A piano has 88 keys, some black, some white. A skilled musician creates a robust, integrated sound that unifies the sound of each into a unified entity. Individual sharps and flats become part of a whole. Much like a composer, Englewood pianist Carolyn Enger-Mishan has worked her multiple notes and melodies into an observant Jewish life of her own composition, centering on the melody of her return to her Jewish paternal roots.
JLBC began its conversation with Mrs. Enger-Mishan to explore her multimedia concert program that combines the music, literature and images of the lives of Mischlinge—half-Jews in Germany during the years before, during and immediately after the Nazi Holocaust. The conversation took a much more personal turn when we asked Mrs. Enger-Mishan what had sparked her interest in the subject.
“My father was born in Germany in 1921. His mother, raised in a typical German-Jewish family, fell in love with a non-Jew, married and converted to Christianity. Her child, according to Nazi rules, was a mishlinge—a half Jew. Although at one point he had been in the preliminary German Army, her father was soon thrown out and imprisoned in a labor camp. “They didn’t recognize his mother’s conversion. His Jewish aunts and uncle were killed in Auschwitz.”
“There is a unique psychology to the mishlinge—neither here nor there. Even as a child, I felt my father always wanted to be ‘under the radar.’” She later learned many of her father’s friends were mishlinges—including her halachically Jewish, Protestant-practicing Godmother. “They just wanted to blend in and not be anything.”
When she was 18, on a visit home from college, her father revealed his—and her—Jewish heritage. “He decided to share his history. Hearing it was initially very difficult—I virtually had my hands over my ears.” As a child she had learned not to question her father’s history or wartime experiences. The revelations, she told JLBC, were shocking.
Enger began identifying herself as a Jew at age 20 and began to actualize her Jewish practice. “I was practicing the rituals of Judaism, observing the holidays, studying and worshipping as a Jew at a Reform congregation in Alpine, New Jersey. It felt natural. I could be myself. After several years my rabbi, Jack Bemporad of Chavurah Beth Shalom, suggested I make my Judaism ‘official.’ And,” said Enger “I did.” Her first conversion was under Reform supervision.
Almost a decade later, in 2010, Enger felt she wanted to remove any question about her connection to Judaism, and decided an Orthodox conversion was appropriate. “With this, I felt part of a larger group of Jews—Jews everywhere, both in the interactions in my day-to-day life and halachically. It’s just very natural. What my grandmother did, I undid.” She and her husband, Mark Mishan, are part of the Sephardic Minyan at Congregation Ahavath Torah.
Her youngest brother also identifies as a Jew, according to Reform patrilineal descent, and is a member of a conservative congregation. Although her father did not favor her choice, “After I married Mark (who is Sephardic) he stopped trying to talk me out of it. I suspect that he still feared his Nazi experience could happen again.”
After graduation from Molloy College, Enger-Mishan continued her studies at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School, Vassar College and the Adamant Music School in Vermont.
Enger-Mishan’s recording of Ned Rorem’s complete Piano Album l was selected as a New York Times “Favorite Recording of 2013.” Anthony Tommasini, Chief Music Critic of The New York Times, wrote “This year the classical music critics at the New York Times had plenty of options when selecting their favorite recordings of 2013….Among the 90th-birthday tributes this year to the essential American composer Ned Rorem, this recording especially stands out.” The critic cites her as “The fine pianist.” MusicWeb International says her playing is “thoughtful and sensitive… expressive… She plays with fine nuance and tone shading.”
Rorem, a Pulitzer Prize winner, thanked her for her “wonderful performance of [his] music.” In her concert programs, Enger’s repertoire has a special focus on new works by American and Israeli composers, including Lowell Libermann, Avner Dorman, Lior Naqvok and Eliezer Elper.
Her interest in distinctive concert experiences has led Ms. Enger to perform her multi-media concert piece at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and locally at the Puffin Cultural Center and in libraries, churches and synagogues throughout the region.
By Maxine Dovere
