Debbie Friedman: Her music will live on

The last time I heard Debbie Friedman sing live was at a standing-room-only concert at Valley Beth Shalom (Encino, California), decades ago.

The audience of more than a thousand people of all ages knew her songs, sang and clapped along with her classics, such as "Not By Might."

Combining Hebrew text with English translations opened her music to a huge worldwide audience and an entire generation.

Her tunes were catchy; once you heard them, they were in your head forever. I often find myself humming the melodies.

While her music will continue to inspire, the Jewish world has today lost a musical treasure. Debbie Friedman died today (Sunday, January 9) after a hospitalization for pneumonia in Southern California.

Her composition, "Mi Shebeirach" - a healing prayer - is sung in many American congregations. Her songs are standards at youth activities, Jewish summer camps, music camps, Jewish educator conferences and other venues.

Although officially connected to the Reform movement, her music transcended all denominational lines.

According to JTA's story today:

"Debbie influenced and enriched contemporary Jewish music in a profound way," read a statement published Sunday on the website of the Union for Reform Judaism. "Her music crossed generational and denominational lines and carved a powerful legacy of authentic Jewish spirituality into our daily lives."

Friedman brought a more folksy, sing-along style to American congregations. In 2007 she was appointed to the faculty of the Reform movement's cantorial school in a sign that her style had gained mainstream acceptance."

She released more than 20 albums and performed sold-out concerts around the world at synagogues, churches, schools and prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall. She received dozens of awards and was lauded by critics worldwide.

"Debbie Friedman was an extraordinary treasure of our movement and an individual of great influence," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. "Twenty-five years ago, North American Jews had forgotten how to sing. Debbie reminded us how to sing, she taught us how to sing. She gave us the vehicles that enabled us to sing. Then she impacted our youth and our camps and, ultimately, from there she impacted our synagogues.

"What happens in the synagogues of Reform Judaism today -- the voices of song -- are in large measure due to the insight, brilliance and influence of Debbie Friedman."

Another JTA story on Friedman, by Sue Fishkoff, can be read here ("70s rebel takes job at cantorial school").

Check out many videos on YouTube.com, such as a 2008 tribute to her music here. Among her most famous compositions: And the Youth Shall See Visions, Lechi Lach, Mourning into Dancing and others.

New York: National Yiddish Theatre, Dec. 12

Attendees of the 2006 New York international Jewish genealogy conference will remember the hit evening performance by Zalmen Mlotek.
Motek, director of the National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene, will present "100 Years of Yiddish Musical Theatre" with guest Daniella Rabbani and the New Yiddish Chorale at the Kingsborough Performing Arts Center on Sunday, December 12, at 3pm. Tickets are $25.

An internationally recognized authority on Yiddish folk and theater music, he is the artistic director of the nation’s only Yiddish Theatre,, travels the world giving concerts, lectures and other programs.

"100 Years of Yiddish Musical Theatre" was hailed as the “runaway hit” of the Berkeley Jewish Music Festival and was highly praised by Yiddishkayt L.A., while Ms. Rabbani’s performance was deemed “utterly alive” by the New York Observer.

This elegant piece celebrates the Jewish musical accent in American theatre, beginning with the origins of the Yiddish theatre in the wine cellars of Rumania and treating us to operetta arias, humorous vaudeville ballads, backstage renditions of Fiddler on the Roof, and more. Simultaneous English translations are projected on a large screen.

For tickets, click here, or call 718-368-5596.

Michigan: Yiddish World Remembered, Dec. 12

"A Yiddish World Remembered" - a documentary - will be presented at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Michigan on Sunday, December 12.

 

The screening takes place at 11am at the Holocaust Memorial Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills. Members, free; others, $5.Reservations are suggested. Contact the JGSMi

Narrated by Academy Award nominated actor Elliott Gould and accompanied by never-before-seen archival films, vintage photographs, and, of course, traditional Klezmer and cantorial music, the documentary takes a realistic and enlightening look at this unique and all-but-vanished way of life.

