The Rebbe’s Hidden Gems

T

he recent release of Skulen Mit Yiddish Nachas, Skulener songs by Moshe Kraus’s Yiddish Nachas choir, was an album that Kraus had actually had in mind for a long time. “I grew up with these songs, some of which are really hidden gems,” he says. “The velt knows a handful of Skulener songs, but there are so many dozens more. Reb Dovid Werdyger released two recordings of Skulen niggunim back when, but who still knows them? Yossi Green, the choir’s arranger, also grew up with these special niggunim, so together we felt that we could add a new layer to them.”

Over a year ago, when Kraus approached the Skulener machon, which is responsible for recording the Rebbes’ songs, the representatives loved the idea of taking some of the older songs and giving them fresh color with children’s vocals. They started to hammer out the details, but then the Rebbe was niftar, and it didn’t seem to be the right time for new musical projects.

Some months later, Moshe Kraus asked if he could get the project off the ground in honor of the Rebbe’s first yahrzeit. “Finally, it began to happen,” he says. “I wanted to select songs that the Skuleners know, but the outside world doesn’t.”

The songs are old, but the sound is contemporary. Kraus says he avoided listening to older recordings until after he had finished working on the new version. “I wanted to redo the musical setting from scratch. So I didn’t touch those old albums of Reb Dovid Werdyger, which I haven’t heard for at least 25 years, until after we completed our work. I started listening and the music took me back to that time — I could sing along from the intro until the end.”