 There was a time in history where it was okay to cry inside, but you would never cry out loud. Lily Isaacs is the matriarch of the Grammy-nominated and multi-award-winning Bluegrass Country Christian Music Group, the Isaacs. She started her journey not as a Christian, but as a young Jewish girl living in the Bronx. The horror of her parents or deals surviving the Holocaust and the Nazi murders of her other family members led her to her personal relationship with Jesus. This is her story. This is today's Nashville. This is faith. It is such a pleasure to sit down with you again. It's so nice to see you. Thank you for inviting me into your home. Thank you, Teri. Your story just is amazing. I met you several years ago and you shared your parent's story, your journey with the Isaacs. And I thought, oh, I want you on my show. Let's go back and where it all started. Well, I guess it all started when I was born for me. My mother and father are Polish. They were both from the same hometown called Częstochowa, Poland. They didn't know each other at the time, but after a series of events, which we'll talk about, they did meet each other and got married. They wound up in Germany after the war and they got married there. And that's where I was born in Munich, Germany. So that's how my life started. My parents stayed there a couple of years and we migrated to America when I was two years old via Ellis Island. And when I was nine, we all became American citizens again at Ellis Island and I grew up in the Bronx, New York. So tell me a little bit about your parents and what happened before that? World War II started in September of 1939. My parents were from large families. My mother had four siblings and her parents and my father had five siblings and his parents at home. And my father would always say that when the war broke out, there was some rumor around, but of course in those days you didn't have internet. And very rarely did you have a radio, so people really didn't know what was going on. But there's rumors of war going around. So my father said that all of a sudden one day out of nowhere, these big trucks came barreling, army trucks, Nazi trucks came barreling into the little town of Czenskochowa where they live. And he said that the soldiers would get out on the streets and get on these megaphones and they'd order everybody on the street out of their homes, come out of the street. And if you didn't, they would go from house to house and just make everybody come out on the street. They had no clue why, but that's what they did. They didn't know if it was going to be a bomb or they needed to evacuate for whatever reason. But that's when the Nazis started separating families. So my father and his brother were taken away from his parents and his other siblings. My mother also with her sister came out and her mom never saw her mom again or her brother or sister. So everything was chaotic. And they sent one person to this place, one person to that place. So they are transported, of course they didn't know each other at the time, just happened to be from the same hometown. But my father was transported to Czenskochow, the ghetto. And my mother was at the Warsaw Ghetto with her sister. And then eventually they wound up in concentration camps. My father was in Buchenwald in Germany. And my mother was in Bergen-Belsen in Germany, two years. How old were they? My mother was 19, my father was 25. Did they even know what was really happening at that time? They had no idea. I wondered in my mind so many times if 6 million Jews were killed, plus others. If you knew you were going to be killed and your family would you not fight back? They didn't know. They didn't know where they were going. And then they were on starvation diets, a crust of bread a day with a glass of water. That's all they got. So people were weakened and they get sick and they had no idea. But they survived a nightmare. I heard a lot of stories from my mother especially. She'd tell us a lot of the things that she and her sister survived and how they got through it. But in 1945, when the war was over, they were liberated by American soldiers and our allies. And all of my life my mother would say when those American soldiers busted through those gates, she said they looked like angels from heaven. And we have a great respect for our military here because they freed my parents. So that was our humble beginnings. So how did they meet then? After the war was over, there were so many people that were emaciated. They were skin and bone. A lot of them were sick. So they started these places called displaced persons camps. And organizations like the Red Cross, United Jewish Appeal, The Neighborhood came together across the world. And they went into Germany and into Poland. And they started these camps where they would have proper healthcare, nursing back to health with food and whatever. And my parents met in one of those displaced persons camps in Feldefinn, Germany, which is outskirts of Munich. That's where they met. And I think they just had a lot in common because they were from the same hometown. And they got married there. And after they got married, they stayed two years. I was born there. And I have pictures of me when I