For those in rural communities, there was often no running water or electricity. For many, anti-Semitism was a part of daily life. But for everyone, crowded conditions and poverty seemed to prevail. Despite these trials, through the eyes of the individuals interviewed, we learn that Jewish communities were close-knit and often even joyous places to live. This television special explores everything from the fascinating language of Yiddish to the Rabbis and Rebbes that often ran the communities to the powerful Jewish movements of Khasidism, Bundism and Zionism.

Jewish Music: International winners announced

Musicians in the family?

Here are more you may not have known about. They are the winners of the second International Jewish Music Festival, held in Amsterdam.

Participants included 24 groups from 12 countries.

As in 2008, the Amsterdam-based festival managed to attract top ensembles from around the world to this unique competition. The pre-selected 24 ensembles came from 12 countries and four continents. For them, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to showcase their talent for an audience of programmers, agents and aficionados. The jury included world-renowned Yiddish singer Adrienne Cooper and klezmer expert Hankus Netsky.

Eight workshops were also presented, incuding Adrienne Cooper's Yiddish/Ladino masterclass and the famed Hankus Netsky's Instant Klezmer workshop.

The first-place winner was a Chassidic band, The Heart & The Wellspring (Israel).

Other winners:

Mames Babegenush (Denmark)
Voice of the Levites (Israel)
Shir (UK) - Best Yiddish song
Di Gojim (Netherlands)
Yonit Shaked Golan & Gabi Argov (Israel)
Lafra (Spain) - Best Sephardic performance
Klezmafour (Poland)
Trio C Tot De Derde (Netherlands)
Vent d'Ouest Klezmer Band (France)

To view an 11-minute documentary of the finale, click here.

Ger Mandolin Orchestra: Plucking the strings

There are as many reasons for researching our families as there are genealogists.

For Avner Yohai, an Israeli living in Northern California's Silicon Valley, it was the strings - the mandolin strings, to be more specific.

I first met Avner at a board meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, held at my friend Rosanne Leeson's home in Los Altos early this past summer. We connected again in August at the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, in Los Angeles.

The photo (above left) is of the Ger Mandolin Orchestra in the 1930s.

Tablet Magazine, which always offers a good read, carried a story by Alexander Gelfand, on Avner's family and research, and the "Aha!" moment that kickstarted Avner's interest in family history.

Have you ever had one of those moments—one of those epiphanies—when everything is illuminated?



Avner Yonai did. And it came, fittingly enough, while he was watching the film Everything Is Illuminated, based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. Which led, of course, to the mandolins.


But first, the epiphany.

In 1932, his father's family went from Poland to Palestine. In 1935, members of his mother's family followed the same trip. The ancestral town was Gora Kalwaria - Ger, in Yiddish. Those who didn't leave, died in Treblinka.

His family didn't talk about Poland, and he himself didn't think about it until he saw "Illuminated." Most of the town's residents died in a massacre on March 18, 1942. Avner was born on March 18. Do you hear Twilight Zone music?

In two weeks, he was in Ger, looking for family information. A 94-year-old survivor showed Avner the Ger Yizkor book and showed him the photo of his grandfather, great-uncles and a cousin, from the 1930s. That was the photo above, also on Avner's business cards.

Mandolin orchestras were all over in the early 20th century, mostly performed by immigrants (and amateur musicians) who kept their memories of home alive through familiar music.

However, the instrument is not a new one and dates to 15th century Italy with lots of Baroque and classical music. It spread rapidly across Europe, where many countries each have their own style of music.

In the 19th century, mandolins were made in various sizes, each with a different "voice," just like string quartets and larger ensembles. The sizes sounded like a viola (mandolina), a cello (mandocello) or a bass (mandobass), providing musical richness to the sound.

In the story, author Gelfand relates his own experience with mandolin music in Montreal. His maternal grandfather was from Krynki (Krinek), some 150 miles northeast of Yohai's ancestral town of Ger.

The photo spurred Avner to "lost" relatives in Israel, much more detailed research and to recreate the group.

But Yonai is not one to give up easily. He has used the genealogy website JewishGen and the YIVO archives to find contacts and archival materials among the scattered descendants of the Jews of Ger. He has hired a doctoral candidate in ethnological studies at the University of Warsaw to pore over old newspapers, sheet music, record catalogs—anything that might hint at the mandolin orchestra’s repertoire. Together with the Israeli mandolinist Benny Bilsky, who has volunteered to act as music director for the project, he has even visited the large community of Gerrer Hasidim in Bnei Brak, Israel, searching for tunes that might have found their way into the orchestra’s book.

Thanks to Avner, a newly recreated Mandolin Orchestra of Ger will perform in March at the 26th Jewish Music Festival.

Now, as you look for your family's heirlooms and photos, keep an eye out for old mandolin music as well, and let Avner know.

Read the complete story at the Tablet link above.

Arizona: Jewish centenary, time capsule contest

The Tucson Jewish community will hold its centennial celebration and time-capsule opening on October 24.

The Centennial Exhibit opened in mid-August and will run through December 23. Below see a 1914 postcard of the first synagogue in Arizona, termed by the card's publisher (Kressge) the "Jewish Church." The synagogue is now the Jewish History Museum, the only one in Arizona.

In conjunction with the celebration is the Jewish History Museum's "Be a Part of History" contest.

On exhibit: The history of the Southwest Jewish Pioneers ~ 1860 to present day • Photos taken by Jewish Pioneer Leo Goldschmidt ~ 1870-1890 • Photos and historic newsletter from early Temple Emanu-El • Red White and Blue Dress worn on July 4, 1876 • Statehood Dress worn February 14, 1912 • The Life Cycle Journal of Rabbi Marcus Breger, Anshei Israel • Holocaust Surviving Torah • Southern Arizona Holocaust Survivors Memorial Quilt.

Readers can enter to win their own personal time capsule and to participate in the removal of the original century-old capsule from the building's cornerstone.

The day starts at noon with a live music street festival from Klezmer and everything else!

At 2pm, the cornerstone placed by Jewish pioneers in the foundation of Arizona's historic first synagogue building will be opened.

Following the opening of the old capsule, the new 2010 capsule will be placed and sealed until the 2110 bicentennial event. Five winners will have a chance to win a personal time capsule and help remove the old one. The new capsule will be returned to the winner's descendants in 2110.

Readers can also become a part of the first synagogue and the only Jewish History Museum in Arizona. by having your name and message engraved on a 12-inch x 12-inch granite stone to be permanently installed in the Centennial Courtyard of the museum.

They'd also like you to tell them what should be placed in the new capsule. All suggested items will be submitted to the Museum Board for consideration.

The Jewish History Museum is housed in the oldest synagogue building in Arizona. Built in 1910 it was the home of Temple Emanu-El from 1910 to 1949. Saved from the wrecking ball in 1999, the historic structure has been completely restored and today is the home of the only Jewish History Museum in the Southwest.

For more information on the event and exhibit, click the museum link above.

The Jews of southern Arizona began gathering in the 1880s. In 1884, the Hebrew Ladies Benevolent Society was formed. Twenty years later, they took up the challenge to aise funds for a permanent synagogue. Jewish settlers in other communities, such as Globe, Bisbee and Nogales also contributed.

On June 20, 1910, the grand lodge of Arizona Masons laid the Temple’s cornerstone. The first services were held on Rosh HaShanah, October 3, 1910. Built before Arizona achieved statehood, the synagogue served as an important center of Jewish community for the entire Southwest US. Temple Emanu-El grew significantly and moved from Stone Avenue in September 1949. Over the years, the original building was used for other purposes.

In 1982, the Temple reclaimed its roots at a ceremony sponsored by the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission, the Arizona Heritage Center, and the southern Arizona chapter of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society.

New York: Aleppo-Syrian Jewish concert, Oct. 21

The American Sephardi Foundation will sponsor a concert of Syrian Jewish liturgical music, utilizing the Arabic maqam system for Hebrew poetry and prayers, on Thursday, October 21.

It begins at 6.30pm at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W. 16th St., New York City. See ticket details below.

Speaking and performing will be:

-- Mark Kligman, PhD, Professor of Jewish Musicology, will trace the development of this music which he explores in his book "Maqam and Liturgy: Ritual, Music and Aesthetics of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn."

-- Isaac J. Cabasso, Cantor of Congregation Beth Torah, a Syrian synagogue in Brooklyn, NY, will lend his 50 years of experience in Syrian Hazzanut to the conversation, and perform excerpts of the prayers in various maqams.

-- Musical accompaniment on the oud will be performed by Victor Esses, Cantor of Sephardic Synagogue, Brooklyn, NY.

-- Joseph Mosseri, Cantor and founder of the Hazzanut Forum, will discuss the resurgence of maqam music among the community's younger generation.

This program is presented in association with the American Society for Jewish Music

The concert will be held at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street. Tickets are $10 at the door; $5, ASF members. Reservations requested; send an email.

For more information, visit the ASF website.

Israel: 'One Family, Many Faces Festival,' Day 1

When Tracing the Tribe arrived at Beit Hatfutsot at 8.30am, nothing much was happening. In  less than an hour, nearly all of the 50 MyHeritage.com computers were in use by people of all ages, including many children.

Tracing the Tribe is sharing a table with Rose Feldman and Garri Regev of the Israel Genealogical Society (photo below right) and we also are displaying the 2010 IAJGS International Jewish Genealogy Month poster.

Many people are stopping by and asking about genealogy, how to get started, what to do, even questions on DNA genetic genealogy.

It appears to be a great day for MyHeritage. In just the first five hours, neary 400 trees were added.

It's a good day to be in the air-conditioned lobby of the museum, as it's humid and hot outdoors today.

People who've said hello: Harvey Krueger stopped by to say hello before the Beit Hatfutsot international board of directors meeting, and Assia Reuven and Haim Ghiuzeli of the museum.

Judging from the people in the lobby, it seems more and more people are coming in - which is a good thing.

We're all looking forward to tomorrow's second day!

Music: Persian music and family

Tablet offered a wonderful story on cousin Galeet Dardashti's new CD, "The Naming," which honors the Bible's unsung women and also calls attention to Persian music.

Tracing the Tribe wrote a previous post here, and included where clips may be accessed.

Alexander Gelfand wrote a fascinating story which, among other issues, addressed Persian cantillation in the classical style, for which Galeet's grandfather Yona was well-known.

There's also family history in there. Her Aunt Tova prayed with tefillin, unusual for a woman in any Jewish community around the world, but especially long ago in Teheran.

“Gender hadn’t really been an issue for me up until that point,” says Dardashti, who leads the all-girl band Divahn and recently completed a PhD in cultural anthropology. “We were three girls in my family, and there was never any question that there was something we couldn’t do. But it suddenly occurred to me that, yes, I am a woman; and my husband and I are going to have really different roles in child rearing.”

In addition to considering the women who had been misrepresented in rabbinical commentary, such as Vashti or Sheba, she was studying the music Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, as well as the very different Persian tradition of her grandfather, often called the "Nightingale."

Galeet's father, Farid Dardashti, once a pop star in Tehran - one of his hits was "Malaguena" - is hazzan at Beth El Synagogue (New Rochelle, New York), introduced her to Persian cantillation, much like the classical music his father sang. Everyone in the family grew up on Yona's singing at gatherings and via the old recordings.

When she began singing this in public, “The reaction I got from older Sephardic and Mizrahi women was, ‘Wow, hearing a woman do this repertoire is really powerful!’ ” she said.

