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.
Ruth Leviash was born in Odessa, Russia, July 24, 1890. She studied at the Imperial Conservatory in Odessa, graduating in 1917. She married Moshe Rudinow, (who also graduated in the same class,) on February 28, 1917.
In 1919, they left Russia and toured though Europe, reaching Palestine in 1920, where they joined the First Palestine Opera Company. Moshe and Ruth sang in operas and concerts throughout Palestine until 1927, when she and her husband sailed to the United States. Their son, Jacob was born in Odessa in August 1919, and their daughter, Naomi was born in Tel Aviv in July 1925. Both reside in California.
Ruth lived with Moshe, (Cantor of Temple Emmanuel,) in New York until 1948, when he retired and they moved to Oakland, California to be closer to the children. She continued to sing in concerts until Moshe's last illness and death in 1953.
Ruth moved back to New York in 1955 and pursued her interests in music, arts and crafts and her circle of friends and relatives. In 1985, after some health problems, she moved again to California and lived until age 99 1/2. She died April 10, 1990
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.
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. 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 and a Russian-sounding name, Rudinow, but surprisingly 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.
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 liked 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.
However, Moshe’s studies and the couple’s courtship were cut short by World War I.
