Joseph Toltz, Galit Klas, Adam Starr

Bucharest, 1945: a small team of Polish Jews are gathered in a house set up by the American JOINT to support recently liberated survivors of the camps and ghettos. While compiling testimonies from those who come for food, provisions, and advice for safe places to resettle, they also gather songs of wartime experience, which are collected and printed in a short run.

Sydney, 2013: one of these fragile songbooks is found in the estate of a survivor in Sydney, preserved from deterioration by chance, pressed between pages of another music score. It is one of only 5 remaining copies in the world. Thirteen years later, the book is reborn as Out of the Depths: the first collection of Holocaust songs.

The finale to Melbourne Jewish Book Week is conceived by the 2026 book’s co-author Joseph Toltz in association with Galit Klas, Adam Starr and other brilliant Melbourne creatives and klezmorim. Melodies from survivors are woven around the wartime narrative of the editor Yehuda Eismann, the custodian Olga R, and the designer of the book, Flora Romm.

As Professor Marcia Langton AM noted in her keynote launch of the book in June, the songs “capture experiences at a temporal proximity rarely available in written testimony. A single object retained among personal belongings becomes a material anchor for reconstructing an entire cultural history. It is a testament to the enduring power of cultural resistance.”

In memory of Sylvia Urbach Z"L, and with thanks to the Krystal Fund.

This event is proudly supported by:

About the artists:

Dr Joseph Toltz is an ethnomusicologst and research manager at the University of Sydney. An expert on Jewish music and its migrations to Anglophone countries, his ethnographic work incorporates creative research (performance, composition, and arrangement), Jewish studies, Holocaust studies, and History. Out of the Depths: The First Collection of Holocaust Songs is his first book.

Galit Klas is a Melbourne-based writer, director and performer creating original work at the intersection of Yiddish language, music and theatre. She co-wrote Yentl, which has been staged at the Sydney Opera House and in London’s West End. Her original works include The Ghetto Cabaret and the award-winning Yiddish electronic cabaret Durkh a Modne Gloz. Galit also performs as a singer and cantorial soloist.

Dr Adam Starr is an accomplished composer, multi-instrumentalist and musical director, and a driving force in Melbourne's Jewish cultural scene. Deeply involved with the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre, he is a founding teacher and co-director of the Melbourne Klezmer School, musical director of acclaimed productions including Yiddish Divas and Groyse Tsores, and has composed the film scores to many documentaries with Jewish themes. With over 20 years' experience, his work also spans film, television and live performance.

Contact the host of MJBW Festival 2026 Closing Night: Out of the Depths, a Musical Soirée

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