Binyumen Schaechter
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Binyumen (Ben) Schaechter (1963-) is a Yiddish composer and performer, as well as conductor of the Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus (JPPC) and the Pripetshik Singers, an ensemble of native-Yiddish-speaking children. They have performed at Lincoln Center, Shea Stadium, Synagogues, and JCC's across the Northeast.
As a performer, he has traveled across North America and in Paris in his one-man show, The Shtetl Comes To Life and together with his daughter Reyna Schaechter in From Kinahora To Kuni-Ayland, his musical revue about the Jewish experience in America.
[edit] Works
- Naked Boys Singing
- Pets! (Dramatic Publishing)
- That's Life! (Outer Critics Circle nomination)
- Too Jewish? (nominated: Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards)
- Double Identity
- Dinner at Eight (BMI's Jerry Bock Award)
He provided the translations for the first-ever DVD with Yiddish subtitles, The Life And Times Of Hank Greenberg.
[edit] Family
Schaechter is a member of a leading family in Yiddish language and cultural studies. His father, Mordkhe Schaechter, was an influential linguist of the Yiddish language; his aunt, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman is a Yiddish poet and songwriter; his cousin, Itzik Gottesman, is an editor of The Yiddish Forward and the Tsukunft, and a scholar of Yiddish folklore. His sister Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath is a Yiddish poet, sister Rukhl Schaechter is a journalist with the Yiddish Forward, and sister Eydl Reznik teaches Yiddish among the ultra-Orthodox community in Tsfat, Israel. Schaechter and his sisters all maintain Yiddish-speaking homes.
