Erich Elisha Samlaich

The tragic fate of a culture bearer

A horrible death in the concentration camp Jasenovac during the Second World War
cast into oblivion the complete work of Erich Elisha Samlaich. Since Samlaich’s death, as
far as I know, texts about him have been published only by Aleksandar Sharon1 and
Branko Polic2 (see the bibliography). Danilo Fogel also mentions him, along with some
photographs, in the book Jevrejska zajednica u Zemunu ("The Jewish Community in
Zemun"). My text – unfortunately published without my knowledge, my approval, or my
proofreading in the Zagreb journal Ha-Kol3 – is the sketch of a concert scenario in which
Samlaich’s composition Sefardska tema sa Balkana ("Sephardic Theme from the
Balkans") was performed, in Tel-Aviv in 2004.
In Dr. Juda Levi’s manuscript Naši Jevreji u književnosti, nauci i novinarstvu, muzici,
likovnoj umetnosti i glumi ("Our Jews in Literature, Science and Journalism, Music and
Visual Arts and Acting"), prepared just before the Second World War (and currently
preserved in the Jewish History Museum in Belgrade), Samlaich is mentioned as "the
youngest but very gifted composer," literature and music critic, conductor and melograph.
The Eventov Archive in Jerusalem (The Historical Archive of the Society of the
Settlers from Yugoslavia), in addition to holding Samlaich’s doctoral dissertation and four
of his printed compositions, preserves the reports about Samlaich written in Jerusalem by
Mirko Hirschl in Jerusalem (December 1955), Alexander Sharon (April 1957) and Leo
Klopfer (July 16, 1978).
Transcontinental Music Publications in New York published Samlaich’s revised and
edited choral score Dzunaj under the title Zhooni Na in 2005.
Sefardska tema sa Balkana ("Sephardic Theme from the Balkans") was performed by

1 Shanji Sharon: Erich-Elisha Samlaich, Bulletin HOJ, Tel Aviv, 1992, No.1, pg.19-20; Alexander
Sharon: Zaboravljeni kompozitor ("The Forgotten Composer"). Most, Tel Aviv, 2004; no.4, p. 34.
2 Polić, Branko: „Židovski glazbenici – žrtve Holokausta“ ("Jewish musicians –The Holocaust
victims"). Novi Omanut, Zagreb, 1995; no.12, pp.9-10; Polić, Branko: "Habent sua fata
documenta – Pronađeni rukopis disertacije (1939.) Ericha Eliše Samlaića: O životu i
djelu Vjenceslava Novaka" ("The Discovered Manuscript of the Dissertation (1939) of Erich Elisha
Samlaich: On the Life and Work of Vjenceslav Novak"). Arti Musices, Zagreb, 2006; no.1, pp.79-92.
3 Dušan Mihalek: "Sviraj sad, Čifute" ("Play now, you Jew"). Ha-Kol, Zagreb, 2004; no.84,
pp.35-39.

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violinist Zhenja Kozlovsky and pianist Boris Fajner in Tel-Aviv in 2004; my version of
this composition for 7 synthesisers was performed by the pupils of the Yamaha musical
school in Beer-Shevi (Israel) in 2005, and I performed a version for the accordion in Tel-
Aviv at the promotion of the book by Jennie Lebl Until the "Final Solution" – Jews in
Belgrade 1521-1942 (translation into Hebrew) 2006.
Before the Second Wolrd War, Samlaich’s texts were published in the journals
Omanut ("Art"), Židov ("The Jew"), and Muzički glasnik ("Musical Courier"), and the
text "Sudbina Kol nidre melodije" ("The Fate of the Kol Nidre Melody") was reprinted
by the journal Novi Omanut in Zagreb in 2003.
Editions of his compositions gained wide acceptance in domestic and foreign press
(Hans Nathan, Lazar Saminski, Mihajlo Lesjak, Ziga Hirschler, and others), although
Vojislav Vučković reacted very severely about Samlaich’s brochure Muzika u Sovjetskoj
Uniji ("Music in Soviet Union").
We find his name on the Internet list of the victims of Jasenovac, as well as on the list
of Holocaust victims in the Yad Va-shem, The Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.
And that is approximately all that had left after Erich Elisha Samlaich's death, with
the data I gathered from the conversations with the people who knew him: Danilo Fogel
from Zemun, Alexander Sharon from Jerusalem, and Helga Ungar (neé Blau) from
Naharia (Israel).
I am grateful to Jennie Lebl and Cvi Loker who enabled me to inspect this material,
on the basis of which it was possible to assemble the biography of this tragically
deceased musician and writer.

