‘To Make the Archives Sing’: Old Jewish Argentinian songs recorded for the first time

In Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, melodies of a nearly forgotten past are being revived thanks to two Argentine Jewish musicologists, Silvia Glocer and Yasmin Garfunkel.

Together, they are on a mission to bring back the music of Jewish immigrants who arrived in Argentina during the 20th century, fleeing violence and discrimination in Europe.

Their project, titled “Para que los archivos suenen” (“To Make the Archives Sing”), seeks to preserve and share pieces of Argentina’s Jewish musical heritage with songs that have never been recorded or whose recordings have been lost.

“The most beautiful thing we come across in our research as musicologists is when we find the sheet music, whether in print or handwritten,” Glocer said.

She has spent over 20 years researching the music of Jewish immigrants in Argentina, unearthing sheet music from composers who left Europe for what is now the largest Jewish community in Latin America, and the seventh largest in the world.

Central to the project is Garfunkel, a 33-year-old singer who has taken on the challenge of interpreting and performing the songs, most of which are Yiddish.

Garfunkel’s passion for Yiddish music is deeply personal: She attended Jewish schools growing up and is now a student and teacher of Yiddish. She feels a strong connection to her heritage, which she can explore through the songs she records for the project.

“The fact that I could sing Yiddish songs which haven’t been recorded before is fascinating for me,” she said.

Garfunkel and her partner, pianist Federico Garber, work together in their Buenos Aires apartment to find the right sound for each song before recording. Since there are no previous recordings to guide them, they must make creative decisions about how to perform each piece.

“I try to figure out, for example, which tempo is the best one that could fit the character and which is the character of the song,” Garfunkel said.

“The challenge is how to turn sound into music,” Garber added.

Through their performances and recordings, Garfunkel and Garber aim to honor both the composers and the generations of Jewish immigrants who made Argentina their home.

Glocer uncovered unrecorded works by several notable musicians. Among them was Bernardo Feuer, a composer and choir director whose work was recorded as part of the project.

One of his songs is “Unter dayne vayse shtern” (“Under Your White Stars”), based on a raw and heartbreaking poem Avrom Sutzkever wrote during his days in the Vilna Ghetto, which Feuer set to music in the early 1950s.

The emotional impact of the project is evident in the reactions of those who hear the songs, particularly the descendants of the composers, like Judith Elkes, granddaughter of Bernardo Feuer.

She recalls the moment she first heard Garfunkel and Garber’s recording of “Unter dayne vayse shtern.”

“I listened to the recording and I also sent it to my mom,” she said. “It was incredibly powerful for me, incredibly powerful. Yasmin’s version is so sweet.”

For Elkes, the project is more than just the preservation of her family’s musical legacy — it’s a way to bring her grandfather’s voice back into the world. Feuer, who believed in the healing power of music, said that music could cure the ailments of the Jewish people.

Another of Glocer’s discoveries is a vidalita, a traditional Argentine musical genre, with — in this case — lyrics in Yiddish instead of Spanish. This fusion of Jewish and Argentine cultures is symbolic of the immigrant experience — Jews from Europe brought their traditions to Argentina and adapted them to their new home.

Glocer and Garfunkel’s project, which is supported by the Instituto de Artes del Espectáculo at the University of Buenos Aires, began with live performances in 2022. By 2023, they had recorded seven pieces. The recordings are now available online, allowing listeners around the world to experience these nearly lost songs.