Melbourne Yiddish Seder Project

The Yiddish Songs of Brouch Kaluszyner

Melbourne composer and educator Boruch Kaluszyner composed original Yiddish songs to be sung as part of the Third Seder during Passover. The Melbourne Yiddish Seder Project showcases Kaluszyner’s legacy in new recordings of the songs along with a songbook.

The Life & Music of Boruch Kaluszyner:
Musician, Music teacher, Composer, & Conductor.
  • Boruch Kaluszyner (1911-1974) was born in Łódź, Poland, where he was a musician and later an orchestra conductor. After surviving the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, he returned to Poland and there qualified as an orchestra conductor, conducting Jewish and non-Jewish orchestras around the country. After arriving in Melbourne in 1960, Kaluszyner became the conductor of the Hazomir Choir as well as a music teacher at both of the city’s Yiddish Sunday schools for children. 
    Kaluszyner also composed original Yiddish music, and it was in this capacity that he was instrumental in creating the Driter Seyder (The Third Seder) in Melbourne, a secular communal Passover meal traditionally held after the first two religious Seders. He composed nine original Yiddish songs that were included in the Passover Hagode (the Haggadah) for Melbourne’s Driter Seyder.
    Today, Kaluszyner’s songs continue to be sung regularly at Passover seders in private homes, at the SKIF youth movement, and by students at Sholem Aleichem College. His music remains a rich trove that forms part of Melbourne’s distinct Jewish and Yiddish post-war cultural legacy.

Melbourne Yiddish Seder Project

Under the creative leadership of two Melbourne musicians, Freydi Mrocki and Tomi Kalinski, the Melbourne Yiddish Seder Project documents and showcases Boruch Kaluszyner’s work by:

  1. Creating and publishing new recordings of the nine seder songs (free download below).
  2. Creating and publishing in an accessible booklet, with lyrics in the original Yiddish, transliteration and English translations (some sing-able) & Music Sheets (free download below).
  3. Conducting educational programming.   
Download the Recordings Download the Lyrics & Music Sheets

Future Projects

  1. To gather and digitise related materials including: photographs, articles, programmes, performances and interviews.
  2. To update and make accessible the forty-three original compositions in The B. Kaluszyner Book of Songs (published posthumously in 1977), with lyrics in Yiddish, English transliteration, and translation, as well as digitised scores. 
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The Objectives of the Melbourne Yiddish Seder Project

  1. Facilitate the learning and singing of Boruch Kaluszyner songs at Passover seder tables, locally and globally.
  2. Pay tribute to the only known composer/conductor/teacher of Yiddish music for adult choirs and children in Australia.
  3. Showcase the richness of Melbourne’s distinct post-Holocaust Yiddish heritage through community collaboration.

Songbook:

The Yiddish Seder Songs of Boruch Kaluszyner 

A booklet containing the lyrics and music of Kaluszyner’s 9 seder songs in the original Yiddish, transliteration, and English translations. 
Source material gathered from: The archives of Boruch Kaluszyner, Hagode Fun Undzer Dritn Seyder (The Yiddish Sunday Schools I.L. Peretz and Sholem Aleichem, Melbourne, Australia, 1960s) and The B. Kaluszyner Book of Songs (Melbourne, 1977)

  • Score Creation & Musical Arrangement: Tomi Kalinski

  • Copywriting: Freydi MrockiTranslations: Tomi Kalinski & Morris Mrocki

  • Editors: Rivke Margolis & Shane Baker

  • Visual design: Joanna Goldman of JoannaRuth.Online

© Copyright Melbourne Yiddish Seder Project, 2024.
Reproduction for commercial purposes prohibited. 

Recordings:

The Yiddish Seder Songs of Boruch Kaluszyner 

A playlist of new adaptations of Kaluszyner’s nine seder songs in two formats: sing-along and backing tracks.

  • Vocals: Freydi Mrocki with Lionel Mrocki

  • Piano: Tomi Kalinski

  • Woodwind: Lionel Mrocki

  • Bass: Simon Starr

  • Recorded and mixed by Jack Setton, Mad Cat Sound Recording Studios, Melbourne, 2024

© Copyright Melbourne Yiddish Seder Project, 2024.
Reproduction for commercial purposes prohibited. 

