The Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir has its spring concert on June 15, <\/i>at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture. <\/i>(photo from VJFC)<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i>The Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir\u2019s spring concert this year celebrates the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture\u2019s 80th anniversary.<\/p>\n
Since it was established in 1979, the choir has been recovering, preserving and singing traditional and contemporary Jewish folk music. This year\u2019s concert \u2013 on June 15, 7 p.m., at the Peretz Centre \u2013 features \u201cIkh bin a yid,\u201d a cantata by Vladimir Heifetz (1894-1970), based on the poem by Itzik Feffer (1900-1952). Feffer was a Soviet Yiddish poet and member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee who was executed on the Night of the Murdered Poets. The poem emphasizes how, through courage and creativity, the Jewish people have survived centuries of adversity.<\/p>\n
The choir also will perform \u201cSankt besht,\u201d a poem by Itsik Manger set to music by Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir director David Millard. In the poem, the Baal Shem Tov (the 18th-century Jewish mystic and founder of the Hasidic movement) is awakened from sleep and meditates on grief, joy and dreams.<\/p>\n
On the program, as well, is a selection of songs arranged by choir founder Searle Friedman, including \u201cDoyres Zingen\u201d (\u201cGenerations Sing\u201d), based on a poem by Ben Chud, first principal of the Peretz Shule.<\/p>\n