>> From the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
[ Silence ]
>> Max Ticktin: I'm Max Ticktin, I teach Hebrew language
and literature, Yiddish language and literature
at George Washington University.
I was not born in-- I was not born in New York City,
and so I did not know about WEVD when I was growing up.
But I'm a couple of -- a couple shabosim [phonetic] younger
than I am now.
I-- my claim to fame is I actually voted for Eugene Victor Debs twice!
[Laughter] [Applause] Twice!
And then -- amazingly enough I discovered they have a radio station
named for him.   Let's begin.

Our first speaker, as you see following our program,
will introduce us to a topic that has to do
with putting together two numbers in coming up with a word, 78s.
78s, very special records as such.
She has been associated with KlezKamp.
As you see she's a musician, clarinetist.
She embarks on Klezmer charts; maybe we'll learn what that means.
And she's interested in traditional Jewish culture,
and read the notes carefully
and this even got something to do with Hawaii.
So please welcome ourselves to "Ear Training: Yiddish 78s
and the Development of an Audience for Yiddish Radio."
Sherry Mayrent.   [Applause]

>> Sherry Mayrent: Thank you.
Since pre-industrial times, people have sought out ways
to experience cultural and historic events communally.
Nowadays, Twitter and Facebook have become the mass media of choice,
though for the past 60 years television was the primary way our
society shared everything from news to trends and fashion and music;
and before TV there was, as we've been learning here, radio.

Radio was the way people could share their enjoyment of music, comedy,
and drama; learn what was happening in the world
and how others were reacting to it; and find out about new
and exciting people and products.
And with all-- of all these mass media I've mentioned so far have
in common, apart from their communality,
is that they have the ability to react
in real time to breaking events.
That immediacy is part of what gives them their power.

However, even before broadcasting enabled the development of instant
and spontaneous responses,
commercial recordings allowed listeners to take part
in a shared experience of their world.
In the next few minutes, I'd like to explore the ways
in which Yiddish 78 RPM recordings fulfilled that function
and in effect, created an eager audience for Yiddish radio.
One of the most evocative pictures of the way
in which the phonograph contributed to Jewish immigrant life comes
from Sholem Asch's 1948 novel, "East River."
In chapter 4, Asch describes how the neighborhood used an empty lot
as a gathering place on sweltering summer nights:
"Someone had had the happy idea of bringing a gramophone
out to the yard and the air resounded with the wailings
of old Hebrew liturgical chants.   Everyone listened.

Even Heimowitz who would never stuck his nose in a synagogue
and considered religion a relic of the Middle Ages,
was entranced by the music.   He tried to stay at the distance

so that no one would notice his enjoyment and twit him about it.
He couldn't help himself.
The mournful voice of the famous cantor
on the record awakened in him a deep nostalgia.
Memories of his young years aroused his Jewish blood.
Sometimes he would come closer to the gramophone, enjoying the circle
of Jews listening to the music.
He would even forget his official radicalism and would call
out for records particularly dear to him."
While the vast majority of Yiddish commercial recordings
in the first decades of the 20th century were of were
of Yiddish theatre songs, cantorial music was a huge seller
to the immigrant audience, as we heard this morning.
Presumably, precisely because it evoked that deep nostalgia
for the culture that many of them had had to abandon
because of economic pressure and/or the urge to assimilate.
And what were they listening to?
Asch specifically mentions the incredibly popular chazzan,
Yossele Rosenblatt, and it might have sounded something
like this 1927 recording of Yale [phonetic].
[ Music ]
Although the recording industry obviously could not respond
with the immediacy of radio to current trends or events,
it did a remarkably good job of providing a timely response.
Consider one of the hottest musical phenomena of the 1920s.
The song, "Yes, We Have No Bananas."
from the 1922 Broadway revue "Make it Snappy" was first recorded
on March 31st 1923 by Furman and Nash for Columbia
and it immediately went the 1920s equivalent of viral.
In April, Victor recorded it with Billy Murray
and the Great White Way Orchestra and then the avalanche began.
May saw recordings on Okeh Brunswick and two more Columbia discs,
and Okeh released two more in June and July.
In July, versions in Italian were released by both Columbia and Victor
and Gus Goldstein went
on a veritable spree recording Yiddish versions for Victor,
Columbia, and Pathe within the space of about 10 days.