***
Erich Elisha Samlaich was born in 1913 in the village Karlovčić, near the small
towns Pećinci and Ruma in the Srem region (currently in Vojvodina, Northern Serbia).
The name Elisha was probably received at the ceremony of circumcision. For official
state documents, as was the contemporary practice in Austria-Hungary to which his
village belonged, he was given the name Erich. After the First World War and after the
new country – The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes – had been founded, his
family moved to the town of Zemun, where his father Emanuel opened a fabric shop.
Elisha was the oldest child, and he had two sisters Roza and Marija, and a brother Hugo.
Pupils of Samlaich’s generation were brought up in schools in the spirit of „integrated
Yugoslavism,“ but they were also entitled to Jewish religious education as well as
activities in the Zionist youth organisation. He was the top pupil in his generation during
his schooling in the Gymnasium in Zemun, and he also studied music in the class of
Rikard Švarc in musical school Stanković in Belgrade.
He finished his studies in four years, and in 1935 he moved to Zagreb to prepare his
doctorate about the life and work of the writer and composer Vjenceslav Novak. In
Zagreb he worked as a conductor in Jewish choir Ahdut and as secretary for a monthly
magazine about the Jewish culture, Omanut, which began to publish its own editions of
scores and other works. He played the violin and in 1939, he married the violinist Ljerka
Blau.
He wrote poetry and prose, texts about music and other topics. His compositions were
performed in Zagreb, Belgrade, Zemun, Bukuresht, Jerusalem, and elsewhere.
He defended his doctoral dissertation in Belgrade in 1940. The manuscript, ready for
publication, was destroyed by fire in the National Library during the bombing of
Belgrade on April 6th, 1941.

***

Musician and writer, Jew and „integrated Yugoslav,“ citizen of Zemun and Zagreb; it
was as though he was predestined for the comparison, synthesis, and transmission of
different cultures.
That is confirmed by one of his earliest texts, "Sudbina Kol nidre melodije" ("The
Fate of the Kol Nidre Melody"), which was published in Omanut in 1936. The text
provides an outline of the origin and development of this popular melody of Jewish
liturgy and it also provides Samlaich’s transcriptions of the Sephardic melody from
Belgrade.
Samlaich notated Sephardic religious melodies from Belgrade according to the
chanting of the former rabbi in Belgrade, Shalom Russo. He gave this collection to the

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Serbian-Jewish singing society (Srpsko-jevrejsko pevačko društvo, SJPD), but
the society did not succeed in having it published. However, based on these
transcriptions, SJPD published Pizmonim for Simhat Tora in 1940, in a harmonization for
mixed choir by the composer Erwin Lendvai. Although the complete collection could not
be published, Samlaich was satisfied with this small publishing attempt, because his goal,
as he wrote in the Zagreb journal Omanut, was "to publish the entire manuscript with all
of his transcriptions, which were presented in the collection monophonically, without any
accompaniment or arrangment, so that other composers will be able to use the collected
material and to arrange it vocally (as I did with my Yitgadal for voice and piano) or
instrumentally (my two pieces for violin and piano, all in manuscript). It is without any
doubt that in arranging these melodies, individual composers will approach this material
in different ways according to their compositional technique and the point of view they
represent in arranging national melodies."4
Alluding to various possible Jewish and non-Jewish influnce on the forming of the
melody of Kol Nidre (Byzantium, Gypsies, Marranos, Minnesingers, and ancient
Hebrew) he concludes: "If our music was by any chance isolated and completely pure
from any foreign influence, we should renounce it, because in that case it would not be
the reflection of all difficulties Jewish people went through."
The author was then 23 years old.
In Jevrejski kalendar ("Jewish Calendar") for the year 1936-37, he published Two
traditional synagogue melodies (Maoz Cur and Adir Hu), which according to Samuel
Guttmann relied on Birnbaum’s research. In this way, he enabled a wide range of readers
to see their favourite religious melodies in musical notation, which was a pioneering step
in the history of Jewish music on Yugoslav territory. In a short accompanying text, he
again points out various types of influence on the religious melodies, suggesting one of
his basic ideas in future ethnomusicological texts: that Jewish music is always in
process, in ferment, subject to the most various types of influence, although it often
persistently preserves (and does not forget) its traditional roots.
Of particular interest are his comparisons between Ashkenazic and Sephardic
melodies. Born in an Ashkenazic family in Zemun, a town where traditionally a

4 ES (Elisha Samlaich): Pizmonim for Simhat Tora. Omanut, Zagreb, 1940; no. 1, p. 29.
Sephardic Jewish community was also supported, he knew both movements in Judaism
equally well, although it is not known if he knew both Yiddish and Ladino languages.
However, from his texts it can be confirmed that he was well acquainted with the ancient
Hebrew languge of sacred Jewish prayers.

