At the start of the 20th century there was a renaissance of Jewish culture in Russia. Artists such as Marc Chagall and El Lissitzky used Jewish themes in their art. Writers such as Chaim Nachman Bialik and Sholom Aleichem wrote poems and stories in Hebrew and Yiddish. The music by composers such as Joseph Achron (1886-1943), Mikhail Gnesin (1883-1957), Alexander Krein (1883-1951), Moshe Milner (1886-1953) and Alexander Veprik (1899-1958) was inspired by Jewish themes. They founded the St. Petersburg Jewish Folk Music Society in 1908. It was an unprecedented collective effort to create a Jewish national school of classical music. The movement was crushed by the Stalin regime. Mieczylaw Weinberg (1919-1996), Veniamin Basner (1925-1996) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) belonged to a later generation of Russian composers who were inspired by Jewish themes. World War II and the reign of terror in the Soviet Union had a deep impact on the composers. At a time when Jewish culture was taboo and open pronouncements could have fatal consequences, it was often years before their works could be performed. Some scores never left the composer’s drawers or remained buried in archives. Now, many years later, these musical jewels have been rediscovered.