By August, a backlash to the ubiquity of the song had begun
to set in as two versions of "I've Got the Yes!
We Have No Bananas Blues" were recorded on Victor and Okeh.
The year closed in December
with David Medoff's Columbia recording "Gevald!
Di Bananas" which offers a satiric look at the whole phenomenon.
Even if you can't understand all the Yiddish words, I think you'll pick
up on the singer's feelings about it.
[ Music ]
[Laughter] Commercial recordings could also respond fairly quickly
to actual events.
Although one of the major catastrophes of the era,
the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, was widely reflected
in mainstream recording and although several Yiddish songs were published
as sheet music, the only reference amongst Yiddish 78s that I was able
to find is Yossele Rosenblatt's 1913 recording of the memorial prayer,
"El Male Rahamim," and the only actual reference
to the tragedy is the subtitle you can see on the label for Titanic.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was similarly absent from recordings
in those-- in Yiddish and Italian,
which were the two ethnic groups most affected by it,
apart from one song that was recorded
by Simon Pascal a couple of years after the fact.
However, there was one event which did not go unnoticed
in the Yiddish recording world and that was the transatlantic flight
of Clarence Chamberlin June 4th to 6th, 1927 in which Charles Levine,
a Jew, became the first passenger to cross the ocean in an airplane.
Taking place just two weeks after Lindbergh's historic solo crossing,
Levine's voyage captured the immigrant's imagination
and became a major milestone of Jewish heroism.
In this photo, Chamberlin is the tall, handsome fellow on the left
with the helmet and Levine is the short,
very Jewish-looking man in the jumpsuit.
For Yiddish-speaking immigrants living in the shadow of oppression
and poverty, this wealthy, adventurous member
of the tribe was a shining example of strength, courage, and daring.
Perhaps because radio had already begun to make in roads
into the collective consciousness,
the response of the recording companies was lightning quick.
On June 13th, just one week after the historic landing,
Joseph Feldman was in the Brunswick studio recording eponymous songs
about both Lindbergh and Levine.
The following day, he repeated his performance for Victor
which also recorded Charles Cohen performing two songs about Levine.
And not to be outdone, Columbia brought
in Irving Grossman to record two sides.
This is the beginning of the-- that very first Brunswick recording.

[ Song with Yiddish introduction and lyrics ]
[ Music ]
While recordings clearly had a place in interpreting specific events
to the community at large, it was in reflecting the overwhelming concerns
of the era that commercial recordings achieved their greatest
effect as a mass medium.
In the decade before radio, one of the most poignant of these concerns
for Jewish immigrants was World War I.
From the moment war was first declared in Europe in June 1914--
in July 1914, it became an important subject for the Yiddish theatre
in the United States
and performances often became the hub of war relief efforts.
Unlike the Levine songs, most of the war-themed material
on commercial recordings in fact came from the Yiddish theatre.
These early plays reflect the somber mood of the Jewish community
as immigration was curtailed and families
in Europe were affected by the conflict.
Perhaps the most important and most frequently recorded piece
in this genre is David Meyerowitz's "Tfile La Milchume,"
"War Prayer," from December 1917.
Recorded by Joseph Feldman, Anna Hoffman, and Yossele Rosenblatt,
this song reflects that most profound of Jewish concerns,
the plight of parents whose children are in danger.


[ Music ]
As the war continued and people begun to feel more hopeful,
popular songs reflected that change in tone as well.
The two most popular were both by Isidore Lillian
and both reflect the optimism
of a country whose war time efforts are being successful,
as well as the public's hope for a quick end
to the war and return to normalcy.
"A Gris Fun Di Trenches," "Regards from the Trenches,"
is particularly interesting, as in the second verse,
it adds an additional possibility-- the hope for Jewish homeland.

Oh, this is Anna Hoffman again.   [ Music ]

[Background music] I apologize this is the wrong translation.
[ Music ]   [Background music] Oh, it is?

No, it's about to become not correct.
[ Music ]
[Background music] It says, "I bring you a greeting
from the Jewish heroes."   [ Music ]

[Background music] And it ends up saying, "Long live the Jewish army."
Sorry about that.   It's in here somewhere.

[Inaudible Remark]
>> Mayrent: Of course Jews being Jews, humor and satire also had
to be present in recordings about the war beginning
with the comic dialogue called "Mik Huma" [phonetic] recorded
by Isidore Lillian in 1915.
The ubiquitous social commentator Cohen was amply represented
by three different versions of "Cohen's Recruiting Speech."
The very popular character Yente Telebende went to war in versions
by both Anna Hoffman and Clara Gold and Gus Goldstein.
But the most interesting of these involves the entire Telebende family
in this 1917 recording by Gus Goldstein,
"Telebende Veirt Asoldat," "Telebende Becomes a Soldier."
[ Silence ]   [ Music & Yiddish dialogue ]

This is very Yiddish and also very dark.
After the Armistice was signed in November 1918, the country began
to deal with the next burning topic, prohibition.
Proposed even before the end of the war and ratified in 1919,
prohibition took effect at the beginning of 1920
and spawned an entire culture of its own.
Commercial recordings offered a helpful outlet as society worked
through this difficult issue.
Dozens of mainstream titles offered perspectives both for and against:
laments about the evils of drink as well as complaints often satirical
about a world in which alcohol would play no part.
In the Yiddish world, the response begun just after ratification
with Gus Goldstein's May 1919 title and continued with recordings
by Rose Rubin and Sam Silverbush.
The following year also found Cohen, the great social commentator,
expressing his views through both George Thompson and,
as we will hear, Monroe Silver.   [ Silence ]

>> First character: Meeting called to order.
What's that Goldstein?   You want a beer?

