Photo: Courtesy of National Yiddish Theatre Folksbeine
Tony Perry sings during a performance of Soul to Soul
A press release touts Soul to Soul as following "the experience of the African American and Jewish communities and their paths to America’s promise of freedom" in a "dazzling" multimedia program. Featuring performers with careers spanning "from Broadway to the pulpit," the show contains songs ranging from spirituals, jazz, and civil rights era anthems to traditional Yiddish songs and the Great American Songbook, culminating in a "high-energy" musical performance highlighting the relationship between Black and Ashkenazi Jewish Americans.
NYTF, which was also responsible for the 2019 Yiddish adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof, has been performing Soul to Soul since its conception in 2010 by Zalmen Mlotek, artistic director at the NYTF.
“The songs show the parallels between African American history and Jewish history and remind us that, while the world may try to tear us apart, we are more alike than we are different. We share the same hopes and desires,” Mlotek tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “Though imbued with songs that illustrate a difficult history, Soul to Soul is actually wonderfully uplifting and joyous.”
Soul to Soul will take place on Sat., Feb., 17 at the recently-renovated Kaufmann Center, which is run by ACH Clear Pathways, and is the site of the historic Irene Kaufmann Settlement house, an early 20th-century community center that provided resources for recent immigrants to Pittsburgh.
NYTF believes the Hill District embodies the shared history of the Black and Jewish communities in Pittsburgh. The company points out that the neighborhood was the center of Pittsburgh Jewish life from the late 1880s into the early 1930s, and, starting before World War I, became a cultural center of Black life and a major center of jazz.
The Kaufmann Center now serves as an artistic hub and repository of this cultural legacy.
After the show, the cast will present a talkback covering the origins of the show. University of Pittsburgh history professor Laurence Glasco will also discuss jazz and the collaboration between Black and Jewish musicians in the Hill.
Accompanying the show will be multimedia imagery and video, curated by Motl Didner, that reflect what a press release calls "the ongoing need for unity and healing in today’s socio-economic climate."
Motl Didner, assistant artistic director at the NYTF, believes the show strives to capture the multifaceted lived experience faced by both Black and Jewish Americans.
“It’s an emotionally charged exploration of each community’s joyful, optimistic hopes for the future and the deep mourning for suffering they’ve faced; and interspersed is humor, which is often the only mechanism people have to stand up to their oppressors,” says Didner.
Soul to Soul. 7:30 p.m. Sat., Feb., 17. Kaufmann Center. 1825 Centre Ave., Hill District. Tickets start at $25. bethshalompgh.org/soul
