Nechama Lifshitz-Melodies from My Father's Home — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

The legend of Nechama Lifshitz, a Yiddish singer 

The Vilnius Gaon State Jewish Museum presents an exhibition at the Kaunas City Museum dedicated to the memory of the famous Yiddish singer  Nechama Lifshitz  (1927–2017), who was born and began her musical career in Kaunas.

The exhibition called Nechama was exhibited for the first time in 2017. Vilnius Gaon State Jewish Museum. In Kaunas, the exhibition was supplemented by Nechama's musical narrative - a concert program created in Tel Aviv - "Melodies from My Father's Home".

Nechama's father Judelis Lifšicas worked as a Hebrew language teacher at Kaunas Jewish  Gymnasium in Tarbut  (Hebrew "Kultūra"), later as a doctor at the Independent Lithuanian Armed Forces and Kaunas Military Hospital. J. Lifšic became the first music teacher of Nechama - he taught playing the violin and singing in Yiddish and Hebrew. After the war, Nechama studied at the then Kaunas Conservatory, later at the LSSR Conservatory in Vilnius, and began his musical career as an opera soloist . However, the traditional Jewish melodies and songs she grew up with in her parents ’home kept ringing in the girl’s memory and heart, so at her father’s urging she returned to her musical origins and began composing a musical program in Yiddish with like-minded poets and composers.

People who attended her concerts on this side and beyond the Iron Curtain called Necham a " Jewish nightingale ," the "silenced voice of the Jews of the Soviet Union." Nechama recreated the phenomenon on the stage with the magic of his voice, words, and gestures, something that two totalitarian regimes had immersed in the past - the traditional Jewish life in cities and towns. In her person the audience saw both a rabbi and a shoemaker, a baker and a tailor. The singer became one of the first creators to dare to revive the memory of the Holocaust. Her program featured melodies from the Vilnius and Kaunas ghettos. Even in 1969. After going to live in Israel, the singer never forgot Lithuania and as soon as the country announced the restoration of independence, Nechama Lifšicaitė arrived in her parents' land with a concert program.

The family of Nechama Lifšicaitė also dedicates this exhibition to the memory of the Kaunas ghetto and the rescuers of Lithuanian Jews - the righteous nations of the world.

The curator of the exhibition is Aušra Rožankevičiūtė, a museologist at the History Research Department of the Vilnius Gaon State Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Exposition.

The organizer of the exhibition is the Vilnius Gaon State Jewish Museum.

The sponsors of the exhibition are the family of Nechama Lifšicaitė, the Goodwill Foundation.

The exhibition will run at the Town Hall Department of Kaunas City Museum (Rotušės Sq. 15)  until December 5

Jewish Community Of Lithuania

Nechama Lifshitz – Melodies from my Father’s Home 2019 / Roza Litay

The exhibition ‘Melodies from my Father’s Home’ is dedicated to the legendary singer of the ‘Jews of Silence’, Nechama Lifshitz. It was initiated by the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, and was presented in memory of those who had perished in the Kovno (Kaunas) Ghetto, including members of Nechama’s family, and in memory of the Righteous Among the Nations who had endangered their own lives to save and help Jews during World War II.

The exhibition was held at the Kovno Municipal Museum at the City Hall in the old city. Symbolically, the opening date of the exhibition was just before Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement) and Nechama Lifshitz’s birthday.

Kovno’s Jewish community participated together with representatives of ‘Kovno - the Capital of European Culture 2022’, and representatives of Kovno’s Tourist Board, women from Vilna’s International Women’s Organization, representatives of the Vilna Gaon Museum with its director Kamilė Rupeikaitė-Mariniuk and curator Aušra Rožankevičiūtė Aushra Rozankevitzute, not forgetting the head of Kovno’s Jewish community Gertzas Žakas, the head of Kovno’s religious Jewish community Mauša Mausha Bairakas, and many others.

A memorial candle was lit at the opening in memory of those who had perished and the Righteous Among the Nations who are no longer alive.

Roza Litay (Nechama Lifschitz’s daughter) took part in the lighting of the memorial candle accompanied by descendants of the Righteous Among the Nations Piatras and Birutė Fedaravičius Birute Fedaravitshus family - daughter Dalia Fedaravičiūtė, Fedaravitshute daughter-in-law Ingrida Fedaravičienė Fedaravitshene and grandson Vytautas Verkelis.

At the start of World War II in 1939, Piatras Fedaravitshus was in a position to help the Jewish refugees from Poland receive entry visas into Lithuania. This, in turn, enabled the majority of them to be saved by the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who issued them with exit visas. Chiune Sugihara was the Japanese consul in Kovno and saved thousands of Jews. He was later declared a Righteous Among the Nations for his aid to the refugees in Lithuania. Later on, during the war, Piatras and his wife hid and saved Jews in their home at great risk to themselves.

The musical interlude was based on classical Jewish music played by the virtuoso violinist, Boris Traubas, accompanied by Eglé Perkumaité on the piano and Ula Petraityte on the flute.