Cantor Todros Greenberg’s great-granddaughter wanted her son to hear his great-great- grandfather sing, but all she had was a tangle of tapes from dozens of reel-to-reel recordings. What could she do?

After locating a box full of tapes belonging to her great-grandfather, Cheryl Silver reached out to the JSA. With her son Noah’s Bar Mitzvah only a few months away she wanted to preserve the music on the tapes as part of Noah’s Mitzvah Project.

Although most of the tapes seemed to be in fairly good condition they were in total disarray. The home-made tapes were not clearly identified. We had no idea who was singing what on which tape.

A bit of good luck: As it happened, Cantor Joseph Gross, friend of the JSA, remembered Cantor Greenberg and could identify his voice. Hour after hour after hour, Cantor Gross sat with ear phones listening to tapes and making notes.  JSA sound technician, Ben Roth-Aroni meticulously digitized the tapes, created separate tracks and organized the songs on CDs for the family.

Well-known among Cantors for his talents as an educator and composer,  Cantor Greenberg’s 40 year collaboration with  Cantor Sholom Kalib resulted in the critically acclaimed book, Heichal Han’gina V’hatfila. Vol.1, published in 1961 by the Cantor’s Assembly.

His compositions have been included in the Milken Archive’s CD: The First S’lihot by Benzion Miller and  in The Milken Archive’s 50 CD boxed set.  They were also featured as part of the 8-program WFMT (Chicago) radio series, The Art of the Cantor, hosted by Cantor Alberto Mizrahi. But, recordings of this great Cantor’s voice have been rare …..until now.

The Judaica Sound Archives is proud of its role in preserving the recorded music legacy of Cantor Todros Greenberg.The digitized music in this collection was lovingly and painstakingly created from Cantor Greenberg’s personal reel-to-reel tapes which were donated to the Judaica Sound Archives by Cantor Greenberg’s family in honor of the Bar Mitzvah of his great-great-grandson, Noah Johnson.

 Click here to read more about Cantor Greenberg and to hear his recordings.

 

Over 300 FAU students and invited guests participated in the Recorded Sound Archives Vinyl Record Give-away event on October 20 and 21, 2014 at the Wimberly Library’s fifth floor on FAU’s Boca Raton campus.

More than 1,500 vinyl LP records were distributed as well as cassette tapes, and 45 rpm records (singles).

Established in 2002 to collect, organize and protect vintage audio recordings, the RSA houses more than 250,000 classical, jazz, Judaic and other vintage recordings, making FAU Libraries one of the top academic libraries in the nation for sound recordings.

All the recordings in the archives were donated to the university by collectors and institutions. Recent efforts to organize and inventory the back-log of thousands of donated recordings resulted in the identification of duplicate and excess records that were not needed for the RSA collection. The RSA regularly receives about 10,000 donated recordings each year.

Some students expressed disappointment when they learned that classic rock icons such as the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen and Alice Cooper were not among the recordings being offered. One student commented, “Man, these are really, really old records.”

Yet, they were scooping up albums by Frank Sinatra, Petula Clark, Jack Benny and Robert Goulet. “Why did you choose this record I asked?” Very often the answer was something like, “I’m not sure but I think I remember my grandmother mentioning that she liked this singer.” For many adults of my age these recordings represented a “walk down memory lane”, but for these students it was a treasure trove of discovery. They asked for historical information about shows like “My Fair Lady” and “Oklahoma.” They showed me recordings of operas and wanted to know if Leontyne Price or Robert Merrill were good singers.

A group of young men scooped up a bunch of 45 rpm records and were surprised when I mentioned to them that they would need a special insert to fit in the large hole in order to play them on a standard phonograph. Many students said they had phonograph players and some said that they would go out and buy one just so they could listen to the music they had collected. A few lucky students were able to find used turntables at the give-away which also included several pieces of used equipment.

Jukebox. Jewkbox! An exhibition of the Jewish Museum Hohenems in collaboration with the Jewish Museum Munich will run from October 19, 2014 until March 8, 2015.

According to the website  of the Hohenems Jewish Museum in Austria the exhibit presents the history of Jewish recordings “from the first gramophones and shellac records to the dissolution of this medium in World Wide Web.”

