Celebrating Yiddish culture through song
JOBURG – Album gives Jewish history another voice.
Singer Leigh Nudelman has reinvigorated classic Yiddish music with the launch of her debut solo album A Bisl – A Bit of love.
Though Yiddish songs do not scream musical popularity, stardom was never Nudelman’s main reason for the creation of the album. Afer having two children, Nudelman found getting back into a creative gear challenging but said she had found a balance between her artistic life and her role as a mother and wife. Along with this, her rediscovery and embrace of her Jewish heritage and identity gave her the drive to create the album.
Nudelman believes the songs have the potential to enrich others, already proven with successful performances at Limmud conferences in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Ultimately, the album gives Jewish history another voice. Older Jewish listeners to the album may cry as they sing along to songs sung to them by their mothers such as Rozhinkes mir Mandl’n and Oif’n Pripitchik, while youngsters will be able to groove to Abi Gezunt and Hopkele.
The album shows her love for Yiddish culture and heritage as it is filled with the essence of life, of universal wisdom, humour, sadness, longing and resilience.
She will perform songs from the album with a five-piece band and will intersperse the songs with stories about her great-grandmothers.
The launch was held on 16 September at the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre in Forest Town.
Also read: The Joburg Jewish Male Choir experience
