“A Dialogue with God,” the libretto written by Samuel Pisar for Leonard Bernstein’s “Kaddish” Symphony, tells a riveting story of resilience through a tempestuous exchange with the Almighty. Its message, conveyed by a survivor of Auschwitz, Dachau and Majdanek, is to caution mankind about future catastrophes that may still lie ahead.
Bernstein’s Third Symphony premiered in 1963 with the composer’s own text, dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy shortly after his assassination. Decades later, Bernstein asked his friend Pisar to give it an alternative text:
“You have endured in body and soul the most tragic chapter of our history,” Bernstein said to Pisar. “You must write a new narrative rooted in your suffering and resurrection.”
Pisar demurred, insisting that his poetic abilities were unworthy of Bernstein’s music. A decade after Bernstein’s death, Pisar came around. He sensed that the memory of the Holocaust was fading along with its last survivors. But it was ultimately the shock of 9/11 that prompted him to take on this daring project.
The opening stanza sets the scene:
In our age of anxiety,
Marked by a century of hot and cold wars,
Which began with carnage and ended with terror,
The composer wanted my living testimony,
Drawn from history’s greatest man-made catastrophe,
And the miracle of survival and rebirth,
To resonate in Your kingdom with his celestial music.
Pisar premiered “A Dialogue with God” in 2003 with the Chicago Symphony. He performed it close to 30 times with great world orchestras. Since his death in 2015, his wife, Judith, and youngest daughter, Leah, have continued performing it at major venues worldwide.
“If the ‘Kaddish’ Symphony is now imbued with new life, broader scope and greater relevance, it is not only due to my humble lyrics but also to the powerful winds of upheaval that are sweeping our world again,” said Samuel Pisar.
His text anticipated the uncertain state of the world today. What is striking is that he wrote it more than 20 years ago.
A Melded Transatlantic Family
Born in Poland, Pisar survived Nazi death camps and was liberated from Dachau at age 16 by the United States Army. He made his way to live with relatives in Australia, where he earned a law degree at the University of Melbourne and went on to study at Harvard and the Sorbonne. He started his career at the United Nations (UN) and served on President Kennedy’s economic and foreign policy task force, before becoming a renowned international lawyer, author and human rights activist. His 1980 memoir, “Of Blood and Hope,” was an international best-seller. Judith, whom he married in 1971, is a distinguished figure in the cultural world, serving in leadership roles at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the American Center of Paris. In the 1960s, she founded a speakers’ bureau for avant-garde composers. She was named UNESCO’s special envoy for cultural diplomacy in 2017. A commander of the French Legion of Honor, she recently established a prize with Julliard and the Théâtre des Champs- Elysées in Paris to recognize emerging contemporary composers.
Together, Judith and Samuel raised four children, who all share a passionate commitment to memory, teaching and civic duty. To them, this loving melded family has been the greatest of accomplishments. In the finale of the “Kaddish,” Pisar spoke of his “new and happy family: A wife, children and grandchildren whose sparkling faces, sterling characters and brilliant minds resurrect every day the memory of those I have lost.”
Their daughter Leah was born and raised in Paris. Educated at Harvard and with a Ph.D. from the University of Paris, she served in the Clinton administration on the National Security Council staff and at the Department of State. Today, she chairs the Aladdin Project, which works to combat anti-semitism and all forms of bigotry through education and intercultural dialogue. Judith’s son from her previous marriage, Antony Blinken, served as secretary of state during the Biden administration. Blinken has often cited his stepfather Samuel Pisar’s role in shaping his view of the world and underscoring the importance of America’s status as a beacon of freedom.
Samuel Pisar’s daughters from his first marriage are also intensely devoted to their father’s memory. Alexandra, a documentary filmmaker, is working on a movie about her father. Helaina, who teaches and translates between French and English, is also deeply committed to dialogue among humans.
Carnegie Hall
On Jan. 29, Carnegie Hall presented a special performance of the Symphony in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, with James Conlon conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. As he had done on prior occasions, Blinken introduced his mother and sister, and his stepfather’s text. Judith and Leah delivered powerful performances, their very distinct voices melding in a plea for vigilance and human coexistence before an emotional and packed hall. Even though they have performed this work more than a dozen times throughout the world, Carnegie Hall was like nothing else, said Judith and Leah via Zoom from the family’s home in Paris.
“My husband always considered that Carnegie Hall would be the pinnacle,” said Judith. “It was also very personal for me because I grew up in that hall; I was sneaking into rehearsals from the time I was 15.” The fact that it commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, at such a newly tumultuous moment, made it even more emotional. It was an intense experience for Leah, who said, “What was going through my mind on stage was when my grandmother walked into that Auschwitz gas chamber, could she have imagined that her son would survive? That his words would one day be performed at Carnegie Hall?”
Transmitting Samuel’s Message
Leah went through her own set of challenges, losing her husband to cancer when she was pregnant, and her father a year later. This caused her to reevaluate her priorities, and she decided to devote herself to transmitting her father’s message but in her own voice. “The real challenge is how to transmit, how to teach this somber chapter now that nearly all the survivors are gone. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the world is spiraling as most firsthand witnesses have disappeared.”
Humanity has a short memory, she added, and educational systems struggle with teaching the Holocaust because it’s so ugly. She finds music to be a different way to reach people in an emotional space where they can receive it. “I think it touches the audience because the daughter and wife are narrating,” Judith agreed. “It’s often hard for us to control ourselves without crying on stage because it conjures up so many memories.”
Despite everything he endured, Samuel Pisar remained an optimist. “For him, survival wasn’t just physical, you had to really live,” Leah said. “He raised us with joy and humor. Living life to the fullest was true survival.”
“I think that’s what Bernstein saw in him. It wasn’t only the fact that he survived, but he was such a complete human being,” said Judith. “And both men cared more than anything about their children, about transmission and education. The love they each had for their families was the most powerful of forces.”
