Undzer Stetle Brent- by Noga Ritter

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• published: 13 Oct 2015
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Undzer Shtetl Brent by Noga Ritter (Israel) at Milton Court Theatre June 2015 London Creative Collaborators and Performers: Barry Davis (UK) Yusuf Joe Legwabe (South Africa) Shahd Abusalama (Gaza-Palestine) About the project: My final research project, as part of the Music Leadership MA course at the Guildhall School of Music, led me to explore the journey of my voice as a conscious singer, songwriter and performer from Israel. My journey began when I first started singing as a child; performing in memorial ceremonies at my school and local scouts. I was singing songs that later I came to realize are being used as part of Israeli Zionist propaganda. The journey continued when I left Israel looking for an alternative reality and culture. I was also subconsciously repressing the songs I sang as a child, as they reminded me everything I ran away from in Israel such as Zionism, militarism and political occupation. One of the songs I recall singing as a child is the song "Undzer Shtetl Brent!" (Our Town Is Burning) by Mordecai Gebirtig. The song was written in 1936 following a pogrom in the Polish town of Przytyk. The song describes the enormous burning fire in the town, and the bystanders' apathy as they watched the fire without any attempt to stop it. The Jews in ghetto Krakow later used this song as a resistance song. The performance revisits the song ‘Undzer Shtetl Brent’ with a new approach; exploring the song’s meaning with three distinctive collaborators from different backgrounds and conflict areas. It examines the concepts of fire, immense tragedy and the passive observers described in the song, looking at each collaborator’s, as well as my own, relationship to these concepts. This musical collaboration investigates the questions of how different individuals can interpret and identify with this song, considering the perspective of their own political and cultural backgrounds, and how these different backgrounds are present in their artistic voices. Different elements of resistance are presented during the performance such as a rhythm that was used in demonstration in South Africa, and the song Yama Mwel El Hawa by Mahmoud Darwish, one of the most famous Palestinian resistance songs. The performance also includes screened parts from the documentary Izkor-Slaves of Memories by Eyal Sivan. About the creative collaborators-performers: Barry Davis- Barry was born in Hackney to Yiddish-speaking parents, and is a writer and teacher on Jewish History and Yiddish Literature. He studied history at LSE and Vienna, and Yiddish in Columbia, New York. He has written widely on Yiddish literature, including on Mordecai Gebirtig. He recently published an article on Yiddish translation in European Judaism. He has taught history at Kingston, West London and Warwick Universities and Yiddish in Oxford, SOAS University of London, London Jewish Cultural Centre (now JW3) and elsewhere. He has acted in, and advised on Yiddish in a number of films (including Schindler’s List, The Man Who Cried by Sally Potter, Michael Radford’s The Merchant of Venice) and given lectures on Yiddish film in Edinburgh and London, and has acted on stage in both Yiddish and English (including Sit and Shiver with Steven Berkoff). Yusuf Joe Legwabe- Yusuf is a South African vocalist, percussionist, composer, choreographer and dancer. Yusuf has taken part and led many international award-winning shows. He has worked with well known artists such as: Mahlathini & Mahotella Queens, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Lena Zaveroni, Yazz, Paul Younge, Lester Bowie & The Art Ensemble of Chicago, David Murry& The Saxaphonequinted, Amabutho, South African Gospel Choir, Yuval avital, Gial Thompson & Jazz Africa and Majuba. Yusuf has also composed Soundtracks for movies such as: The Gods must be Crazy, Tarzan The Ape Man, Ten Thousand BC, Strander, Sahara, Constant Gardner; The Wild Thorn Berry and Cry Freedom. Shahd Abusalama- Shahd is a Palestinian artist, a blogger and an MA student in Media and the Middle East at SOAS University. Shahd was born in Jabalia Refugee Camp in Gaza where she lived most of her life, originally from Beit-Jerja, an ethnically cleansed village in what is now called 'Israel'. She graduated with a BA from Al-Azhar Univerisity- Gaza in English Literature. She employs her talents for writing and drawing to portray her identity as a Palestinian and to make the voice of the oppressed people of Palestine heard. Her widely read blog Palestine From My Eyes is reproduced on the acclaimed activism website The Electronic Intifada and was published as a book in Italy in October, 2013. Being a daughter of a former Palestinian prisoner who spent 15 years in Israel's prisons has been the primary source of inspiration for her work fighting the on-going injustice that faces her people every day.