope that these works (and insights from Neil Levin and maestro Gerard Schwarz) will inspire your own contemplation this Yom HaShoah.

Related Content from the Milken Archive and Beyond

Voices NEW VIDEO: Bruce Adolphe discusses "Out of the Whirlwind" with Neil Levin.

Volumes NEW EXODUS: Explore our entire collection of Musical Reflections of the Holocaust.

Variety NEW PERSPECTIVE: The Klezmer connection between Pakistan and Brooklyn.