Zamir: Jewish Voices Return to Poland

Sixty years ago, the HaZamir Chorale of Lodz, a popular Jewish chorale founded in 1899, lost most of its members in the Nazi death camps. Today, Boston's Zamir Chorale, formed by conductor and artistic director Joshua Jacobson, and dedicated to the memory of the original chorale, continues the legacy of Jewish folk music before and during the Holocaust. Part history, part travelogue, this documentary follows the Boston chorale on their 1999 concert tour of Eastern Europe to celebrate the centenary of the Zamir (Hebrew for "nightingale") era. Traveling through Warsaw, Lodz, Auschwitz, Krakow, Prague and Terezin, the chorale performs a diverse repertoire--much of which hasn't been performed since the Holocaust--in synagogues, churches, cemeteries, restaurants, concert halls and, most vividly, the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps. In addition to concert and tour footage, interviews with surviving chorale members, archival photographs, and footage from the 1955 documentary Night and Fog help illustrate the fate of Jewish music and musicians during the Holocaust. A small but revealing slice of 20th century history underscored by moving musical performances, this is definitely recommended for Jewish history and music collections. Aud: H, C, P. (A. Cantú)