Monday, May 03, 2010

Beth and Maggi Playing Ani Ma'amin

The song Ani Ma'amin, is taken from a poem based upon the thirteen Jewish principles of faith, each line beginning with "I believe with perfect faith"

One version of the tune is attributed to the Reb Azriel David, a Modzitser Hasid, who reportedly composed the tune in a cattle car when being taken to Treblinka. The tune was taken up by other Jewish people who sang the song as they were being herded into the gas chambers of the Nazi concentration camps and later became known as the Hymn of the Camps. It is still frequently sung at Holocaust Remembrance Day services. Some also sang it at the Passover seder, in memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising which began on the first night of Passover in 1943.

My friend Beth, who is a violinist with the Muny orchestra in St. Louis and a new friend I met while visiting there, was very gracious to play the piece with me at our church this weekend, with Sue Hill doing the vocals. Unfortunately, the quality of the video for that performance wasn't very good, so I am including this version with just the two of us recorded in my home later that evening.