by admin_harrietbennish | Jan 15, 2021 | Uncategorized
My husband said, “Don’t bring up the attack on the Capitol! No one wants to read about that on your blog.” But when I saw a man wearing a sweatshirt with large bold letters that read “Camp Auschwitz” and remembered how 1.1 million people were put to their...
by admin_harrietbennish | Dec 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
Looking Back at This Year This blog is more of a ‘Thank you’ to all of you who have taken the time to read my blogs over the past few months. During the pandemic, without the opportunity to have in-person concerts, being able to write about my journey and this...
by admin_harrietbennish | Dec 12, 2020 | Uncategorized
The title of my program, “Tears, Joy, and Hope” reflects the emotions stirred within me every time I rehearsed these songs for my concert. These Yiddish songs written in the Jewish Ghettos are both profoundly beautiful and haunting. Because I had researched the...
by admin_harrietbennish | Nov 29, 2020 | Uncategorized
When I made up my mind to create a concert of Jewish music I wasn’t entirely clear what my direction would be. Should I do a concert of Yiddish theatre songs? Or maybe a program of Jewish folk songs? To help me decide I called on the late Ethel Weinstein for...
by admin_harrietbennish | Nov 7, 2020 | Uncategorized
In my last blog, I wrote about wanting to attend a Jewish sleepaway camp and how my parents told me they could not afford it. Something I failed to mention though, is that my child-like persistence continued and I soon tried another approach. “Can I go to music...
by admin_harrietbennish | Oct 24, 2020 | Uncategorized
In 2018, if someone asked me if I had plans for the summer, I would respond enthusiastically “I’m going to sleepaway camp!”. Everyone looked both amused and surprised at my genuinely excited response. In truth, I had every reason to be excited. I had never been...
by admin_harrietbennish | Oct 5, 2020 | Uncategorized
My first formal introduction to Jewish music took place in my Rabbi’s kitchen when I was just a young girl. I must have been about nine years old when Rabbi Schick would stop our Hebrew class about fifteen minutes before it was over, point to me, address me by my...
by admin_harrietbennish | Sep 14, 2020 | Uncategorized
“There had not been a marriage at B’nai Israel Synagogue in 20 years, but I always knew I would return to get married there.” Growing up in the 1950’s, the only synagogue in my hometown of Shamokin, Pennsylvania was the B’nai Israel Orthodox Synagogue. ...
by admin_harrietbennish | Aug 31, 2020 | Uncategorized
May 31, 2020 was to have been an eventful day for both Yiddish and my emerging career. The Los Angeles Central Library offers a series of eclectic concerts and performances entitled “LA Made”. Funded by The National Endowment for the Humanities, the concerts are held...
by admin_harrietbennish | Aug 17, 2020 | Uncategorized
When I was 11 years old, late at night while falling asleep, I would listen to an LP album of “Favorite Jewish Music” that belonged to my parents. There were no words, only the sad sounds of an orchestra making me teary-eyed as I listened to the old-world...
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