Listen, View, Download & Donate...All FREE

The links below guide you to where the audio/visual materials are available. Youtube hosts both Sing-along and Backing tracks in video format and Bandcamp hosts the same but in MP3 format, and also allows for FREE download and an opportunity to donate.
The Yiddish Seder Songs of Boruch Kaluszyner - PDF-A4 The Yiddish Seder Songs of Boruch Kaluszyner - PDF-LTR
Boruch Kaluszyner on YouTube (Video FREE View/Download)
 Boruch Kaluszyner on BandCamp (MP3 FREE Download)

Boruch Kaluszyner with the Hazomir Choir on stage at the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre, 1970.

Melbourne Yiddish Seder Project

Creative Statement

Call it a guilty conscience on behalf of all of us at Zuntik shul (Sunday school) who didn’t appreciate the passion, talent and dedication of the mild mannered music teacher who blew his pitch pipe… before us. 

 Call it a gesture of thanks to the composer who contributed to the Yiddish soundtrack of our childhood, our seyder tables and the lives of our own students and children. 

Call it a chance to honour a man who, for the 14 short years he was part of it, contributed so much to the cultural fabric of the Melbourne Jewish community.

If nothing else, this project has enabled us to bring the music of Boruch Kaluszyner to the attention of new eyes and ears via new mediums, thus fulfilling a long held promise we made to each other, to do so.  

We were convinced that Boruch Kaluszyner was unique in the story of Jewish life in Australia. His life and contribution deserved to be known and remembered, and his music, to be heard and performed. 

This project would not have been realised without: the support of the family of Boruch Kaluszyner; the philanthropy of our benefactors; the support of likeminded organisations; or our friends and creative partners who despite not knowing anything of Boruch Kaluszyner, jumped on board our passion project with enthusiasm and generosity.  

A sheynem dank, Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre for facilitating the birth of this project and to the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation for helping us realise our dream. 

Oyf simkhes bay Yidn! 

Freydi and Tomi

Acknowledgements

  • Project Team: Freydi Mrocki, Tomi Kalinski, Rivke Margolis 
  • Creative Team: Freydi Mrocki, Tomi Kalinski
  • Visual Design: Joanna Goldman   
  • Videographer: Sean Melzer   
  • Sound Engineering: Jack Setton  
  • Songbook: Tomi Kalinski, Freydi Mrocki, Joanna Goldman, Rivke Margolis
  • Recording:  Vocals: Freydi Mrocki   Vocals: Lionel Mrocki   Piano: Tomi Kalinski  Woodwind: Lionel Mrocki  Bass: Simon Starr
  • Recording/Mastering: Jack Setton of Mad Cat Sound  

A Sheynem Dank: Shane Baker, Danny Ben-Moshe, Ruth Boltman, Miriam Bulwar David-Hay, Merav Carmelli, Yvette Coppersmith, Alex Dafner, Leon Gettler, Alan Goldstone, Anna Hearsch, Helen Jacobs, Christopher Latham and Joanne Fisher from Flowers of Peace, Jenny Lucas, Jon Moss, Lionel Mrocki, Morris Mrocki, Henry Nusbaum, Einat Orbach, Sylvia Portek, Les Segal, David Slucki, Simon Starr and Reyzl Zylberman. 

A Groysn Dank: Joanna Goldman, Rivke Margolis, Sean Melzer, and Jack Setton, Bund/SKIF, Sholem Aleichem College and Yiddish Australia. We are grategul to the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre for facilitating the birth of this project and the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University, for helping us realise our dream. 

This project has been created with the blessing of the family of Boruch Kaluszyner: Daughter Anna Hearsch and granddaughters Miriam Bulwar David-Hay and Belinda Brooke. Thank you for your support and for giving us access to the archives of your father and grandfather. 

We greatly appreciate the generosity of our supporters: The Krystal Fund and the Penina Zylberman Yiddish Cultural Trust
This project was created on the lands of the Boon Wurrung People of the Kulin nation.
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The Melbourne Yiddish Seder Project documents and showcases the life and music of Australian musician, Boruch Kaluszyner (1911-1974). A survivor of the Holocaust, Kaluszyner composed a cycle of original songs for the Third Seder, a secular communal Passover meal traditionally held after the first two religious seders. Today, Kaluszyner’s songs continue to be sung at Passover seders and his music remains a rich trove that forms part of Melbourne’s distinct Jewish and Yiddish post war cultural heritage. The project aims to honour this legacy by creating and sharing new recordings of Kaluszyner’s Yiddish songs; posting an accessible booklet of the lyrics in the original Yiddish and English transliteration; and conducting educational programming.
Copyright 2025 Melbourne Yiddish Seder Project