SAN DIEGO– Klezmer violinist Yale Strom will join Sy Brenner as KPBS and Union Bank honorees during Jewish history month, the public broadcasting station has announced.
San Diego Jewish World previously reported the selection of Brenner, who was an American POW held by Germany during World War II and now counsels veterans on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Strom, artist in residence in the Jewish Studies program at San Diego State University, is “widely recognized as a revivalist and world-leading ethnographer-artist of klezmer music and history,” the KPBS announcement said.
“He wrote a book about time spent on the former Eastern Bloc in 1981 where he spoke to Holocaust survivors, and was immersed in history and culture through music. Mr. Strom has been presented with many acknowledgements for his creative work in film, music, audio drama, and book awards.”
Yale is one of the most engaging Jewish leaders I have met in many years. His talents and generosity of spirit, combined with raw talent and passion for Jewish history and its continuity makes him one of San Diego’s great treasures. He is a first class mentsch. For the TBS Jewish community in Chula Vista, Yale is someone we always enjoy hearing. He is very much like a modern-day maggid.
Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel