Freiheit Gezang Farein New York and Paterson Branches 1924 by Rotceps

The Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus ( yi, ייִדישער פֿילהאַרמאָנישער כאָר ) is a secular Jewish choir based in New York City. It was founded in 1923 by Lazar Weiner and Jacob Schaefer as the and was closely associated with Communist politics and the

Morgen Freiheit Morgen Freiheit (original title: ; English: ''Morning Freedom'') was a New York City-based daily Yiddish language newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party, USA, founded by Moissaye Olgin in 1922. After the end of World War II the paper's pro- ...

newspaper; at its height in the 1920s and 1930s it had hundreds of members, many of whom were garment workers. After World War II, it was targeted by

HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

and was renamed the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus () in 1948. It adopted its current name in 2021.

History

New York Freiheit Gezang Farein concert advertisement Dec 9 1924 in Der Tog

The New York branch of the ( yi, פרײהײט געזאַנג פאַרײן ''Freedom chorus'') was founded in 1923 by composers

Lazar Weiner Lazar Weiner (October 24, 1897 in Cherkassy – January 10, 1982 in Flushing, Queens) was an Imperial Russian-born, American-naturalized composer of Yiddish song.Obituary ''Jewish folklore and ethnology newsletter'' American Folklore Society ...

and Jacob Schaefer in the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

. Schaefer, who was still living in Chicago when the New York choir was founded, had used the name for a previous choir in Chicago he founded in 1913–14 and had picked it to not alienate potential members or audiences who were not Communists. The New York choir was affiliated with the newspaper

, and had a strong working class identity and espoused far left or

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

politics. Many of its early members were garment workers. The choir became quite large, growing from 100 to 200 members in the first decade, most of whom were first generation Jewish immigrants who spoke Yiddish as their first language. Its repertoire was mainly in Yiddish, although it did also perform in Russian, Polish, and other European languages. In the early years both Weiner and Schaefer composed for the choir, Weiner was its conductor. It gave its first major concert at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

in February 1924. Starting in 1924, the chorus often performed together in concert with the , a

Mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

orchestra also founded and directed by Schaefer. The choir regularly appeared at rallies and political events as well. Freiheit Gezang Farein New York 1923

In 1925 the Jewish Workers Music Alliance ( yi, דער ייִדיש-מוזיקאַלישער אַרבעטער-פאַרבאַנד) was founded to fund Yiddish-language choirs and to publish arrangements made by FGF conductors. The FGF was closely affiliated with the

International Workers Order The International Workers Order (IWO) was an insurance, mutual benefit and fraternal organization founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954 as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951 on the grounds that the organization ...

during this period, and as other affiliated choirs were founded in more than 30 cities around the United States, the original FGF maintained an important role. Affiliated choirs in cities such as Philadelphia, Montreal and the original one in Chicago also sang under the name . The New York choir also grew large enough that various neighborhood and suburban branches of the FGF existed and rehearsed separately. New York also had a number of other progressive Yiddish choirs which were not Communist-affiliated. Another of the choir's early successes was its February 1926 performance of Schaefer's ("Two brothers", based on a work by

I. L. Peretz Isaac Leib Peretz ( pl, Icchok Lejbusz Perec, yi, יצחק־לייבוש פרץ) (May 18, 1852 – April 3, 1915), also sometimes written Yitskhok Leybush Peretz was a Polish Jewish writer and playwright writing in Yiddish. Payson R. Stevens, Cha ...

) to an audience of 4000 at the Mecca Temple. Schaefer followed it with another successful oratorio, (The twelve) which was performed at Carnegie Hall in April 1927. The main choir often performed jointly with its affiliated choirs; its fifth jubilee concert at Carnegie Hall in April 1928 was staged together with a branch from

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Kein Entzikn Shpan advertisement from Daily Worker 19 Dec 1931

Kein Entzikn Shpan advertisement from Daily Worker 19 Dec 1931

In the 1930s, the choir under Schaefer continued to have a strong Communist and pro- Soviet orientation. The choir, accompanied by fifty members of the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra, performed a "revolutionary oratorio" by Schaefer at Carnegie Hall in 1930 entitled ''October'' which incorporated poems selected by

Nathaniel Buchwald Nathaniel Buchwald (1890–1956) was a 20th-century, left-leaning Jewish-American theater critic, writer, and scholar of Yiddish theater who wrote in Yiddish and English and translated from Yiddish and Russian into English. Background Nathan ...

from the works of Itzik Feffer, Leib Kvitko, Peretz Markish,

Morris Rosenfeld Morris Rosenfeld (Yiddish: מאָריס ראָסענפֿעלד; born as Moshe Jacob Alter; December 28, 1862 in Stare Boksze in Russian Poland, government of Suwałki – June 22, 1923 in New York City) was a Yiddish poet. His work sheds light ...

, and others. In 1932 Schaefer traveled to Kharkiv at the invitation of Feffer, where he premiered ''October'', and in 1933 went to Moscow to represent the choir at the International Congress of Proletarian Musicians. There was even the suggestion of a Soviet tour by his New York choir, although it never happened in the end. Upon his return to New York in May 1933 the choir gave another concert at Carnegie Hall. In their 1935 annual concert they once again presented ''October'', while in 1936 they reprised . Schaefer sought to keep the music of the choir at a high artistic level without making it inaccessible for working class listeners. Education and outreach was also an important element of the choir's work. For most of the 1930s, the conductors of the choir (Schaefer and later Helfman) published annual booklets containing arrangements for voice and choir. The network of affiliated choirs around the United States continued to do well, with a 1936 article estimating it had forty choirs around the country with roughly 4000 members, of which 500 singers were located in New York. Freiheit Gezang Farein New York 1936 or 1937 by I Russack

