Four years of revolution and chaos.

Living was now becoming much more complicated.

Moshe and Ruth then renewed their studies at the Conservatory. Moshe led them also to study Jewish music and to translate Russian songs into Hebrew and Yiddish, a musical choice that became the basis for much of their careers. Moshe later told of the beginnings of that career as follows:
In 1917, my wife, Ruth Leviash, and I were invited to participate in a concert of Jewish Music in honor of Engel, organized by the Odessa Society for Jewish Music. New songs arrived in manuscript, and Engel was expected in person. A general strike of the railroads prevented Engel from coming, and the concert was cancelled. However, we had new Engel songs this time: the third volume of folk Songs, a group of Children's songs for my wife, and his magnificent harmonizations to "Tateniu," "Oso Boker" and "Kadish." Both of us then had a full program of Engel, which we gave in Kherson for the Hazomir society, and in the Conservatory Hall in Odessa for students and teachers. It was later, in 1923-24, during our sojourn in Poland as "Yiddische Folk Songer" that we started corresponding with Engel, who was then the editor of "Juval" in Berlin. He had heard about our work in behalf of Jewish music and sent us material and his blessings. (Moshe Rudinow, 1950)
Telling of the same event, Ruth underscores the importance of Engel’s songs for their later careers, both economically and musically:
Joel Engel (called the father of Jewish music) also had planned to give a concert in Odessa. He sent manuscripts to Moshe, who spent many nights copying the songs. At the last moment Engel’s itinerary was changed and the music was returned to him. We finally met Engel eight years later, in Palestine, in 1925. However, his songs turned out to be our bread and butter. We sang them all over Poland, and wherever they were heard, they were acclaimed. Engel provided us with a beautiful repertoire of songs of the caliber of Schumann or Brahms. (Ruth Rudinow, 1)

Moshe and Ruth passed their exams at the Conservatory in 1918. Ruth was awarded an Artist Diploma and a gold medal, but could not afford the latter which had to be purchased for 50 rubles. Moshe, who also passed all his exams well, did not qualify for a diploma as he had not completed high school (Jews were not admitted to public high schools and had to study privately).
As the economy disintegrated in the aftermath of war and nationalization, Moshe and Ruth were offered contracts for the Odessa Opera Company, but could not afford to accept them because the salaries offered would not even pay for food. Instead they sang concerts for “payok” -- payment in goods:

A loaf of bread, some herring, canned goods, kerosene and other items. If you didn’t bring a bottle with you, kerosene would be your loss. Once we were brought to a large vegetable farm out of town for a concert. The workers were scattered in the fields. We each received a sack of beets. It seemed fun to all of us and we were making jokes. But when the truck dropped us some distance from home and we had to drag the heavy sacks over the streets and then up three flights it was no fun any longer. Mother made borscht, which lasted and fed the family for a week. She invented several dishes to use the beets, gave them to all her neighbours and relatives, but we could not bear to hear about or see them any more for a long while.” (Ruth Rudinow, 1)

Moshe and Ruth at the Royal Conservatory, Odessa.

‘My specialty is singing. I learned in childhood,’ was the answer of Mr. Rudinow.

Moshe joined the Conservatory in Ruth’s second year there:
The following year, 1913-14, my teacher started telling excitedly about a new pupil she had accepted into her class. He was a bass baritone who looked typically Russian, dressed in an embroidered Russian blouse, with a voice like Chaliapin. His name was Rudinow and he was a Jew. That was my first impression before I met him. The second was in sight-reading class where no one was willing to sing before the class of forty-five strangers. The class was silent until one man pushed the other saying that Rudinow could do it. A Russian-looking man came out and sang the song without a mistake, to the delight of the teacher and the class. ‘What is your specialty? Where did you learn? What is your name?’ asked the teacher. ‘My specialty is singing. I learned in childhood,’ was the answer of Mr. Rudinow. (Ruth Rudinow, 1)

