My Russian Grandmother’s music: Preserving a Yiddish culture of Song

From earliest childhood, I remember my bubbe Bessie's tremulous voice as she sang Yiddish lullabies. The words, faintly heard, were upstaged by rapturous melodies. She was otherwise a fixture in a small kitchen, preparing chicken soup with luction (noodles); kneading dough for Shabbat challah; chopping fresh carp to make gefilte fish cakes, and throwing together…

Little apple, Big Apple, mayhem, murder and music: my family’s history and genealogy

While shuffling papers within a folder labeled “Piano tuners/technicians,” I stumbled upon two pages clipped together, titled “Descendants of Zalmen Tapruakh (1835-1915) and Michelle Tzinn.” (1850-1915) These were my maternal great grandparents. Tapruakh means “little apple.” (Ironically, I lived in the Big Apple for the first 30 years of my life) The genealogy papers were…