My dad was born on a farm in 1928 near Estevan, Saskatchewan. His parents, Fanny and Charlie came from Russian Ukraine and England respectively, but their Jewish heritage provided a common language: Yiddish. As a young child, Chaim spoke no other language.
When Chaim was six years old, the family moved to Winnipeg. He attended the Strathcona School in North Winnipeg, whose mission was to assimilate non-English speaking immigrant children. He found the school environment depressing, and desperate to get out of Strathcona, he learned English quickly.
Around seventy five years later, Chaim speaks British, but thinks Yiddish. His conversational Yiddish is a little dormant, but he clearly remembers the songs his mother sang to him, so long ago.
When he visited me last spring, I sang to him a bittersweet lullaby that I was certain he knew, Rozhinkes mit Mandlen (Raisins and Almonds). He joined in with a deep, yet soft timbre. Elated, he then rattled off names and lyrics of other songs that sprang to mind. And so began my musical conversation with him.