Gelfand, in addition to commenting on various tracks on the CD, also offers information on Persian music, which is different from Arab music that most Westerners know. It is based on a modal system called dastgah, while other Middle Eastern music is based on another system called maqam. And it has influenced Persian Jewish music as well.

Farid is on the "Endora" track chanting from the book of Samuel on “Endora,” which recounts the meeting between King Saul and the witch of Endor.

Galeet also uses Sephardic and Moroccan melodies in addition to the Persian, and they are very different.

It is an acquired taste, and one needs to learn the differences.

Not everybody appreciates these distinctions. At least some of the people who come to hear Dardashti perform this material think it all just sounds vaguely Islamic. “The most common question I get is, ‘What’s Jewish about this music?’ ” she said. “They’ll say, ‘It sounds like a muezzin’s call to prayer!’ ”

Gelfand writes that Galeet intended for the CD to focus on some of the slighted biblical female figures, but that she has also succeeded in calling attention to a vast body of music that has for many years been ignored by Ashkenazim.

Read the complete story at the link above.

Tel Aviv: 'One Family, Many Faces Festival' Sept. 26-28

Beit Hatfutsot will hold a "One Family, Many Faces Festival" - on September 26-28, during the Sukkot holiday, on the Tel Aviv University campus.

The festival is free and will run from 9.30am-5pm each day.

Readers who live in Israel or those planning visits may wish to add this event to their calendars. The museum's International Board of Governors will be meeting during the festival.

In addition to an artist-designed sukkah display, Jewish music, children's events and food, Jewish genealogy will be a prominent component.

Israeli artist Rami Meiri will create a huge Jewish family tree mural and visitors will be able to add individual family pomegranates. Additionally, attendees will learn to build their own digital family trees from MyHeritage.com experts. Watch for more information on this.

The "Leaders Inc. The Jewish Peoplehood Leadership and Entrepreneurship Conference" will take place at the same time.

The museum's core exhibit will be open, in addition to a new one featuring Andy Warhol's 10 portraits of 20th century Jews (donated to the museum), and works of famed Israeli artists Igal Tumarkin, David Tartakover and Hanoch Piven.

Learn what's happening in Jewish communities, and the cultures and traditions of diverse communities, as well as connecting with your Jewish roots and family trees.

Tracing the Tribe will soon provide more details on the family history events.

See the museum website for more information.

Bechol Lashon: New issue online

The face of Judaism is changing. It includes Jews of many diverse backgrounds and origins.

As Judaism changes, Jewish genealogy must also change.

Bechol Lashon (In Every Tongue) is an organization that brings people together, and its new online issue is now available.

Read about diverse Rosh Hashanah traditions, African-American Orthodox Jews, communities around the world (Yemen, Guatemala, Rwanda, Uganda), Jews-by-choice, events in New York and California, photography exhibits, music and much more.

Read it here.

Judaica Sound Archives: High Holiday mix online

The Jewish New Year is almost around the corner. Rosh Hashana begins Wednesday night, September 8.

For Jews around the world, regardless of nationality or background, the High Holy Days are the most important days of the year. As we gather with family and friends to continue the traditions of our ancestors, we also express our spiritual connections.

The Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University has produced a special High Holyday mix of some wonderful music to listen to online; they call it a New Year gift.


The online album is excerpted from albums available at any time on their website. Selections range from songs for children as well as the voices of legendary cantors - Leib Glantz, Leibele Waldman, Gershon Sirota and Moishe Oysher.


Click here to hear the mix clips.

Click here to hear more from the albums of those in the mix.

California: Pastrami, genealogy in Carmel, Aug. 29

Carmel, California is offering a match made in heaven not usually found in that neck of the woods at this year's Jewish Food Festival, on Sunday, August 29.

From 10.30am-4pm, the cultural festival will offer arts, crafts, live entertainment and educational tours.

What's better than a steaming hot pastrami on fresh rye bread with real sour pickles and cole slaw, along with matzo-ball soup, blintzes, noodle kugel, potato knishes, challah, apple strudel, hamantschen, rugelach and mandelbrot?

There's no Jewish deli on the Monterey Peninsula so these delights are restricted to visits to larger Jewish communities or to talented home cooks who follow the culinary traditions of their ancestors.

Making the food of our ancestors taste even better, Dr. Alan Rosen will man a genealogy table to help people find their roots.

And there's much more, such as a Jewish wedding ceremony enactment, an arts and crafts fair, a tour of the synagogue, and many musical groups throughout the day.

The annual event - this is the 23rd - is run by Congregtion Beth Israel in Carmel.

Europe: 2010 Day of Jewish Culture, Sept. 5

Each year, the European Day of Jewish Culture offers activities and events in many countries.

While the official day is September 5, events are scheduled for other days as well and there is a calendar on the home page of JewishHeritage.org, which offers links to this year's participating countries.

Countries scheduling events this year: Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

“Art and Judaism” - this year's theme - explores a wide field of topics:

- Media: paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, literature, music, films, theatre

- People: painters, sculptors, writers, actors, composers and performers, directors

- Period: ancient, medieval, modern, contemporary

- Collectors: patrons of art, collections, museums

- Religious: applied art, artifacts, Judaica, everyday life,

Click here for an interactive map. Click the country of interest and a PDF will come up (in English as well as that country's own language), arranged by city and event, with detailed information.

Music: Galeet Dardashti's "The Naming"

Family history takes many forms. An artist may use images of his ancestors or where they lived on canvas, while a musician takes the stories and culture of her family and brings them to life in a different way.

For our talented cousin, singer/composer Galeet Dardashti, the stories of the women in her songs intertwine with her family’s tales of women breaking rules.

When we met for lunch recently in New York, she said her new CD - The Naming - would be launched September 14 in New York City. I wish I could be there or at her other upcoming concerts in Toronto, Philadelphia and La Jolla, California (see below).

Those who connect with Persian and Middle Eastern music will appreciate Galeet's performances. She has truly inherited the talents of her grandfather, Yona - renowned for his classical Persian singing and known simply as Dardashti - whose recordings are still revered by Persians of all religions in today's diaspora, and of her father, Hazzan Farid Dardashti.

Yona rarely sang at family events in Teheran, yet he did so at our housewarming there so very long ago. We were very honored.

For clips from the new CD, click here. Don't miss the one titled "Michal."

Read the Huffington Post review and watch this video.

From Galeet's website:

This is the story of why the brilliant Queen of Sheba shaved her legs, how the stunning Vashti laid down the line for her drunken husband, and how a mysterious witch spoke King Saul’s doom and then served him a nice dinner.

Dardashti's forthcoming solo release and multimedia performance, The Naming, draws on the Persian music deep in her bones to transform the ghostly outlines of Biblical women into full-blown flesh-and-blood personalities, combing emotional Middle Eastern-inflected musical delivery with powerful storytelling.

Dardashti unites the Persian classical music that made her grandfather an icon in Iran with her family's deep connection to Jewish poetry and song, creating electronica-edged Middle Eastern music that springs from where the midrash meets midwifery, where modal melody meets sleek modernity.

For Dardashti, the stories of the women in her songs intertwine with her own Iranian family’s tales of women breaking the rules as well as those of women in the Middle East today fighting to have their voices heard. The stories also echo through Dardashti’s personal story, in her recent transition into motherhood. Concerts feature vivid video art and live dance.

Upcoming appearances:

8-9pm, Sunday, September 5, 2010 - Toronto
Galeet Dardashti & Divahn
Ashkenaz Festival, Harbourfront Centre

7-9pm, Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - New York City
CD Release Party, Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street. Tickets

6-8.30pm, Sunday, October 17, 2010 - Philadelphia
CD Release Party, The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street

7pm, Saturday, October 30, 2010 - La Jolla, California
Galeet Dardashti & Divahn
Congregation Beth El, 8660 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, California

The project was supported by a grant from the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, a partnership of Avoda Arts, JDub Records, and the Foundation for Jewish Culture, and made possible with major funding from UJA-Federation of New York.

