The team of a Russian Jewish ethnomusicologist and Yiddish scholar Moisei Beregovsky collected hundreds of Jewish songs during 1930–1940s, and planned to publish an anthology. However, during the post-war outbreak of Soviet anti-Semitism Beregovsky was convicted of "Jewish nationalism" and sent to Gulag. Fortunately, his confiscated archives were returned to his wife. The collection of wax cylinder recordings, of which 600 were made by Beregovsky, was looted by the Nazis, but returned after the war. However, when the Cabinet of Jewish Culture of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was liquidated, the recordings disappeared and were believed to be destroyed. In 1990s Beregovsky's wax cylinders were discovered and catalogued by the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. Since 1980s and later, with new findings, his collections were published and republished, and many tunes entered the repertoire of Klezmer musicians. Anna Shternshis, Al and Malka Green Professor in Yiddish Studies and the Director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto worked with Beregovsky's paper archives, and Yiddish Glory is the result of a multi-year project of Shternshis and Pavel Lion, better known as Psoy Korolenko. Most of the selected Holocaust-related songs had only lyrics, and musical solutions for them were suggested by Sergei Erdenko.
*Central Asia was a major destination of Soviet civilians, including 1.4 million Jews, where at their new workplaces they met the Jews sent to Gulag. The song is about this piece of the Jewish eternal exile experience. For this song Erdenko composed the only new tune, combining Roma, Yiddish and Romanian musical styles.
Mayn Pulemyot – My Mashine Gun
*A Jewish soldier's pride at his machine gun killing the Germans
Taybls Briv – Taybl's Letter To Her Husband at the Front
Misha Tserayst Hitlers Daytchland – Misha Tears Apart Hitler's Germany
Chuvasher Tekhter – Daughters of Chuvashia, words by Sonya Roznberg, 1942.
Mames Gruv – My Mother's Grave
*The song a child who visits the grave of the mother who perished in the Holocaust.
Babi Yar
*About the Babi Yar massacre. The song is that of a Jewish soldier who returns to Kiev and learns that all his family was massacred.
Tulchin
* Tulchyn was under the Romanian administration during the Holocaust. The song was written by a 10-year-old who lost his family in the ghetto in Tulchin
Sergei Erdenko, Romani violinist, collaborator of Yehudi Menuhin and founder of the group Loyko.
Artur Gorbenko, violinst, pianist, composer for films and television programs, and former concertmaster from the Leningrad Conservatory.
Mikhail Savichev, classical and Romani guitarist, graduate of Russia's Novosibirsk Conservatory, before moving to Spain to study under the mentorship of Paco de Lucia.
Isaac Rosenberg, 12 years old when the project started; performs music written by a Jewish orphan whose parents perished during the Holocaust.
Anna Shternshis, Al and Malka Green Professor in Yiddish Studies and the Director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto
