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By Recorded Sound Archives, September 10, 2012 8:52 am

Celebrate the New Year with the Judaica Sound Archives. . . . .

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Get a CD of this album as our gift to you!

This year the Judaica Sound Archives at FAU Libraries in Boca Raton, Florida is celebrating the High Holy Days by highlighting one of our favorite albums: Ye Shall Rejoice on your Festivals.

This album, recorded by Shimon and Ilana Gewirtz in the early 1970s, feature their children, Aviva (7 yrs old at the time of this recording), and Shira, who was 5.

Shimon and Ilana Gewirtz are well-known in the field of Jewish music and education. This family-friendly album celebrates the month of Tishrey and the five holidays we celebrate during this time: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Sh’mini Atzehret, and Simchat Torah.

The warm family atmosphere as these parents celebrate the holidays with songs and lessons for their children is a wonderful reminder of how Jewish traditions are passed from one generation to the next.

Click here to hear other recordings by Shimon and Ilana Gewirtz.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, December 18, 2009 3:49 pm

I was listening to my local public radio station while I was driving to work the other day. Roger Bennett, co-author of And You Shall Know Us By the Trail of Our Vinyl, was talking with Marco Werman about his attempt to save decades of American Jewish music from obscurity.

We, at the JSA, are very proud of our participation in helping Roger and his co-auther, Josh Kun to find materials that eventually found its way into their wonderful book.

Even though he didn’t mention us by name, we knew who Roger was talking about when he mentioned visiting Boca Raton, Florida, “where old Jewish vinyl goes to die.” When JSA Director, Nathan Tinanoff listened to the interview he told me, “He got that wrong! The JSA isn’t where old Jewish vinyl goes to die.  It is where it goes to be reborn!”

The book is a wonderful compendium of stories, information, photos, and album covers from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

Josh Kun, Associate Professor of communication and journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication and the author of Audiotopia: Music, Race, and   America, which won a 2006 American Book Award, co-authored the book with Roger Bennett who also co-authored Bar Mitzvah Disco.

The authors write about how they “encountered the Judaica Sound Archives of Florida Atlantic University, where Nathan Tinanoff and his devoted staff generously opened their collection to us.”  And where they found “thousands of LPs, shelf after shelf filled with dsicarded cardboard and vinyl that we gushed over like scientists marveling at new speciments” (p.17).

Looking through the book is an education and a trip down memory lane. From Steisand to Bagels and Bongos by the Irving Fields Trio, from Molly Pecon to the Four Bursteins, from Neil Sedaka to Theodore Bikel, the names and images pop off the pages.

The following JSA featured performers are highlighted in the book: Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, Oysher-Michaels Family, Benny Bell , The 4 Bursteins, Gladys Gewirtz, Shimon & Ilana Gewirtz, Gadi Elon.

A friend of mine who loves the book told me that when she goes on the JSA website it is like the “book comes to life” right on her computer. I can’t think of a nicer compliment.