For more information and tickets, click here.

Music: Golden age of Jewish music

There's nothing like the great cantorial voices or klezmer groups of the past, and a new set of recordings provides a glimpse.

The Wall Street Journal's Nat Hentoff, who usually writes about jazz, reviewed "Cantors, Klezmorim and Crooners 1905-1953."

There are links to audio clips:

'Unsane Toikef' - Cantor David Roitman -- 'Russishe Shehr' - Abe Scwartz Orchestra -- 'Mi Sheoso Nisim' - Cantor Berele Chagy --'Ich Bin a Boarder Ba Mein Weib' ('I Board at My Wife's') - Fyvush Finkel

The story reveals Hentoff's early encounters with jazz and Jewish music, including a hazzan in 1932, a klezmer band at a wedding, Artie Shaw (Russian-Jewish ancestry), Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and the legendary Jewish clarinetist Dave Tarras.

Writes Hentoff:

Still part of both worlds, I have many books on the musical and social history of jazz, including discographies. But until now I've owned nothing of substance on the nearly 6,000 Yiddish or Hebrew recordings released in the U.S. between 1898 and 1942, and especially the golden age of Yiddish 78s from 1905 to 1953.

From Klezmer clarinetist Sherry Mayrent's Yiddish 78s collection - Hentoff believes it is the largest in the world - this new compilation offers 67 tracks on three CDs, including 42 reissued for the first time.

Mayrent gathered her 5,000-and-growing record collection from diverse sources in the US, Canada, Israel, South America, Russia and other locations with transplanted Jewish communities. The University of Wisconsin-Madison will be home to the new Mayrent Institute of Yiddish Culture.

The collection includes several female cantors.

The CD's producer - and track note writer - is klezmer scholar Henry Sapoznik - who will head the new Mayrent Institute. Tracing the Tribe has posted several articles about Sapoznik and his projects (use the search box).

Some "names" mentioned in the article: Latvian-born (1892) Berele Chagy who arrived in the US circa 1909, escaping army conscription; the first klezmer group to record in the US - Elenkrig's Yiddishe Orchestra; star of the Second Avenue Yiddish theater Molly Picon; and Romanian-born Abe Schwartz's Yiddish swing band, with Tarras on clarinet.

Tracing the Tribe readers will remember actor and comic Fyvush Finkel from his TV roles in "Picket Fences" and "Boston Public," whose contribution here is Ich Bin a Boarder Ba Mein Weib ("I Board at My Wife's").

Read the complete story at the link above, listen to the clips, or purchase your own copy of the three-CD set (at Amazon, $25.99; or download the MP3 album,$17.98).

Happy listening!

New Zealand: On a different note

According to J-Wire - which covers Jewish news in Australia and New Zealand, Radio New Zealand will broadcast "The Art of the Cantor."

The story reports that the series of eight weekly programs will begin at 7pm, on Thursday, September 2.

The series focuses on the music of the 20th century's greatest cantorial voices, such as Richard Tucker, Gershon Sirota, Yossele Rosenblatt, Moyshe Oysher, Jan Peerce, The Koussevitzky brothers and others.

For those unfamiliar with Jewish clergy, the cantor or hazzan often fills diverse tasks, including leading worship, officiating at life cycle events, education of children and adults, synagogue music and pastoral care. This is in addition to roles handled by rabbis of congregations.

The program is hosted by internationally known Sephardic Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi, of Anshe Emet Synagogue (Chicago, Illinois). It provides historical background and personal insight into the lives and voices of these spiritual and musical leaders.

Here are the eight programs and the focus of each segment:

1: Greatest Cantors of the 20th Century, 1
2: Greatest Cantors of the 20th Century, 2
3: Greatest Cantors of the 20th Century, 3
4: Operatic Cantors and Cantors in Opera
5: The Cantor in America
6: Cantors in Concert
7: The Western European Tradition
8: Cantors After the Golden Age

New Zealand listeners are in for a treat!