was a little girl with my mother in Feldefinn, Germany. But also, again, in those days, you had to have a sponsor that would send for you to come to my great two different country. My mother's brother was in America. And he sent from my father and my mother and I to come to New York. So we got on a ship. I don't remember it. Fourth, I was only two. I heard a lot of stories about how my mother was so seasick that my dad would have to hold me the whole time. But we landed via Ellis Island to the Hudson River and wound up in the Bronx. My uncle taught my father how to be a bread baker, which was his trade. And we started a new life here. That's how it all began. And you wrote this book, You Don't Cry Out Loud. Yes, I did. Tell me about the title. I wanted to write a book for many, many years. And I just kept putting it off and putting it off because there was so much deep pain. My mother passed away in 2014. And I was already writing the book while she was in assisted living. But one of the comments my mom would tell us was, you know, my girls would say, Grandma, how did you stand it? How could you do it? And she'd say, oh, you cry, but you don't cry out loud. And that stuck in my brain. I said that has to be the title of my book. What would happen if you cried out loud? You'd just get attention and you'd probably be killed or beaten up or something. So yeah, she said they had to keep it to themselves. I read this book. It's powerful. Thank you. Now, when you came to the Bronx, you were just a toddler. Yes. And tell me about your life there and you growing up. Well, I grew up in it. We had an apartment, actually two or three different apartments. The first one, I don't remember. I was too young. It was kind of living in with another family to get adjusted to the culture here, I guess. And then we lived in a small apartment on the second floor. And it was just me and my parents. And then when I was five, my mother had my brother. So it was just the four of us and we did the best we could. My parents didn't speak English, so they had to go to night school to learn how to speak English to become an American citizen. And they studied for that test. And my father was a bread baker. He'd go to work every night and came home slept through the day and mom would take care of us. Then I started school. It was just regular life in New York City. We lived on the first floor and the fire escape was all enclosed. So I was four years old and my mother wasn't going to let me out on the streets. She laid a blanket out on the fire escape and I played with my dolls. And then one day I heard these kids playing and I just looked through the bars to see who it was and my head got stuck. Oh, no. And she couldn't get my head out. She tried grease and butter. We had to call the fire department for them to pry that open. So anyway, that was my youth. And then God had an amazing plan for your life. You got into music, the Isaacs. Yes, ma'am. And we're going to talk about that when we come back. Lily, tell me about your teenage years and how you got into music. Well, that was quite adventurous, I'd say. Well, how I got into music, I think I was just born into it. My mother was five foot two and a fireball. She was a relentless person, what she wanted she got. And she was so sweet, but she was always singing. Broadway shows and she and I just had this inner love of Broadway. And good thing we lived in New York because we go to all the Broadway shows and she'd sing along with them and her little Polish accent and sing in the house and, you know, embarrassed me in front of my friends. She'd want to sing and dance, sing in the rain and get an umbrella. And she did. But it just I just didn't read in me. So ever since I was very, very young, my mother would put me in talent contests and I was singing and I got dance lessons. And I said, you know what, I'm going to make Broadway my life. I want to be a Broadway actress because we loved it. And I thought, well, you know, that'll be good because my parents would be proud of me. Mom would love it. So that's what I studied. That's what I wanted to do. So even in high school, you know, I was in all the high school plays. And when I went to college, I went to Queens College, majored in acting, minored in English. And I had an opportunity to audition for an off Broadway show downtown and I made the part. It was a Shakespearean play. So I did that one whole summer while I was in college, which was so exciting. Then I had another opportunity to live in Woodstock one summer and do the show Oklahoma. So I was in the choir of Oklahoma, but we got to see the back end of what was going on. So we got to be with the actors. We helped build the sets. It was just a beautiful experience. Almost met Bob Dylan. We were eating at a restaurant. My friends and I and he was sitting at the next table. We didn't have a cell phone then so I couldn't prove it. But yeah, it's pretty cool. So I just grew up loving music and my mother did. And I thought that my goal would be Broadway. That's what I wanted to do. So God has a way of molding our lives to be where we need to be. My girlfriend and I met in college. My girlfriend, Maria, we were roommates and she was also a singer. And we both played