Ruth and several classmates enlisted this sight-reading master to tutor them. Moshe accepted, but rather than teach sight-reading he turned the group into a chamber chorus. And, through weeks of rehearsals, Ruth and Moshe fell in love. Already during their years of study at the Conservatory (and of courtship), Moshe and Ruth sang together professionally. Ruth wrote:
On our way one day to the park, Moshe invited me to see a scientific motion picture. We saw the silent movie and it occurred to us that if the picture were interspersed with singing or other musical numbers, it would be more interesting. We entered the office, saw the manager, and offered him our idea with our taking part. The man like it and then and there we were engaged. Each of us sang solos and we finished with duets. The cinematograph got the best write-ups in the papers. Their income increased and we made a few hundred rubles, which were so badly needed in the time of inflation. (Ruth Rudinow, 1)
However, Moshe’s studies and the couple’s courtship were cut short by World War I. As Ruth tells in her memoirs (1):
With the war going on for a second year, the mood of the country became more realistic. There were no more predictions about a quick and easy victory. To study and singing became very difficult, almost impossible. Every day this or that friend was called to the army. In a few weeks he would be an accomplished soldier sent to the front and never seen again. Moshe’s conscience didn’t allow him to avoid his duty in spite of all deprivations we had as Jews. He decided after several sleepless nights to enlist and do what all boys did at that time. When he appeared for enlistment, he was asked by the army doctor whether he had any complaints in regard to his health. “No,” was his answer. “Good boy,” said the officer, and he was accepted into the army. Two days later he was shipped to Pavlograd for the training center for new recruits. 

Ruth's Childhood and Early Years

‘She may, God forbid, want to become an actress. That would be the last straw.’

Photo of Ruth in school uniform, ca 1910?

Born in 1890 in Odessa, Russia. Ruth was the third of four children of Jacob Leviash, a grocer, and his wife Adele. Like her father, who, she later wrote, “enjoyed listening to a good cantor and would go to the other end of town to hear one, letting the family tend the store,” Ruth was enthralled by music:

While living in the center of the city, a block from the theater, I used to sneak in and see whatever was on the stage. There I saw Bar Kochba, Shulamith, and Russian operas. Having a good memory and voice, I used to reproduce what I had seen and heard on the stage for my parents. They would laugh and say, ‘She may, God forbid, want to become an actress. That would be the last straw.’ But my dreams were set, and the first step toward that goal was to finish high school. (Ruth Rudinow, 1)
After graduating from high school, Ruth took a job as a tutor for three Tartar children in the Caucasus. Her father had become ill and she sent her earnings home to help the family:
My original plan to save up for my tuition fee at the Conservatory of Music was a failure. But an unexpected event saved the situation. An elderly retired business man heard me sing some Schubert songs at a charity concert. He was so delighted with my voice that he immediately got in touch with my sister Rose and offered to pay my tuition at the Conservatory if I would drop my job and leave at once for Odessa. So I did. I was admitted without difficulty and the first year was uneventful. Time would be spent mostly on technical things and very little singing. Theory, harmony, history of music and so on. The most pleasant hours, though, were spent listening to advanced students. 

Childhood and early years.

-- "what a world we were led into ... a world of sound .. a world of dreams"

Born in Tchernigov, Russia in 1890, the son of Nahum Rudinow, a livestock merchant, and his wife Batya, Moshe Rudinow began his religious studies in a cheder at age four. Orphaned at eight by the death of his father, he was placed in the care of Gedaliah Weinhause, a local cantor. He assisted in raising the family's meager income with appearances as a child cantor in the local synagogues. In his teens he moved to Kiev. Here, staying in the home of an uncle, he joined the choir of the Brodski Synagogue. Half a century later, he described the musical life of that choir as follows:
My mother brought me to Kiev in 1904, after I had sung for more than four years in Tchernigov. Although my alto voice was on the decline, I was accepted as a soloist in the choir of the Brodski Synagogue. There is not a Temple in the United States that could pride itself with such a choir as that Synagogue had. There were nearly 40 boys in the choir, all of them chosen voices and excellent sight readers. Added to that there were ten men's voices, mostly from the Kiev opera.
Kiev was a city of choral culture. Among the choirs of this city were the monks in the Pechersk Convent who sang Ancient Slav Chants in unison, the two choirs of the St. Vladimir and St. Sophie Cathedrals. The Brothers’ Convent down town where the Archbishop led the services had two large choirs, one of the monks who chanted in unison in the aisles of the church and a mixed choir in the lofts. There were also two secular choirs, the students' choir, two hundred persons strong, and Zawadski's choir. Zawadski was a rich nobleman and a remarkable musician who kept his own choir on his estate, trained them and toured all over the country with them. Nevertheless, our choir was considered one of the best.1