JGSLA 2010: Saturday, July 10

Would you believe that Tracing the Tribe was so busy today that I forgot it was our fifth blogoversary. I was reminded of this happy event when Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.com arrived.

Today became more frenetic as the hours went by and more attendees arrived.

From left, IAJGS president Michael Goldstein (Israel), secretary Joel Spector (New Jersey), board members Jackye Sullins (California) and Jan Meisels Allen (California) with vice president Michael Brenner (Nevada).

Breakfast is the most important part of the day - conference-goers are usually too busy to eat lunch - and I was joined by Howie Morris of the JGS of Greater Boston, who is part of our International Jewish Genealogy Month committee. Conference co-chair Pam Weisberger and just-arrived Wolf-Erich Eckstein of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (Jewish Community Archives, Vienna, Austria) later came over to our table. I asked Wolf about Sephardic records in Vienna. He said that some 10 years of marriage records are missing, from about 1850-60, and no one knows why.

The breakfast buffet at the hotel's LA Market was tempting, complete with French toast, pancakes, waffles, fresh fruit, pastries and more. Some nice touches: genuine maple syrup is served in small warmed bottles, and steamed milk for coffee. Very nice!

Doris Loeb Nabel (Connecticut), who heads up the Mac-users group (gen-mac_users-schmozzers@yahoogroups.com, for more information) walked by not much later.

Pam had mentioned that an interesting display was being set up at the Platinum Ballroom, near the resource room, so I wandered up there and took a few shots of the traveling exhibit - Generations - which illustrates how four Holocaust survivor families reflect on the challenges they have inherited.

This hotel is BIG. There is a bridge from one part of the conference center to the other. Seating was non-existent on my first round, but many seating areas were ready for attendees only a few hours later.

The Internet connection, free for conference attendees, is excellent wired or wireless - to be expected in a brand-new facility.

Among the people greeted today: conference co-chair Sandy Malek (California), Renee Steinig (New York), Judy Simon (New York), Steve and Anita Morse (San Francisco), and so many more.

I also participated in the annual rite of conference bag stuffing this afternoon. See the finished bags (photo left).

Daniel Horowitz (Israel), Thomas MacEntee (Illinois) and I enjoyed a delicious dinner at Trader Vic's down the street. At an outdoor table were Warren and Debra Blatt (California) and Michael Tobias and his family (Scotland).

Back at the hotel, attendees began lining up at 9.15pm to pre-register. The long line moved quickly and I was soon back in my room, blogging about today's experiences, going over my blogging presentation tomorrow and reading through the conference materials.

More tomorrow on the major events of the conference's opening day: klezmer concerts, the Market Square, sessions for beginners, films and so much more.

Massachusetts: Paper Bridge arts festival, July 11-15

The annual Paper Bridge Summer Arts Festival is hosted by the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.

This year's dates are July 11-15.

It's billed as "a dynamic arts festival exploring the full range of modern Jewish culture" for the whole family.

It includes concerts, films, performances, pre-performance talks, workshops and two exhibits.

For more information, click Paper Bridge Summer Arts Festival.

JGSLA 2010: Conference makes NBC news!!!

JGSLA 2010 made NBC News Los Angeles' around town event page.

Read all about it here - as if Tracing the Tribe's readers didn't already know that more than 1,000 researchers and experts from around the world will be meeting from Sunday, July 11-Friday, July 16, at the JW Marriott at L.A. Live, in downtown Los Angeles.

The NBC conference story covers the event's attraction for local Jewish families to research their backgrounds and emphasizes that Sunday is targeted to those just beginning the quest for family with how-to sessions, workshops, a Market Square, Klezmer concerts and much more.

The Market Square Fair on Sunday will include craft displays and demonstrations, a daylong film festival and more.

For all conference information and to see the program online, click here.

An opening day (Sunday) pass is $105, and $85 daily for the balance of the conference. Tickets are available online.

See you at the conference!