folk guitars. So we were hippies. And you know, we ironed our hair with a sheet. You didn't have a flat iron on those days. So we had to have straight hair like Mayor Travis, Peter Paul and Mary. So what we do is one of us would lay our hair on the ironing board and put a diaper on it and then use an iron. On your hair. That's the way you did it then. But it was so important for us to do that, to look the part and be the part. And we were invited to sing at a party in Long Island one night. And we said, well sure, let's sing. So we got our guitars and got on the subway and we could do this party. And there was some very important people. Igor May and Steve Lawrence were there and like a lot of famous people. And we sang our set. So this young man, he might have been 20, we were 19, 21, he was young. And he came up and said, you girls are really good. He said, can I have your phone number and I'll get you set up an audition. We thought he was flirting, you know, but he was cute. So we gave him our number and I forgot about it. Let, I think three weeks went by and he called my home. And he said, you guys are really good. He said, would you like to audition for Columbia Records to do an album? Oh my God. I freaked out. I said, yeah, of course he set up the audition in a couple of weeks. And Maria, my girlfriend that I sang with and I, we were so nervous. But we did. We ironed our hair and we wore the bell bottoms and looked the part. We took the subway and walked into Columbia. So nervous. We sang about four songs and walked out there with a deal on Columbia Records. So we did a folk album called Lily and Maria in 1969. And it was so cool. It was an honor. But because of that, we landed a show in Greenwich Village, New York at a place called Gertie's Folk City. And a lot of icons in the folk era would sang it. Joan Baez had sung there. Peter Paul and Mary had been there. Bob Dylan had been there. So we had to do it. It was a six-week show. And so there was an opening act and then us. The opening act was a bluegrass band from Kentucky called the Greenbrier Boys. I never heard bluegrass in my life. The only time I ever heard a banjo was on the Beverly Hillbillies. So I didn't know what to expect. But the banjo player was this tall, dark, handsome cowboy. His name was Joe Isaacs. And he flirted with me shamelessly. And I mean, the combination of the two different backgrounds couldn't have been any more different. But we started dating. And with a name like Isaacs, I didn't know he was. I figured he was Jewish. And I knew my parents wouldn't like it was. But anyway, we dated. And then a year later we got engaged. Come to find out he was not Jewish. And his father was a preacher. What did your parents say? Well, they didn't like it. But he was always nice to them. And he always had this spirit of helping. So if they had anything broken, he'd come up and fix it for them. He was still living in Kentucky. So he'd make a trip to New York every month for a week. And he grew on them. They still didn't like it. But they figured that it would all work out. But we got married in 1970. And I moved to Ohio where his work was. And he was a performer as well. But he had a gig in Ohio, so that's where we went. And we started singing just, you know, within a year because of a death in the family at a brother that was three years older than he was, 27. Got killed in an automobile accident. Christmas time, four small children at home were very tragic. And the funeral was at a church. So of course I couldn't not go. I'd never been in a church in my life. We always went to the synagogue. I didn't know what to do. And I knew I wouldn't be much of a family member if I didn't go. So I went with him to the funeral. And it was very sad, a lot of tears, a lot of... But I noticed there was a lot of community there. And I never got that when I went to the synagogue. People were hugging and they were talking. And so it was okay. But I was invited to come back again. And I really debated whether I should or not because I knew my parents would be very upset with me. And they didn't know. But I went because I felt like I should. And that night the pastor made an invitation for prayer. And I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to do it. And I just got down on my knees in the back row. Everybody came forward and I put my coat over my head because I was embarrassed. And I cried. I didn't have the words to say, but I love to say this. The minute my flesh hit the floor, I know God already saw my open heart. And when I found Jesus was Jewish, just like me, when I found that out it really raised my curiosity. So I started reading the Bible and it just changed my life. So he and I started singing in church together, just the two of us. And then we had a little band. And then the three most amazing children that I could ever ask for were born talented, singing, playing instruments. And here we are today. I know what an incredible story how you met Jesus. And so from there, the Isaacs. There the Isaacs. And I will throw this in. I didn't really understand what was happening to me and I was shy about a lot of things. But when my parents did find out I was going to church regularly, they were quick to