Lazar Weiner, who as a boy sang soprano in the Brodski Synagogue, later wrote: "The choir at that time consisted of approximately forty boys - all children from poor homes, and as far as I can recall, more than half came from towns and villages outside of Kiev. We received our general schooling at the synagogue daily until three o'clock, and from four until five-thirty we had our choir rehearsal. In spite of the fact that Kiev was an anti-Semitic city, the Jewish boys of the synagogue were the official child choristors of the Civic Opera House, where we appeared in such operas as Carmen, Boris Godunoff, Queen of Spades, Werther (by Massenet) and Mephistopheles (by Boito). With what anticipation we would go to the Opera! There we were sure to hear new and famous singers and conductors. And what a world we were led into ... a world of sound .. a world of dreams And the next morning we would discuss the singers we had heard the previous evening. One youngster decided to be a tenor like Sobinov or Zonatelo, while the other was determined to be a bass like Chaliapin, and the third wanted to be a conductor like the one he had seen the previous night. Of course this entire conversation would take place with illustrations. The tenor fans would sing the tenor arias, the bass enthusiasts would sing the bass arias and he who dreamt of being a conductor stood on a chair in the center of the class and conducted an imaginary orchestra, while the rest of us would assist - one at the piano, others imitating fiddles, cellos, clarinets -- all going at a mighty crescendo."

Brodski Synagogue, August 1991. At that time being used as a children’s puppet theatre. Photo by Ann Rudinow Sætnan. Jack Rudinow in white shirt and hat on left.

But the years in Kiev were also harsh. His wife, Ruth Leviash, later wrote of those years that: Moshe became sick in his childhood when, without parents, he made a living from singing in the choir of a synagogue. At that time he was not able to buy a warm coat or good shoes and he walked without these things in the bitter cold Russian winters. It became still worse when he lost his first voice and, with that, his steady income. From the few lessons he gave in Hebrew he was able to pay for a bed and one meal in a paupers’ dining room. This cost him 5 kopeks. It was lucky for him that he was allowed to take home as much bread as he wished so he could have another meal at bed time with a glass of tea. Soon, however, his voice came back and to his delight he was again admitted to the choir of the Brodski Synagogue, the finest in Kiev, at a salary of 25 rubles a month.
But there were other annoying troubles which affected his life in Kiev. Kiev as a capital of the Ukraine was not open to Jews. The police would come at night for inspection and pull out of bed those people who lived there illegally. That unpleasant, uncertain life made him think of going to Odessa after 12 years of misery in hiding. He did this a few years later. 2

As his teens were over, the wave of anti-Semitism reached its heights in Kiev (1913). One day a friend of his, an orthodox cantor, informed him that he had decided to go to Odessa and asked Moshe to join him. He packed a few belongings and they were off.

Moshe found a job the very day he arrived in Odessa in the Great Synagogue as a choir member and soloist for 45 rubles a month. That was almost twice as much as he used to earn in Kiev and the living conditions were much cheaper. Moshe started again to complete his high school program for entering the Conservatory.

Though without a high school diploma, Moshe was admitted to the Conservatory of Music in Odessa, and it was there he met Ruth Leviash, who later became his wife and concert partner.

Picture below: Brodski Synagogue, August 1991. At that time being used as a children’s puppet theatre. Photo by Ann Rudinow Sætnan. Jack Rudinow, Moshe Rudinow's son, in white shirt and hat on left.