Jewish Sound Archives preserving music
Florida university archiving thousands of Hebrew and Yiddish songs. According to Maxine Schackman, 'This is about the history of America and the history of Jews in America'
"Her children were totally uninterested," Bertelli said about a woman facing the prospect of having to throw out an entire collection of Hebrew and Yiddish songs, but instead the papers and records were donated to the Judaica Music Rescue Project at Florida Atlantic University, where Bertelli is a volunteer.
The 81-year-old Bertelli said she and her fellow workers have many similar stories. Since the project began in 2002 they gathered more than 9,000 records, eight-track tapes, cassettes and other materials offering a picture last century's European immigrant experience in the United States.
Project director, Nathan Tinanoff said some institutions donated large collections, but he also gets packages of records from around the country, sent by people cleaning out closets, garages or attics.
The Judaica Sound Archives has about 60,000 songs, many in Yiddish. It has become one of the country's largest repositories of Jewish music. Organizers at the Florida archive and two smaller institutions said they were racing to save this past as the children or grandchildren of the record's owners consider throwing out their musical inheritance.
Tinanoff said: "People ask me 'Why are we doing this? My kids don't care but if we don't preserve the music now, they'll never have the opportunity to determine if they do care. Maybe it will skip a generation and their grandchildren will care about their heritage and if so, we'll be there for them."
Immigrant experience
According to Maxine Schackman, assistant of the sound archives director, songs like the Yiddish translation "Goodnight, Irene" and "Hot Dogs and Knishes", recall the immigrant experience and captures important history. "This is about the history of America and the history of Jews in America," Schackman added.
Florida's archive isn't the only effort to preserve Jewish sounds. A professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire started an online archive four years ago. It now offers 7,500 tracks. The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, has a collection of Yiddish music with some 3,000 songs.
Alex Hartov, started the Dartmouth archive and has rescued music from 78 R.P.M records, tapes, and acetate disks of the 1930s and '40s. "The vast majority of people couldn't care less about what I'm doing but one fellow Dartmouth professor uses the collection in his teaching, a practice I hope will expand." he said.
Sense of culture
Bob Freedman, manager of the University of Pennsylvania archive, says his collection is perfect for classrooms and he'll often use the music in workshops on history. "I can do something on immigration, on folklore and language classes. It gives non-Jews a sense of the culture."
Freedman added he often gets messages asking about a song their grandfather may have sung or had a recording of. They may not remember the exact words, he said, but they want to find the song. "The sense of loss comes right through the computer screen."
The Florida archive volunteers have already put 1,000 of the oldest songs online and hope to add more. One advantage the Florida archive is its greater space and a large group of Jewish volunteers.
Tinanoff has been told the archive is like an "Old age home for Jewish records." He views that as a compliment but prefers a more modern term such as an assisted living facility where the records aren't retired but are getting a new life.
