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The Week in Germany: Culture August 17, 2007 German Pop and Hip Hop Stars Lend their Voice to the Poems of A Teenage Holocaust Victim at Berlin's Jewish Cultural Days
Artists from Israel and Germany will present a diverse program of music, theater, films and recitals at the annual Jewish Cultural Days in Berlin from August 31 to September 9. The main attraction will be a musical evening on September 8 entitled “Selma - Shrouded in Desire.” It features German hip-hop and pop artists singing poems by the Romanian Holocaust victim Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger. A cousin of Paul Celan, Meerbaum-Eisinger perished in 1942 at the age of 18 in a Nazi labor camp in Ukraine. She left behind an astonishing legacy of 57 love poems dedicated to her unrequited love. The poems, published in 1979 in Israel, express the joys and sorrows of a teenager in love. The poems show a musical sense of meter and a talent for weaving images that has established them firmly as a small piece of world literature. The Swiss jazz musician David Klein composed music for her poems, and a handful of stars from Germany's hip-hop, soul, and rock scenes has been recruited to sing them during the Jewish Cultural days. Thomas D rose to fame as a member of “Die Fantastischen Vier” (The Fantastic Four), one of Germany's earliest and most successful rap troupes. Since he began releasing solo albums in 1997, the tatooed Stuttgart native with a shorn head has established himself as a leading figure in the unlikely genre of German smooth rap. Joy Denalane, a Berlin native who sings in unaccented English, perhaps thanks to her South African father, is the Hauptstadt's answer to neo-soul. Her sophomore record “Born and Raised” was recorded in Philadelphia and boasts guest appearances by Jay-Z-protégé Lupe Fiasco and Raekwon of the Wu-Tang clan. The record debuted at number two in the German charts, establishing Denalane as the “Undisputed Queen of German Soul.” Stefanie Kloß is the lead singer of the chart-topping rock band Silbermond from Bautzen, the Saxon town otherwise known for its ubiquitous mustard and an infamous GDR prison. The band, which favors sensitive yet arena-friendly rock, is at the forefront of a renaissance of German-language pop that has swept Germany in recent years. Volkan Baydar and Lea Finn will round out the bill at the Rykestraße synagogue, which will reopen for the festival following a three year rennovation.
Tucked away on a picturesque, tree-lined street in Prenzlauer Berg, the Synagogues' modest red-brick facade belies its true size. With a seating capacity of 1,200, it is the larges synagogue in Germany. Immigration from the former Soviet Union since the 1990's has lead to a renaissance of Jewish life in Germany, especially in the capital, where the local community counts over 12,000 members. "Berlin is proud that Jewish life and Jewish culture are thriving once again in our city," the capital's governing mayor, Klaus Wowereit, said in a message introducing the event. Links: Jewish Cultural Days Berlin (in German) More on Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger from the University of Cincinnati |
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