This sounds like a wonderful project. Looking at sound recordings as cultural mirrors of the 20th century experience, the exhibitors write that “the omnipresent sound of the 20th century, its best known songs, musicals and soundtracks was not always Jewish music – but always also a product of Jewish history and experience.”

We do not know which recorded gems are included in this European exhibit but the Judaic Collection/Recorded Sound Archives at FAU Libraries in Boca Raton FL hopes you will enjoy the following authentic recordings from the early 20th century.

Molly Picon – Abi Gesind    

Simon Paskal – Aheim Aheim    

Al Jolson – Angel Child   

Arthur Pryors Band – At a Hebrew Wedding

M Kanewsky – Auf’n Pripetchok

Andrews Sisters – Bei Mir Bist du Shon  (snippet)

Benny Bell – Celebration Freylach

Take Jewish music with you wherever you go!

Now you can listen to your favorite Jewish songs on your i-phone, i-pad, smart phone or other mobile device!

New online registration for the JSA Research Station makes it quicker and easier than ever to research and study Jewish music and performers.

The current JSA website is merging with the Recorded Sound Archives at FAU website (rsa.fau.edu).

All the music, images and information on the JSA site that you are familiar with will also be available on the new RSA website. . . plus a lot more!

Click here to visit the new RSA website

• Be among the first to see the newly updated, expanded and totally redesigned website.

• Browse among Jewish recordings for the songs and performers you like or expand your search to include our Vintage and Jazz collections.

• Access the music you want with your mobile device.

• Any user of the Research Station can log in directly from our website. No additional downloads or special procedures are required.

The current JSA website will only be available until January 1, 2015.

After 1/1/15 you will automatically be re-directed to the new RSA website.

Before there was Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt…before there was Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall…before there was Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton…There was Efrem Zimbalist and Alma Gluck.

A little over100 years ago, a nice Jewish boy who happened to be a violin genius  met a lovely Jewish young woman who was making a name for herself as a singer. I guess you could say that when these two Jewish superstars of classical music fell in love they were destined to make beautiful music together.

The Zimbalist-Gluck romance provided lots of material for the gossips of their day. While the idea of such a wonderful pairing of talents was thrilling, there were those who pointed out that Gluck was six years older, as well as a divorcee with a daughter. Scandalous!

 

Read more about Alma Gluck’s relationship with Efrem Zimbalist.

Read more about Efrem Zimbalist.

Browse 40 recordings the talented couple made together.

Growing up in a family of Hazzans and Klezmer musicians, Cantor Elias Rosemberg may have been born to perform.

From his early days as a wedding singer in Buenos Aires to his present position as the Cantor for Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA. (the largest Conservative synagogue in New England)  his talent and energy have made him a stand-out performer. No stranger to radio, television, and the recording industry, he won the “Argentina Sings for Israel” vocal contest in 1998.

Since coming to the United States in 2000, he has continued to receive honors and recognition for his talent as a great singer and as a gifted Hazzan. His repertoire includes Cantorial, Israeli, Yiddish, and Ladino, as well as opera and Broadway selections. True to his Argentinean roots, he also enjoys singing Tango. At the Cantors Assembly Convention in 2002 he was asked to sing the memorial prayer at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.

You can visit his YouTube channel to see live performances.

The Judaica Sound Archives is proud to include these four  wonderful recordings by Cantor Rosemberg. Click album cover to play.

Israel is 66 years old! Celebrate by revisiting the early years.

Listen to the authentic recordings from the Vistas of Israel radio series.

From the  late 1950s, through the 1960s, and into the early 1970s the State of Israel sought to inform Americans and others about their young country’s culture and accomplishments through a series of radio broadcasts in English.

These programs featured popular Israeli performers, topical discussions, and interviews with prominent Israelis and others. These original radio broadcasts were aired on local stations throughout the USA.

The Judaica Sound Archives has an extensive collection of these  historic “Vistas of Israel” radio programs. There are over 400 recorded broadcasts in the collection and about 250 of them have been digitized so far.

Click here for more about Vistas of Israel radio broadcasts.

You may also be interested in:

JSA celebrates Israel’s Statehood (5/5/2011)

JoAmar: A pioneer of Israeli Music

Israeli Performer: Shosaha Damari

Selected Israeli Songs

Most of us have never heard of the Gilbert Mudge Award, but in the world of reference librarians it is the equivalent of winning an Oscar.

