The Songs of the Jewish Shtetle is a cultural musical project aimed at preserving the Jewish cultural heritage. The project has gathered songs in Yiddish, a languageput on the Red List of Threatened Languages by UNESCO. Before World War II the number of native Yiddish speakers amounted to 11 million people. During Holocaust 6 million Jewish people were killed, thus the number of Yiddish speakers halved. The language continued in literature, oral speech, Ashkenazi folklore, and in songs. These songs reflect habits and ways, language and music, the soul of the Jewish people. The attitude to parents, children, neighbours, religion, work, native home, the world around and themselves, to life and death – all this is expressed in the art of singing, and each of the Songs of Jewish Shtetle becomes a little music play. The project is unique as the Jewish songs in Yiddish, which had been persecuted for centuries, the songs that had only been played by small klezmer ensembles before, were for the first time performed with all the vivacity of a big symphony orchestra. Efim Alexandrov, the author, art director and soloist of the project, Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation, singer and custodian of Yiddish song tradition, was awarded for his cultural activities including this project, with the Russian National Award “Person of the Year” in 2001 and the “Person of the Year – 5764” Award of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia in 2004. At "The Golden Nine" annual ceremony, where those who contributed most to all the spheres of Israeli society are rewarded, Efim Alexandrov was awarded by Israel television channel Israel Plus the special prize of "The Golden Nine" for his contribution to the world Jewish culture. In 2001 the first night of The Songs of Jewish Shtetle was held at the Novaya Opera theatre in Moscow under the patronage of the International Charity Fund of Yuri Bashmet. The concert program included not only the songs created in Jewish shtetles in the Yiddish language, but also those that were written by people who left the shtetles after the Pale of Settlement had been abolished. In the 10 years that the project exists several concert programs have been created, and over 150 The Songs of Jewish Shtetle concerts have been played in the USA, Canada, Germany, Israel, Australia, Russia, and CIS countries. Efim Alexandrov is engaged in continuous research to restore the Yiddish musical culture. Together with the Russian State Symphony Cinema Orchestra conducted by Sergey Skripka they recorded several CDs of songs from Jewish shtetles of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Two concerts, one at the Novaya Opera theatre in Moscow, the other at the State Central Concert Hall “Rossiya”, were filmed and later broadcast in many countries. The project presents traditional Jewish folk songs, as well as songs composed by S. Kemelmakher, E.Alexandrov, V.Shainsky, I.Lyublinsky, lyrics by S.Kemelmakher, B.Zitserman, M.Tanich, I.Kerler and others. Since 2001 several concert programs were created. The first concert program of The Songs of Jewish Shtetle featured songs that were included in "The Songs of Jewish Shtetle" music album:
