“When You’re Smiling” Sung by Three Holocaust Survivors in Latvia

Try not to kvell from this heartcocklewarming rendition of “When You’re Smiling“ sung by three Holocaust survivors in Riga, Latvia. Erica Fishbein, on a trip with JDC Entwine/American Jewish Joint Distribution Commmitte, video’d the senior crooners at a JDC-facilitated “Warm Home,” where elderly Jews convene once a week for food, song and camaraderie.

I too had the honor of visiting Riga’s tiny-yet-vibrant Jewish community with JDC Entwine, but when it came time for my Warm Home visit, I was split from my better-half, Erica, and broke bread with an alternate “____ ” of babushkas… (hmm — gaggle of geese, congress of baboons, bellowing of bullfinches… what’s the collective noun for babushkas?) Anyhoo, I couldn’t resist dropping ditty myself, in the form of Tradition, a number I also performed at last year’s Heebonism.

Here are more photos from Latvia; If its more babushka’s you crave, check out Erica’s “Babushka of the Month” blog from her year (2008) with JDC in Minsk, Belarus, and if you want to meet some in person, take a humanitarian adventure with JDC Entwine.