“The story is about wax cylinders that were thought to be lost and were found in an old Soviet-style archive that lead to the discovery of recorded Yiddish songs. This discovery set the authors on a journey no one could have predicted. It was simply wonderful.

Moses Beregovsky’s amazing foresight to travel into Ukrainian villages and create a record of the people and culture from the mid 1930’s to the late 1940’s, should stand the test of time. He captured a period, including WWII, as well as the songs and music of those who perished in camps and alike circumstances, some of whom literally wrote music and lyrics stating how they were about to go to their deaths.

The documentary is very much worth seeing.”

MB.

“In my social and professional life with a Jewish spoken accent, I have watched many films about the Holocaust. Many of them were crying for the departed people, places, music, language, traditions. But somehow everything was separate. And only now, after watching this wonderful work, after seeing and hearing the stories of Beregovsky I felt with my stomach the scale of this huge and complex tragedy as an example of what could happen on Earth with its people, regardless of their skin color and religion. The work is wonderful andI congratulate the producer, especially Her Majesty the Director of the movie.”

Mikhail Nemirovsky
Director Russian speaking Outreach of JCRCNY

“Congratulations – it’s a significant accomplishment. Beregovski would have been ecstatic to see himself finally properly celebrated. Your trips to the Beregovski towns were moving and unique, and the additional information on the fate of his materials very welcome.” 

Mark Slobin
Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music Emeritus
Wesleyan University

“I really enjoyed watching the movie on Jewish Ukrainian music. This is not only about music but also about the culture revealed in detail. The testimonies of survivors where very authentic and touching. I discovered that Sholem Aleichem was Ukrainian and not Polish. I was surprised by the high quality of the production, very well done!”

Roger Kuperways, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus NYU

“The bulk of the output produced by Soviet Yiddish-language academic institutions in the 1920s-1940s has become irrelevant to the radically changed societal, linguistic, and ideological environment of Jewish life today. However, this does not apply to the legacy of the momentous works in the field of Jewish ethnomusicology left by Moisei (Moyshe) Beregovski. The film helps understand and appreciate his remarkable -- and tragic -- life's achievement.”

Gennady Estraikh
Professor, New York University

Threads of the sun
over dark desolation,
thought,
tall tree,
absorbs the sound of light: there are
still songs to sing on the other side
of people.
Paul Celan. Translated (Original to Russian) by Mark Belorusets.

“The leitmotif of the film "Song Searcher", which was a real shock for me, was the image of the Fiddler in the cemetery of the dead city. Elena Yakovich, the director of this multifaceted and moving film, has already created a number of vivid and deep films, the main theme of which was the belief that memory and creativity cannot be killed or destroyed. "Song Searcher" is a worthy proof of this thesis.

The violinist is a symbol of the music and soul of the Jewish people, unyielding, indestructible and unconquered. Hence the main idea of ​​the film - one person can change history and remain true to himself even in the worst of times. I speak of Moisey Beregovsky, linguist and ethnographer, scientist and writer, thanks to whose courage and miracle of fate, an archive of songs written in the midst of the horrors of the Holocaust but not destroyed in its flames has been preserved.

I will not retell the content of this deep, in places heartbreaking film. Everyone should watch it! You need to see the faces, hear the voices of people remembering the hell they went through. One has to imagine these fragile wax rollers with recordings of songs brought from pre-war ethnographic expeditions. Moisey Beregovsky managed to record and thereby save thousands of Jewish folk songs and many pieces of music from the repertoire of folk theaters. How these rollers, taken by the Nazis to Germany, and the recordings of songs created in the fire of the Holocaust survived and were saved, the film tells about it with restraint and majesty. Priceless treasures survived both the Holocaust and the Stalinist persecutions, were hidden, lost in the library, and found only in the early nineties.

It took over ten years for the miraculous transformation into sounds to take place. Anna Shternshis of the University of Toronto and Psoy Korolenko, an ethnographer and singer-songwriter, recovered the texts written on fragile scraps of paper, found melodies, and the songs came to life. An album appeared, and voices sounded again, which should not have sung according to any laws of logic and reality. But it's true. Still, they are alive, just as the archive of Beregovsky, which was supposed to be destroyed, turned out to be alive. Moses Beregovsky always believed that the archive was gone forever. Returning from the Stalinist camps. He tried to find his archive, and also tried to publish those papers that he miraculously managed to pull out from the bowels of the Kiev’s “Lubyanka” (KGB prison in Kiev). But Moses did not succeed. After his death, his wife for many years tried to publish at least those sheets that miraculously got to her, but her efforts came to nothing.

And yet, in the nineties, materials were published both in Kiev and in Moscow. The name of Moses Beregovsky, a scientist-collector, sage and guardian, has not been forgotten. The memory of him is alive, and the creative heritage of Beregovsky is carefully preserved and continues on its way.

Again and again I return to the film’s theme of the violinist, to the theme of the eternal life of the people, through suffering and grief, through the inexpressible horror of one who carried his memory, language, culture, his music, his voice. And this voice was preserved, in spite of everything.  

All must be done to ensure that the film "Song Searcher" is seen by as many people as possible. I am sure this is necessary! It is necessary at least to remember those who laid down their lives and destiny, their souls for these songs, this music, these voices to be preserved. 

I would like to especially mention the highest professionalism, passion and dedication of the director Elena Yakovich and here collaborators, and offer my deep gratitude to all the creators of this very important and necessary film and those who revived the archive and continues to work on its musical embodiment...

Let us bow in eternal memory to Moses Beregovsky, his widow and his associates - employees of the Cabinet of Jewish Culture.”

Viktoriya Zeltsman
Journalist, Art History 12/10/2020