***

His text "Komparativni prilog proučavanju naših sefardskih religioznih napjeva

– 'El nora alila' motiv" ("Comparative contribution to the study of our Sephardic religious
melodies – the 'El Nora Alila' motif." Omanut 1940; no. 1, pp. 11-15) represents the
young author as a mature musicologist (and corresponds perfectly to the theme of this
scientific assembly). In fact, it is probably the most complete text about Sephardic Jewish
music published on the territory of the former Yugoslavia at that time.5
The musical examples lend particular value to the text. Alongside the previously
published melograpic notations of this melody from the pen of Idelsohn (Morocco),
Aguilar and de Sol (London), and Rothmüller in the Edition Omanut (Sarajevo),
Samlaich brings his own notation from Belgrade, as well as the notation made by
Theodor Fuchs at his request in Constantinopole.
Samlaich stresses that Sephardic religious music is far more significant than popular
romances for the investigation of folklore. Up to the present day, only the most
elementary works – that is, collections – have been published, and "these works have not
yett been completed in the Balkans and Turkey."
"The first scientific investigation of Sephardic religious folklore showed the great
diversity of the transcribed material. Sephardic religious music was influenced above all
by secular romances, particulary the so-called pizmonim, as well as by folk music of
neighbouring nations: Arabic music in North Africa and Turkish music in Balkan areas."
Hazans, professional singers in the synagogue, incorporate these types of influence
mostly into prayers during the ordinary days such as Friday and Saturday. However,
5 More serious texts about Jewish music started to appear in Yugoslavia after 1920, when Žiga
Hirschler published the collection Židovske narodne pesme ("Jewish folk songs") and after the appearance
of the Mesečnik jevrejskih kantora Jugoslavije (Monatsschrift der jüdischen Kantoren — "Monthly
Journal of Jewish Cantors") in 1928.

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during the biggest holidays (Jamim Noraim) the resistance of listeners to novelty was the
most powerful; hence in those melodies we encounter distinctive similarities regardless
of geographical distance.
The prayer El Nora Alila is one of those melodies, which is used on the most sacred
day in the year, Yom Kipur, when believers just before the last prayer ask Almighty God
to accept their repentance.
Comparing these melographic notations, Samlaich concludes that ’"obviously we are
dealing with a motif that has its roots in the old common homeland“ (referring to Spain
before the year 1492), ’’therefore, the motif is 450 years old, and in the form that is
almost the same as the form that must have been used in the old homeland ... That means
that all those elements that are considered to be typical for Sephardic religious music
(augmented seconds, which is not typical for Sephardic and for Ashkenazic Jews as well;
eastern decoration of the tonic, etc.) are the products of the later times, and that the
oldest melodies, before they were influenced by Arabic and Spanish music, must have
had their own specific tranquil and simple character."

