Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope comes to YIVO: Cry, My Heart, Cry

Songs from Testimonies in the Fortunoff Video Archive, Vol. 2

(New York, NY) – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is pleased to announce its upcoming program, Cry, My Heart, Cry: Songs from Testimonies in the Fortunoff Video Archive, Vol. 2, celebrating the new album release produced by D. Zisl Slepovitch. The event, which takes place on Zoom on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 1:00pm (ET) will feature performances and a live discussion with the musicians behind the project, Joshua Camp (accordion), Dmitry Ishenko (contrabass), Craig Judelman (violin), Sasha Lurje (vocals), and Slepovitch (composer, arranger, producer, woodwinds).

Many of the Holocaust testimonies of the Fortunoff Video Archive at Yale University include songs. The placement of song within Holocaust testimonies speaks to music's power to lift the soul, even in the face of oppression, tyranny, and murder. The songs in Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish, Russian and other languages also give us insight into the wartime experiences of the survivors who sing them and offer a glimpse of the multilingual diversity of their experiences. In 2018 D. Zisl Slepovitch began production of an album of songs drawn from testimonies in the Archive titled Where is Our Homeland? After a successful release of these songs captivated audiences around the world, the Fortunoff Video Archive and Slepovitch are now releasing Cry, My Heart, Cry: Songs from Testimonies in the Fortunoff Video Archive, Vol. 2.

Cry, My Heart, Cry: Songs from Testimonies in the Fortunoff Video Archive, Vol. 2 is part of YIVO’s partnership with Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope: Artists in Times of Oppression festival.

When:            Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 1:00pm (ET)
Where:          Taking place on Zoom
Reservations Available at:  yivo.org/Fortunoff-Vol2

For more information contact:
Alex Weiser
Director of Public Programs

YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story