Freiheit Gezang Farein New York 1936 or 1937 by I Russack

In 1936 Schaefer died unexpectedly at age 48 and the chorus hired prolific composer, accompanist and choir director

Max Helfman Max Helfman ( yi, מאַקס העלפמאַן, 1901–1963) was a Polish-born American Jewish composer, choral conductor, pianist, singer, and educator. He had a long career arranging both secular and religious Jewish music and was considered to h ...

to replace him in 1936–7. He also became head of the Jewish Workers Musical Alliance in 1938, which dropped the word Workers from its name, and Helfman began to edit subsequent editions of the chorus's published booklets. In 1937 Helfman and the choir performed Schaefer's final unperformed oratorio (Strike and revolt) at the

Venice Theatre Venice Theatre is a community theater in Venice, Florida, United States. Formerly Venice Little Theatre, the Venice Theatre is one of the largest community theaters in the United States. History The theatre operates at one of the former buil ...

. This work, which included dancers and piano accompaniment by Gregory Ashman, sought to portray scenes in the lives of workers via folksongs collected by Soviet musicologist Moisei Beregovsky. The work was popular enough that they reprised it the following year for their annual May concert. In December 1937 the choir also performed in a joint memorial event for Schaefer, George Gershwin, and Henry Kimball Hadley, funded by the Works Progress Administration. With the start of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, the choir, mandolin orchestra and its parent organizations were targeted by the US government as subversive organizations. The Jewish Music Alliance was also attacked in the press for its Communist ties. Because of this, in 1948 the choir changed its name to the Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus ( ). The

(IWO) was forced to close and the Jewish Fraternal People's Order which had supported the choir lost its financial base. Many members left the choir for fear of being targeted themselves. In 1948 the choir performed at Carnegie Hall in its final concert under Helfman, debuting his , a

Cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

based on an epic poem about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Itzik Feffer. When Helfman left the choir in 1948 Leo Kopf, a refugee from Germany, took over as conductor. At around this time, owing to the founding of the state of Israel and shifts in American Jewish musical tastes, the choir also began to introduce Hebrew-language material. It was under Kopf's direction that the choir made its first recording in around 1949–50, a multi-disc set which included a mix of Hebrew and Yiddish materials, and a mix of Helfman's, Kopf's and Schaefer's compositions. In 1952 he also staged the first American performance of

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...

's 1949 Song of the Forests, translated into Yiddish by N. Buchwald. 10 yur Yisroel-Feyerung advertisement in Der Tog May 31 1958

Kopf died in March 1953 and Eugene Malek took over as conductor (possibly in 1952 as Kopf's health declined). He remained until 1960 when the choir merged with the Jewish People’s Chorus of New York, an affiliated choir conducted by Maurice Rauch. Rauch became conductor of the new chorus which continued to perform under the JPPC name. Rauch left in 1971 and a series of short-lived conductors took over in the choir: Oscar Julius (1971–2), Rauch again (1972–8), Franco Rossi (1978–80), Rauch (1980), Madeline Simon (1980–84), and Peter Schlosser (1984–95). During this time the number of members dwindled greatly, having only eighteen members in 1981; the number of public performances was reduced as well. In 1995 Binyumen Schaechter took over as conductor, a role which he continues to hold at present. He developed the choir, which had lost the ability to perform more advanced arrangements, into a more ambitious ensemble which could perform at a more professional level; this included holding auditions for new members starting in 2002. The choir began to perform more often, including at The Town Hall and at the

Museum of Jewish Heritage A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

in 1998, at World Trade Center plaza in 2000, and at Shea Stadium in 2005. In 2006 the choir released a CD, its first album in several decades. The choir appeared at the North American Jewish Choral Festival in Ellenville, New York in 2000, 2001 and 2003 and at the New York International Choir Festival at Lincoln Center in 2002, 2005 and 2006. And in 2007 the choir appeared in Tickling Leo. It then returned to the North American Jewish Choral Festival for several more years, appearing in 2007, 2010-1, and 2013-19. In 2021, the choir changed its name to its present name, the Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus ( yi, ייִדישער פֿילהאַרמאָנישער כאָר ).

Publications and recordings

Musical scores

* - Songs for Voice and Piano (International Workers Order, 1932, compiled by Jacob Schaefer) * (, 1934, by Jacob Schaefer) * (''YMAF'', 1935, by Jacob Schaefer) * (''YMAF'', 1936, by Jacob Schaefer) * (, 1937, by Jacob Schaefer and Max Helfman) * (''YMF'', 1938, by Max Helfman) * (''YMF'', 1939, by Max Helfman) * (''YMF'', 1940, by Max Helfman) * : 22 Selected songs of Jacob Schaefer (''YMF'', 1952) * ''/Let's Sing: A collection of Yiddish, English and Hebrew Songs'' (''YMF'', 1956)

Sound recordings

* ''The Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus, new york, Dr. Leo Kopf, conductor'' ( 1949–51, RCA Records, 4-disc album) * ( 1958-60, Tikva Records, the Jewish People’s Chorus of New York conducted by Maurice Rauch) * , ''from the treasures of Avrom Goldfaden songs'' ( 1958-60, Tikva Records, the Jewish People’s Chorus of New York conducted by Maurice Rauch) * (1967, Tikva Records/''YMF'', composed by Jacob Schaefer, text by

, conducted by Maurice Rauch) * ''Zingt! A Celebration of Yiddish Choral Music'' (2006)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus
official website
Recordings by the Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus
on the Florida Atlantic University Judaica collection
1961 jubilee concert booklet of the choir
in the Yiddish Book Center digital collection 1923 establishments in the United States Choirs in New York City Secular Jewish culture in the United States Musical groups established in 1923 Jewish musical groups Yiddish culture in New York City