The Judaica Sound Archives and the entire staff of the Recorded Sound Archives is pleased to congratulate Dr. Miller on this well-deserved award.  Excellence in reference librarianship with a strong commitment to instruction has been the hallmark of his long and distinguished career.

Since his arrival at FAU in 1987 the Wimberly Library has undergone amazing changes. Modern technologies have dramatically changed the way that students and faculty use library spaces. Stacks once filled with scientific journals have been replaced by rows of computers where students can access a myriad of electronic journals and proprietary databases in addition to the ever-popular Google.

Dr. Miller has also been committed to strengthening the library’s relationship with its surrounding community. Wanting to make  the library relevant and distinctive has been the driving force behind the creation of projects and programs which are truly unique in the world of academic libraries.

Thanks to the vision of Dr. William Miller, the last two decades have been a time of innovative change at FAU Libraries’ special collections. Below is a list of his most notable accomplishments in this area.

Established in 1997, the Klezmer Company Orchestra,is the only professional ensemble-in-residence at any academic library. Using the library’s sheet music collection to create new and exciting programs, the KCO concert is the cornerstone of the annual Kultur Festival, a week-long celebration of Jewish culture.

 

The library acquired the Marvin and Sybil Weiner Spirit of America Collection of rare Americana in 2006. These authentic artifacts are often on display in a newly constructed suite on the Wimberly Library’s 5th floor.

 

 

The Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts is unique for viewing “books as art.” It features handmade, one-of-a-kind books created by artists.  It opened in 2007 in a newly constructed suite on the Library’s 3rd floor.

 

 

Beginning with only a few hundred Cantorial recordings in 2002, the Judaica Sound Archives has grown into the world’s largest online collection of recorded Jewish music. Today, more than 150,000 donated sound recordings constitute the rapidly growing Recorded Sound Archives, which continues the JSA mission and website (www.fau.edu/jsa) and also contains an impressive collection of early vintage phonograph records and more than 21,000 Jazz albums.

Why is this holiday different from all others?

On this holiday, we celebrate the gift of freedom, we remember Jewish history through special Seder foods and  we teach the lessons of the haggadah to the next generation. The Judaica Sound Archives invites you to  add music and song to  your family’s Passover traditions.

The Judaica Sound Archives has compiled a mix of Passover songs that the whole family can enjoy.  From Cantorial splendor to children’s play-songs, music expresses the heart of the Jewish people. Give Jewish music a special place in your home for the  holidays. All the songs  in this compilation can be heard all year long on the JSA website.

 

You may also enjoy the following albums:

• Passover Seder Songs – Cantor Deborah Katchko Gray
• Passover in Song and Story – Gold and Wertheim
• Canciones de Pesah – Cantor Bogomolni
• Passover Music Box – Cohen and Gamliel
• Passover Collection – Safam
• Passover Medley – Jan Peerce
• Passover Sing-A-Long – Children’s Village
• Let My People Sing—Cantor Elias Rosemberg

Cantor Joseph Gross is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about Jewish liturgy, Cantorial music, Cantorial voices and the history of the Cantorate in North America.

A delightful gentleman who has stored  a lifetime of learning into his diminutive frame, Cantor Joseph Gross showed up at the Judaica Sound Archives a little over three years ago wondering if he could be of any help. His warmth and his big smile took us in immediately.  But what captivated us was his encyclopedic knowledge of all things Cantorial and liturgical.

As he spoke I could not help but think that he has probably forgotten more than most of us will ever know on the topic. But as he continued, I realized that he is blessed with almost perfect recall.  Not much seems to have been forgotten at all. You may have heard of people with photographic memories, but Cantor Gross is the only person I have ever met with “phonographic  memory,” i.e. he can recall voice and music impeccably.

A master cantor and composer, Joseph Gross has been a regular volunteer at the JSA for over three years now. Several of our Cantorial music restoration projects have been possible only with his guidance and help.

The JSA has created three albums from the original tape recordings of Cantor Gross.  These recordings are not available anywhere else and have never been commercially released.  They were restored under the vigilant supervision of the Cantor himself.

Listen to the voice of Cantor Joseph Gross.