Anita (Katz) Asser's Oral History

Anita (Katz) Asser, pianist born in 1926 in Tarnopol, Poland, was interviewed by Ze'ev Duckworth on May 1, 2015 at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her father, having been denied a promotion because he was Jewish, decided to bring the family to America where they settled in Fall River, Massachusetts. Her mother was from an illustrious family, many of whom died in the Holocaust; some made it out of Poland and settled in Israel. Anita began piano lessons when she was ten and was taught by a nun at the Sacred Heart Convent. Once she tried to make Anita kneel and genuflect to a statue, but she refused. Anita won two state competitions at the New England Conservatory, and although not originally interested in teaching music, has had many students and derived much pleasure from this part of her life. She still plays classical and other music for much of the day, every day. She accompanied two cantors singing in Yiddish at a performance in her synagogue, and played "Ballad for America" (once sung by Paul Robeson) at a high school. She talks about her husband, who comes from a Greek Sephardic background. Her late brother, a graduate of Harvard when quotas were opened and a professor in Buffalo, was also musical and composed a piece about the Holocaust which was played at his memorial service. Anita is proud that her children and grandchildren have continued the Jewish traditions of their parents and grandparents. She feels angry that Jews of the last couple of generations spoke Yiddish themselves but did not assure that their children learned the language.