Moshe Koussevitzky (1899–1966) in Vilna, Warsaw, and Russia

Vilna

During the First World War Vilna had served as a battleground for the Russian and German armies, belonging to one side or the other according to who was victorious on any given day. Early in 1918, with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and Germany's impending defeat by the Allies, Lithuania declared its independence, with Vilna as its capital. Bolshevik elements still controlled areas of the country and set up revolutionary authorities. In July 1920 a peace accord was signed in Moscow, whereby the Soviet Union recognized an independent Lithuania and its new capital of Vilna. Russia also assumed the obligation of assisting in the return of Lithuanian war refugees to their homeland. Among those returnees was the Koussevitzky family.

Despite the Russo-Lithuanian agreement, the Polish general Lucjan Żeligowski captured Vilna and its suburbs—including the Koussevitzkys' home town of Smorgon—and annexed the entire area of 32,250 square kilometres as Polish territory. Relations between Lithuania and Poland were ruptured, and the border between them would remain sealed until 1939. The Lithuanian government fled to Kaunas, which became the capital-in-exile. Inevitably, the change of regime affected Jewish citizens, who were forced to swear allegiance accordingly.

The Koussevitzky family reached Vilna in the autumn of 1921. In a series of memoirs that he later published in the cantorial periodical Di khazonim velt (Warsaw, 1933–4) entitled 'From My Recent Past', Moshe Koussevitzky tells of his path to the position of chief cantor at the Great Synagogue of Vilna. That grand edifice, built as much below ground as above it due to local restrictions against exceeding the height of nearby churches, dated from 1573 and was the pride of Vilna's Jewish community.

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Grey and overcast were the days following the First World War. We had hoped to rest a bit in the 'Jerusalem of Lithuania' after all we'd gone through. We arrived with nothing, not a penny in our pockets. Luckily, we found a place to stay: the house of our cousin, whose husband Shmuel Shzurer taught at the Torat Emet School. Meanwhile, our grandfather, Sholom Shulman, passed away and his death only deepened the dejection in which the family found itself. At one of the family gatherings Nehamah, Shmuel's daughter, sang. She was a popular folk singer, acclaimed for her rendition of Rav Levi Yitzhok Berdichever's 'Kaddish'. When she performed it for us we were all moved to tears. Still under its spell, I was inspired to sing Zavel Kvartin's recitative, 'Tsur yisra'el'. [As a child, Moshe had spent hours on end in the Shzurers' home, glued to the phonograph, listening to recordings by Kvartin and Rosenblatt.]

When I finished the piece, Shmuel turned to his daughter and asked if she would take me along with her to choir rehearsals at the Culture League.

I accompanied Nehamah to a rehearsal and the conductor, Avraham Slep (1884–1942), asked me to sing something. Remembering the 'success' I'd enjoyed with Kvartin's 'Tsur yisra'el', I decided to sing another piece of his: 'Yehalelu' from the Torah service.

I sang it with a clear tone and marvellous coloratura: after the harrowing war years I was amazed at my ability to produce such ringing sounds. The room burst into applause and everyone wanted to shake my hand. The conductor rapped on his music stand and declared: 'Moshe, you're going to remain with us as our ḥazan.' His words penetrated my innermost being. From that moment I devoted any free time I could scrape together in the evenings to practice singing at the Culture League. Through rain, wind, snow, and storm I would run there, often forgetting to return home at a reasonable hour, to the annoyance of my family. My days were reserved for study at the well-known Ramelis Yeshiva.

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Moshe noted that the Culture League choir included among its members some very talented professional singers. Among them was the excellent bass Shlomo Scharf, who had returned with the other Lithuanian refugees from Russia and now sang in the choir of Taharat Hakodesh...