Forever in Our House: The Meir Noy Yiddish Song Project

Forever in Our House brings to life seventeen unique Yiddish songs – never before recorded – drawn from the hand-written notebooks of musicologist and ethnographer Meir Noy (1922–1998).  Across twenty-six notebooks, Noy documented over 2,400 Yiddish songs gathered from his hometown and family, oral sources, radio broadcasts, newspapers, and more – a lifelong effort to preserve Jewish music and culture that began in his native Kolomyia, Galicia, before World War II, and continued through his service in the Red Army, his time in a refugee camp in Cyprus, and decades of life in Israel.

Conceived and produced by Yiddish singer Sharon Bernstein, the album was recorded with Stu Brotman, Josh Horowitz, Cookie Segelstein, Michael Winograd, Frank London, Ariel Spagnolo, and Jane Lenoir. It will be accompanied by a soon-to-be-released book of the same title due to appear in the JMRC Yuval Music Series (vol. 14). This project reflects years of archival and musical research, and incorporates manuscript scans, Yiddish texts, transliterations, and annotations prepared in collaboration with Yiddish language expert Dovid Braun. It is accompanied by a comprehensive overview of the Meir Noy collection and individual song commentaries by Michael Lukin.

We express our gratitude to Gila Flam, Itzik Gottesman, Mark Slobin, and Josh Waletzky, and to Amalia Kedem, Music Curator of the National Library of Israel, whose contributions helped make this project possible. Through this remarkable collaboration, Meir Noy's legacy sings again.

This project was made possible in part through the generous support of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, in partnership with the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Grants for the Arts, and The California Endowment, as well as the Chaim Schwartz Foundation and the Workers Circle/Arbeter Ring of Northern California.

Musicians:

Stuart Brotman: Bass, Contrabass Balalaika, Bass Drum & Snare, Shot Glasses, Ludwig Jingle (Tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17); Josh Horowitz: Accordion (Tracks 2, 4, 5, 7-10, 12, 15); Cookie Segelstein: Violin (Tracks 5, 9, 10, 12, 15); Michael Winograd: Clarinet (Tracks 4, 7, 9); Ariel Spagnolo: Bassoon, Glockenspiel (Tracks 6, 13); Frank London: Trumpet, Horn (Track 15); Jane Lenoir: Flute (Track 17); Sharon Bernstein: Voice, Piano, Organ, Guiro Frog