Giora Feidman’s clarinet donated to the core exhibition

photo session

Giora Feidman has been one of the world’s best-known klezmer musicians for decades. He became famous over­night in Germany for his role in the contem­porary historical drama Ghetto by Israeli play­wright Joshua Sobol, which was staged by Peter Zadek at the Freie Volks­bühne theater in West Berlin in 1984 and was named play of the year. His music was every­where in the FRG from that point onwards – in both non-Jewish and Jewish con­texts. To date, the “King of Klezmer” has released more than 40 CDs and contri­buted music to many films, including Schindler's List. Feidman has received many awards, such as the re­nowned German music prize Echo Klassik and the Federal Cross of Merit, the latter for his services to relations between Jews and Germans.

“My parents emi­grated from Bessarabia to Buenos Aires, where I was born in 1936,” Giora Feidman tells us. “They brought with them from Eastern Europe the Jewish melo­dies and songs that have accom­panied me since my child­hood – in Argentina, later in Israel, Germany, and ulti­mately all over the world. I’ve been singing them on stage with my clari­net for 75 years; they connect me with God.” Feidman had the clarinet he is giving to the JMB made in 2018. “It has a beautiful, lush, full tone. I was personally involved with the develop­ment of its tone,” he says enthusias­tically. “I am donating this precious instru­ment to the JMB because I want to support the mission and work of this special place. My visit to the new core exhi­bition last year touched me deeply.”

Hetty Berg, Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, is deligh­ted with the donation: “Feidman sparked a klezmer boom in Germany. An entire generation has asso­ciated his clarinet music with “Jewishness”, even though klezmer is a musical tradition that initially had nothing to do with the German-Jewish heritage and only became linked to it through the re­vival. His clarinet will mean our collec­tion includes a musical instrument that not only represents a Jewish style of music but also the revival of Jewish culture in Germany. That’s why it will be part of our new core exhibition.”

The JMB will be exhi­biting the clarinet in its seg­ment entitled The Jewish Object. The concept behind it is the question of what is or could be “Jewish” about an object. The objects are always set in context with a quotation from the owners or donors. “Feidman’s clari­net fits in perfectly here,” says Hetty Berg. “What’s Jewish about a clarinet? Nothing, per se – but it becomes Jewish through Feidman’s music and musical mission.”

Tickets for the concert on 26 July 2022 are available from even­tim (43.35 € / concessions 21 € plus postage) and from the box office.

The concert is being held in cooperation with MACC Management GmbH.

Please register for the photo sessions by emailing presse@jmberlin.de or calling +49 (0)30 259 93 419 at the latest by noon on Monday, 25 July 2022.