The voice that remains
Rebecca Shapiro
One mother. A songbook. A world of memory
Rebecca carried Jewish songs into Russian from older Yiddish, Hebrew and other sources. Her voice lives in Joseph’s memory. The students give the songs another life in English. Rebecca feeds this story with music; Kate Miller feeds it with food.
In 1939, six-year-old Rebecca arrives in the Netherlands without her parents. The Olsen family takes her in and shelters her during the occupation. At fourteen, she moves to Brooklyn, carrying the music box Jan gave her and the songs she remembers.
Years later, Erik Olsen tells Rebecca what lies beneath the box’s lining: the yellow star his non-Jewish father wore in solidarity with persecuted Jews. Jan’s wife had sewn it into the gift. Joseph does not know what it conceals when he shares the box and songbook with his students.