***

In the text "Fantastični put jednog muzičkog uticaja" ("The Fabulous

Journey of a Musical Influence" – Omanut 1937-38; pp. 274-278), Samlaich’s talent as a
writer and as a musician reaches to its fullest expression. Trying to explain the oriental
influence that pervades Hasidic melody,6 the author gives "an outline for a scientific
study, or the subject matter for a novel.“ He tries to explain almost unbelievable path by
which oriental melodies arrived from Asia Minor in present-day Ukraine, Poland, Latvia,
and Russia during XVII and XVIII century.
’’The path through which this oriental influence entered into Hasidic melody could
have been completely ordinary. At annual fairs, in life's everyday contacts between
Jewish and non-Jewish people which had existed despite their separation, this influence
lightly and imperceptibly inserted itself. But it is permissable nonetheless to delve deeper
into the mystical depths of these paths, to choose one of them, the most unusual, the most
6 Hasidism is a movement of the religious Jews from Eastern Europe that was founded by Rabbi
Israel ben Eliezera (1698–1760), also known as Ba'al Shem Tov.
fabulous, and to follow it from its beginning to its end.“
The fantasy began a year earlier before the fateful year 1666, when the false Jewish
Messiah Sabbatai Zevi (Sabetay Sevi) was awaiting the realisation of his messianic role.
He had in Cairo married Sarah, a former prostitute in Amsterdam and Livorno, originally
from Poland. After his messianic role was not achieved, which disappointed his numerous
followers, Sabbatai Zevi converted to Islam in Constantinople. He was buried in the town
of Ulcinj (Montenegro). Although she was the wife of a "Messiah," Sarah did not
renounce her earlier life style. In orgies that were moved from Livorno to Cairo, "the
passionate song of the East echoes together with the monotonous lament of the pious
psalms.“
Haim Malah, also known as Mehaleh, an ardent follower of Sabbatai’s teachings,
nonetheless stated that the prophecy about Sabbatay being Messiah would be fulfilled in
40 years’ time, and with 1500 fanatic followers he set off from Poland to Jerusalem,
there to await the fulfillment of the prophecy in 1706. His followers performed their
symbolic worship in ecstatic dancing. The dance was transmitted from the house of
unfortunate Messiah to his followers. The dance united with the song continued marching
on the "trodden path."
Sabbatai’s sect was taken to Poland by Jakob Frank half a century later. "And now
another woman appears in this infamous chronicle, his daugther Eva (Hava). Instead of
fasting and mortification of the flesh, Frank’s followers propagandized immoderacy and
erotic debauchery: the path towards salvation leads through the door of sin... Woman was
at the center of their mystical ceremonial orgies. The lovely Eva was the main speaker.
Trance, mixed with song, brought from the passionate territories of Zevi’s homeland,
reached its culmination in erotic gratification and licentiousness“.
Together with his family and Eva, Frank was driven out but after 1772 he arrived in
Vienna.
"Here the beautiful Eva played the last part in her life. The other partner was none
other than the co-regent of Maria Theresa of Austria, her son Joseph II... Because of
Joseph’s relationship with Eva, Frank had to move with his family."
The beautiful Eva died in the deepest poverty, abandoned and uncared for, in 1816.
However, "the custom of worshiping God with dance and song was not lost. It was

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transformed into new mystical movement born in the heart of the eastern Judaism" –
Hasidism.
"If today in these wonderful Hasidic melodies we hear the tones of oriental sensuality,
who can say whether it comes from the chambers of Sarah, third wife of the oriental
messiah Sabbatai Zevi.
" An outline for a scientific study, or the subject matter for a novel?!"

***
In his conducting work, Samlaich tried to show the mysterious paths by which Jewish
music and art had moved, and their identity and close connection with the people of the
diaspora; for example, in the thematic concert Psalms Through the Centuries with the
choir "Ahdut" (Unity) in Zagreb on 22nd February, 1940.
We encounter this way of thinking in his compositions as well. Under the influence of
Stravinsky and Bartok, Samlaich approaches ancient melodies, that he himself
transcribed, with modern compositional techniques. As with Janacek, these melodies
keep appearing again and again in a new modification, always in a new variant, like a
journey through the vast space and time in which Jewish folk and religious music
developed.

***

During the short period in which he published his articles (1933-40) Elisha Samlaich,
although young, grew to become the most significant interpreter of Jewish music on the
territory of the former Yugoslavia. His Edition Omanut, at the time of the Nazis'
expansion in Europe, became the only remaining oasis of Jewish music publication on the
old continent. In his texts, he points out the entire distortion of the Nazis’ racist ideology,
but neither does he spare the other dangerous ideology of the time, Soviet communism
(which was why he antagonized Vojislav Vučković).

However, he was unprepared for the German attack on Yugoslavia in 1941.

