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PEOPLE
Klezmer musicians play for
Holocaust survivor and others in
Newton
By Cindy Cant rell
| G L O BE C O R R ES P O N DEN T
JULY 0 6 , 2 0 1 4
MA R K FR Y DEN BER G
Morris Hollender, a Holocaust survivor now living at Evans Park at Newt on Corner, has a front row seat for a performance of his music at t he resident ial facilit y for seniors.
NOTES IN HISTORY: In pursuit of his Eastern European Jewish musical heritage,
prominent jazz and klezmer musician Hankus Netsky of Newton estimates, he has
collected 200 musical pieces from Morris Hollender since meeting the Holocaust
survivor at Temple Beth Israel in Waltham in 1993.
Netsky, chairman of contemporary improvisation at the New England Conservatory, has
used the tunes in his teaching as well as performances with the Klezmer Conservatory
Band and Hebrew National Salvage. In addition, he provided all of the content and
helped design a permanent exhibition about Hollender’s cultural legacy at the Yiddish
Book Center in Amherst in 2007.
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Netsky recently brought 10 students and faculty members to meet 88-year-old
Hollender, a Czechoslovakian native who moved this winter from Watertown to the
Evans Park at Newton Corner facility for seniors. They performed traditional melodies
and songs that Netsky had learned from Hollender for 60 of his fellow residents, many of
whom were dancing by the end.
Netsky, who has collaborated on film and television projects with Itzhak Perlman, Robin
Williams, Joel Grey, and Theodore Bikel, said that the residents seemed to understand
that they were hearing something special. In turn, Hollender appreciated that his music
— which originated in a place where so many perished — has been so enthusiastically
adopted by a new generation.
“Morris is an educational force in the community,” said Netsky, noting he was originally
drawn to the music not because of its historical significance, but because it’s good.
“I wanted my students to see this musical heritage as something that’s alive, and Morris
is a one-in-a-million source,” he added. “I’ve been very lucky to have a mentor who has
so much to teach and share.”
SIGN OF THE TIMES: The Brain Busters, a team of fourth-graders from Pine Hill
Elementary School in Sherborn, received the top prize at the fourth annual FIRST (For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League Global Innovation
Award ceremony last month at the US Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va.