last word
Jenny and David
Heitler-Klevans J
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
enny and David Heitler-Klevans’ music
has found its way to Europe and back on
multiple occasions.

Shortly after they began dating at Oberlin
College in 1986, David Heitler-Klevans would
send tape recordings of him singing to Jenny
Heitler-Klevans while she was studying abroad
in Denmark. Jenny Heitler-Klevans would send
the cassettes back to David Heitler-Klevans with
harmonies recorded over his melodies.

The couple — dubbed “Two of a Kind” — have
played together ever since.

Most recently, their endeavors took them
to France to visit the relatives of Jenkintown
resident Ruth Kapp Hartz, who survived the
Holocaust as a hidden child.

The couple, both 56, met Hartz through David
Heitler-Klevans’ mother, as they were both
French teachers. Since 2019, the couple has
worked on a musical about Hartz’s life. They
took their musical knowledge and rusty French
from their Cheltenham home to France, learning
the survivor’s story and playing a concert at
an event commemorating the Shoah’s hidden
children. The musical has a complete script and
a score of about 30 songs.

“There’s so many movies and books and things about
the Holocaust, but each new one carves out some new
territory,” David Heitler-Klevans said. “This story and
its focus on rescuers and resistance and allies and its
location in France — I think there’s a number of things
about it that are quite different.”
Jenny Heitler-Klevans also shares a personal connec-
tion with Hartz’ story. Her great-aunt Irene, before
spending her adult life in the United States, escaped
from the Warsaw Ghetto, fleeing to Paris, where she
also hid until the end of the war.

“It’s not exactly the same story,” she said. “But there’s
some definite connections.”
On Jan. 21, the duo will premiere “Hidden: The True
Story of Ruth Kapp Hartz,” a video documentary about
the survivor’s life, as well as the plans for the forthcom-
ing musical adaptation of her life, over Zoom.

The video premiere will also launch the couple’s
28 JANUARY 19, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
fundraising efforts for the musical, which they plan to
host a staged concert reading of in May at Abington
Friends School.

“It’s definitely been a reach,” David Heitler-Klevans
said. “It’s definitely pushed us to do a lot of different
kinds of songwriting and scriptwriting.”
Since making performing their full-time careers in
1996, the Heitler-Klevans have released 12 albums, 10
of which are for children. Though they still create adult
music through their quartet Acoustic Blender, they are
members of the Children’s Music Network and perform
for children at local libraries, schools and summer
camps. David Heitler-Klevans grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
learning to love music from his amateur musician father
who made a living as a psychotherapist. His parents
were involved in the civil rights and anti-war movements
of the 1960s and ’70s, and the protest songs from his
childhood carried through to his pursuit of a
degree in music composition at Oberlin.

David Heitler-Klevans met Jenny Heitler-
Klevans — in true Oberlin fashion — at the co-op
house where she lived. The two shared an art
history class and grabbed breakfast before
walking to the lecture together.

Growing up in State College, Jenny Heitler-
Klevans was involved in her synagogue and
youth group; her rabbi had a deep love of
music. Jenny Heitler-Klevans fell in love with
the melody of “Hava Nagila” and started piano
lessons as a child, which carried through to
college. Her childhood dance performances led
to musical auditions at Oberlin.

“I never pictured myself becoming a musician
professionally,” Jenny Heitler-Klevans said. “And
then when I met David, we started singing
together. We did some other things before we
eventually decided to go full time into music, but
it’s been a great ride.”
While David Heitler-Klevans taught music
after college, Jenny Heitler-Klevans pursued
a master’s degree in public health, but playing
music together in their spare time was always a
priority. Around the time they had their twin sons
in 1995, music gigs started becoming a bigger
commitment than their day jobs. The couple
wanted to have more flexible schedules to spend time
with their babies.

“I said ‘Well, why don’t we just, for a year, try doing
this?’” Jenny Heitler-Klevans said of being full-time
musicians. One year has turned into almost 30.

For the past three decades, the Heitler-Klevans have
worked to find the balance of being a couple, parents
and colleagues. The development of “Hidden” is a
benchmark of their success.

“Jenny is pretty much the only person that I feel 100%
comfortable about collaborating with creatively,” David
Heitler-Klevans said. “Because we know each other so
well, and we’re able to really take the best of what both
of us do and combine that in different ways over the
course of the years in different projects.” ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Photo by Jason Kramer
PRESERVE SURVIVOR STORIES THROUGH MUSIC