 With his wife Ljerka, he fled from the Ustashi (Croat fascists) to Zemun, where his
father had just died. But the Ustashi came there as well. Elisha and Ljerka tried in May
1942 to go to the Adriatic coast and from there escape to Italy. However, the Ustashi
spotted two young people at the Sarajevo train station disguised in peasant clothing but
with violins, and immediately realized that they were Jews. They sent them to the
Jasenovac concentration camp. The entire family found themselves there, from Zemun as
well as Zagreb, as well as Elisha’s teacher Rikard Švarc. Ustashi killed them all.
Among surviving victims of the Holocaust, a legend still circulates which tells the
story of how Ustashi prepared a special orgy for Elisha in 1944. Allegedly, they made a
pyre, tied him onto it, set fire to the pyre, and then they threw him a violin and shouted:
"Play now, you Jew!" And he took the violin and played: Hatikva ("Hope"), the modern
national anthem of Israel. And he burned with this melody at the age of 30.
The truth of this legend has been denied not only by the members of his family, but
by his friends as well, and by Alexander Sharon who wrote it down. In the novel by
Alexander Petrov Kao zlato u vatri ("Like Gold In Fire"), there is the shocking death
scene of Monika which uncannily resembles this legend, although it is purely the writer’s
fiction. Nothing has been proved, but much has been forgotten: above all, Elisha
Samlaich is completely absent from every dictionary, encyclopedia and history textbook
in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, as well as from concert programs.
This text represents an attempt to rescue him from oblivion.

© 2008 by Dushan Mihalek

BIBLIOGRAPHY ABOUT ERICH ELISHA SAMLAICH

Fogel, Danilo: Jevrejska zajednica u Zemunu: hronika (1739-1945) ["The Jewish

Community in Zemun: chronicle"]. Zemun, 2002.

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Hirschl, Mirko: Dr Erih-Elisha Samlaich (manuscript). Eventov Archive, Jerusalem;
December 1955.

Klopfer, Leo: Letter to Jakir Eventov regarding Samlaich (manuscript). Eventov

Archive, Jerusalem; July 16th, 1978.

Levi , Juda: Naši Jevreji u književnosti, nauci i novinarstvu, muzici, likovnoj umetnosti i
glumi ["Our Jews in Literature, Science and Journalism, Music and Visual Arts and
Acting"] (manuscript). Jewish History Museum, Belgrade.

Mihalek, Dušan: Sviraj sad, Čifute ["Play now, you Jew"]. Ha-Kol, Zagreb, 2004; 84,
35-39. [Published in an abridged version without author’s knowledge, approval, or
proofreading.]

Polić, Branko: Židovski glazbenici – žrtve Holokausta ["Jewish musicians –The

Holocaust victims"]. Novi Omanut, Zagreb, 1995; 12, 9-11.

Polić, Branko: Habent sua fata documenta – Pronađeni rukopis disertacije

(1939.) Ericha Eliše Samlaića: O životu i djelu Vjenceslava Novaka ("The
Discovered Manuscript of the Dissertation (1939) of Erich Elisha Samlaich: On the Life
and Work of Vjenceslav Novak"). Arti Musices, Zagreb, 2006; no.1, pp.79-92.

Sharon, Aleksandar (Shanji): Erich-Elisha Samlaich. Bilten [Bulletin] Tel Aviv, 1992;
no. 1, pp. 19-20.

Sharon, Aleksandar: Erih-Elisha Samlaich (manuscript). Eventov Archive, Jerusalem;

April 1957.

Sharon, Aleksandar (Alexander): Zaboravljeni kompozitor ("The Forgotten

Composer"). Most, Tel Aviv, 2004; no. 4, p. 34.
Vučković, Vojislav: Muzika u Sovjetskoj Uniji ["Music in The Soviet Union"]
(V.Samlaich, Zagreb 1940; Edition of the bookstore А.Blau). Život i rad ["Life and
work"], XIV, book. ХХХ, May-December. 1940, issue 32-39.

Review: Erih-Elisha Samlaich's Two Sephardic Songs for violin and piano. Edition
"Transcontinental Music Corporation", New York. [The source from the newspaper is
unknown, signed"SS".]

"Inozemna štampa o prošlogodišnjim muzičkim izdanjima Edicije Omanut"

["Foreign press about last year's musical editions from Omanut Editions"]. Omanut,
Zagreb, 1937-38; pp. 63-64. [Dr. Hans Nathan from Boston about Džunaj.]

"Američki časopis o našim kompozitorima" ["An American magazine on our

composers"]. Omanut, Zagreb, 1937-38; p. 344. [Lazar Saminski about Samlaich.]

"Bilješke" ["Notes"]. Omanut, 1939; p. 11. [About a performance of Džunaj in

Jerusalem.]

"Muzičke vijesti" ["Musical News"]. Omanut, 1940; p. 175. [About Transcontinental

Editions, by Žiga Hirschler)

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