call me on the phone. And they told me if I didn't give up this crazy religion I'd found that I could never come home again. So it was a year that they wouldn't talk to me. But when my son was born, he was the first grandchild and that kind of broke the ice. So it was tense for a while. But through that trial is when I became really close to Jesus because he was all I had left. Now, did they ever know Jesus before they? Not verbally. I mean, I prayed with both of them before they died. But I know, you know, they were ignorant and didn't understand. But I hope that, you know, somehow somewhere that they understood what I was trying to say. But every time we'd start talking about it we'd start a fight. And I didn't want that to define our relationship. So while I just lived the life I felt like I wanted them to see with my family and I believe that they did. And look what God is doing right now. Millions and millions of people are coming to know Jesus through you, your music, your faithfulness. And we're going to talk about it when we come back. Lily, the Isaacs were born. All three of them. Tell me how that all evolved. Well, I have to say I wouldn't take anything in the world from my children. They're my life. But they were born so close together I didn't know how I could survive. My son was born in 1972. And I was so happy to have a little boy. We called him Benji. But he was named after my father's brother Barrel. In Judaism you name after the deceased. It's a tradition. So we tried to give... Joe was very accommodating in that way. Even though he wasn't Jewish, you know, we celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas Passover in Easter. So we kind of got the blend of both cultures. And when Ben was born, you know, it was okay. My husband was working at the time full-time and I was a stay-at-home mom then. I had to quit my job. But then two years later I gave birth to Sonia. She was named after my mother's sister whose name was Sonia. I was sick with hepatitis when I found out I was pregnant. And I was in bed for two solid months. I was very sick. I don't know how I got it. Drinking water that was unclean or whatever. But I didn't know if I could make it. So I had to have help because Ben was only two and a half years old. And I was pregnant with Sonia and sick at the same time. I didn't think I could survive. And Ben was nine pounds and three ounces. I'm not a big person. I also had back problems all of my life. And when Sonia was born, I was so worried that she'd be born with some kind of heart defect or something wrong because I was so sick. But she was this pink and pretty and nine pounder, just a beautiful baby girl. And so my family was complete. You know, I had a boy and a girl and my life was happy. So about, Sonia's about four, four and a half months old when I started getting sick again. Same symptoms as when I had hepatitis. So I immediately went to the doctor and I walked in the office and the symptoms go along with that nausea. And you know, I just felt really sick. And I said, Doc, I feel like I'm getting a relapse on hepatitis. Please do some blood work in urine. He said, we'll do it right now. Well, we did. And he was gone about 15, 20 minutes. And he walks back into the office and he's sitting there and I said, do you have a good washer and dryer? And I said, yes, why? He said, well, it's not hepatitis. You're pregnant again. And I started crying. I thought, oh my God. Ben was two. Sonia was four and a half months old and I was pregnant again. And I didn't think I could live through it. I mean, really, I mean, my body, I just didn't know. And I thought, so I went to Frisches, which is a very famous restaurant in Ohio. I went through the drive through and I ordered a whole slew of onion rings and a hamburger. And I sat there and cried. We didn't have a cell phone. I couldn't tell anybody. I thought, oh God, how am I going to get through this? So anyway, you know, I did. And then Becky was born. The joy of my life. She was also almost nine pounds. So I did something about that. So anyway, I knew my body couldn't handle. But God gave me this perfect trio. And again, I was staying at home mom and my kids started singing harmony when they were three, four, five years old. They just get up on the pulpit with us and sing. And we put Ben up on a chair when he was five years old and sang harmony with me and his dad. And it just didn't breaded. They all picked up instruments that they liked. Sonya started playing the mandolin when she was seven and just by watching people. So I just know God let it be like this to be who we are today. And you're everywhere today. You're everywhere today. Let's talk about some of the places and the awards you've received. I think one of the biggest honors the guys could have ever gotten in our whole career was in August of 2021. We're asked to become members of the Grand Ole Opry. And that was such a highlight of our life. We'd been to the Opry probably 30 years now. As guests, Porter Wagner was the first one to have us on the Opry. And that was fun. So we'd go to the Opry four or five times a year whenever they would ask us and we'd be there. But we were on stage. We were actually releasing our album called The American