Kibrick is my family’s real last name. Upon arrival at Ellis Island 1n 1917, my grandfather William Kibrick (born in August 1901), added the name Bernstein like the family members that arrived before him had done, to make them sound more “western european”.

The Kibrick family fled from a little village in western Ukraine called Proskourov, desperate to escape the pogroms and anti-semitic violence in that region during the start of turbulent 20th century. Their dream was to make it all the way to Brooklyn, NY with the hope of starting a new life in America. Their dream and their hope came true!

In an effort to quickly “forget” the social, economic and religious oppression they had suffered under for so long, they immediately displaced and repressed everything Ukrainian. They stopped speaking and reading Ukrainian and their children (my father) were told that they were all simply American.

The only thing they kept were their Eastern European Jewish traditions. The music of this culture includes Klezmer (instrumental folk music), Cantorial (prayer related) singing and folk songs and party music sung in Yiddish. William loved this music and the traditions connected to it and he often sang and played records for me. While we were together, he would also tell me the story of hus “escape” and the journey to the “New World”. I loved hearing this amazing “adventure” while listening to the music of his childhood with him. Both the music and the story seemed to invoke the same passionate feelings that we also had for each other naturally.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines passionate as: “an enduring or suffering; a strong feeling of emotion; urgent desire; love.” – KIBRICK!

In music, arts, as well as in life, these are also some of the qualities I cherish most.