Face. And we asked if we could do it at the Grand Ole Opry one night. And they were very kind. They said, sure, we'll give you 30 minutes set. Do a release. And we invited about 100 of our friends to come and get tickets and be there. So right in the middle of our 30 minutes set on the Grand Ole Opry stage, Ricky Skag slips up right behind us. And I'm getting ready to introduce the main song, The American Face. And he has this big plaque. It's like just a really nice poster inside of a glass frame. And he walked up. He said, well, we have a presentation to make. And we just stood there. And he said, well, in Opry fashion, they celebrate every big event. And tonight is the premiere of your new album, The American Face. So the Opry made this plaque for you. And he read it off. He said, in honor of your release party here at the Grand Ole Opry, The American Face, we'd like to congratulate you. And we want to know if you want to become members. And when he said that, we all hit the floor. Becky was hopping across the street like a rabbit. I went like this. And that's the only picture you caught of me. We couldn't believe it. It was amazing. It was such a fulfilling. And then a month later is when we received the award. They did a whole big night. It was such a beautiful thing. And since then to now, the Opry's become one of our best family, the management, the staff, the crew, the artists. That was a big thing in our career. I think that's on social media too. It is. You can see the reaction too. Yeah. So that was great. That's a great honor. And in the midst of that, you wrote another book. I did. Tell me about it. Well, it's called The Wedding Dress with Combat Boots. So I knew a lot about what happened to my mother's family because my mother was very vocal. She'd tell us everything. My girls would ask her questions, and we wouldn't. She'd tell us every little detail. My father, not so much. He was a quiet man, worked in the bakery. He was actually an alcoholic. And he'd come home from work every morning, stumbling up the street. And I didn't know how to deal with that, but he just couldn't articulate what was in his heart, I guess. Anyway, he passed away at the age of 69, very young, 1978. And I never knew. We'd ask him, Daddy, what happened to your family? What happened to your family? He said, they died in the war. They died in the war. That's all he'd say. In 2018, we made one of our trips to Israel. We've gone 17 times, just got back recently. I know. You guys have a heart for Israel. Yeah, we do. And in 2018, it was the 70th anniversary of Israel being a Jewish nation. So we didn't want to go empty handed. So we started in a nonprofit organization called the Isaacs Foundation. And we took $100,000 with us and blessed Holocaust survivors and orphans and the Israeli soldiers. We wanted to spread the joy. We also helped support homeless in America. So that's been our foundation ever since. But we went to the Holocaust Museum during that trip and I got documents. My brother and I helped me get documents of my parents' release forms from the camps and their citizenship papers. So I took that to the Holocaust Museum with me and I said, anything you can tell me about my family, please let me know. They said, okay, within a month after getting home, I started getting documents of my father's family that I never knew. He had five siblings at home, only one living after the war with his parents. All the rest of his family was taken to Treblinka concentration camp in northern Poland. There were gas in the gas chambers and their bodies were burned to ash. And I couldn't not write my second book. I didn't know what had happened to my family. So that's when I started the second book because I had to tell the story of how I found out. And I was dealing with some health issues at the time and a pastor friend of ours was praying for me because I wanted to get the book done. And right in the middle of our prayer, he stopped. He said, Lily, I just see a vision of you standing somewhere. You're wearing a beautiful wedding dress but you have combat boots on. And I couldn't get that out of my brain. I said, okay, Lord, I know I'm in the body of Christ. I'm your bride. But I'm fighting something all the time. So I had to name that book a wedding dress with combat boots. The battles we go through. The battles we go through but we're still the bride of Christ. Lily, I love your family. Thank you, Terry. Where has God taken you now? We've got about a minute left. Well, we just got off the Read the Mac entire tour six weeks. That was amazing. How exciting. I think it was so beautiful. We're back on the road traveling. We're getting ready to do a new album, a new recording. We have new management that's handling stuff for us now. We're just excited about the future. So whatever God has for us, that's what we want to do. And he's going to do amazing things. You are going to bless so many more millions of people. Thank you. Thank you again for having me in your home. Thank you for having me on your show. My friend, no matter where you are or what you've gone through, just remember that the Lord says He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. This is Today's Nashville. This is Faith.