No, this isn't that kind of an order.
I'll give you two orders: get out and stay out!
This is a prohibition meeting.
I am here to tell you all about prohibition.
Does anybody want to know what a prohibition is?
What do you want to know Levy?   What is a prohibitionist?

A prohibitionist is a fella with water on his brain
and whisky in his cellar.
One of them fellas that's always yelling, "Keep whisky down!"
Well, he is right.   We should keep whisky down.

What's the point of drinking it if we can't keep it down?
And where would this country be today
if the prohibition fellows had their way?
Where could we get the spirits of 1776?
[Laughter]
>> Mayrent: Finally, commercial recordings revealed
that the Yiddish community responded with typical humor and irony
to the next great thing: radio itself.
As one might expect, Cohen as voiced by both Joe Hayman
and Monroe Silver, had much to say about the new fangled invention.
In "Cohen Listens In on the Radio," recorded in 1922
at the very beginning of commercial radio, Hayman offers a look
at the confusion and dismay of the listener in the presence of the new


>> Hayman: Hello, hello broadcasting station double YU calling,
double YU calling, double YU calling....
>> Character: I hear you calling me.
>> Hayman: Our function is now beginning.
The first item is by the Wigan Military Band.
[Background music]
>> Character with Yiddish accent: Hey, hey open the windows quick!
Soldiers coming!   What? Is that so?

It's the wireless music!   Ain't it wonderful, my boy?

Just give it a listen; it's perfectly magnesia!
>> Announcer: Continuing the daily dispatch broadcasting, next item,
Mr. Herbert's Whistler [inaudible].
>> Character: Say, Mr. [Inaudible] wait a minute.
I'm listening to the band just now.   All right, all right go ahead.

I'll fix it!   With one ear, I'll listen to you.

With the other ear, I'll listen to the band.
>> Announcer: [Inaudible] continuing,
the next item will be an instrumental number.
>> Character: Nothing is going to happen in a minute!
Mister Macaroni, Mister Macaroni, Mister Macaroni I only got two ears.
How can I listen to three things?
By golly, I can't ever hear myself listen.
Pull the thread!   Cut it out!

>> Mayrent: Although the first broadcast
in Yiddish didn't take place until a few years later,
Rubin Goldberg recorded a fascinating comic dialogue
in 1923, "Shloime on the Radio."
The scene opens with Shloime bringing home the radio
to his deeply suspicious wife.   [ Silence ]

[ Yiddish dialogue ]
After they listened to a bit of Caruso singing, she kind of starts
to warm to the experience a little bit.
[ Yiddish dialogue & wife singing along with radio]
However, when all is said and done,
both of them remain, at bottom, unimpressed.
[ Yiddish dialogue ]
In conclusion, I believe that the importance of commercial recordings
as a mass medium has been undervalued among Yiddish-speaking
immigrants in the early 20th century.
These recordings clearly offered a way
to experience the world communally and to help them deal
with their experiences living in their new country.
Thank you.   [ Applause ]

[ Noise ]
>> Max Ticktin: That was quite a journey, and in accordance
with the title of the talk that you had just heard, "Yiddish 78s
and the Development of an Audience" over a period of several decades.
And now we can switch to something a little different.
If you have any questions,
we'll have to save them till the very ended.
But we want to do some culinary ethnography
as a combination to savor.   "Can Food Sound Jewish?

Cooking, Eating, and Advertising Food
on Yiddish Radio," Eve Jochnowitz.
[ Applause ]   [ Noise ]


>> Eve Jochnowitz: Okay, can I have my first audio clip?
[ Silence ]   [ Music - advertising jingle]

>> Announcer: Manischewitz, the traditional matzo for Passover.
[ Music ]
[Background music] Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen
and welcome again to another Sunday afternoon session
of "Yiddish Swing," brought to you by the B. Manischewitz Company,
the world's largest matzo bakers featuring our silver voice Kenneth
Janbart [phonetic], the blended voices of the Great Note,
the unique arrangements of Sam Meadows
and the Swing Set [inaudible], Louis Chalb [phonetic].
[ Pause ]
>> Jochnowitz: Since the beginning of the last century,
the medium of Yiddish language radio has carried the sounds of Jewish
and not so Jewish foods to awaken the appetites of listeners.
The clip I just played is from "Yiddish Melodies in Swing."
I'll be playing another clip for that in a moment.
They are advertising Manischewitz matzos in the bit you just heard.
That's the soft sell, that's easy,
Manischewitz matzo is obviously a Jewish food.
It is the most Jewish food there is.
It's the only food specifically that Jews are commanded to eat.

[Laughter] But the medium of Yiddish radio uses sound to make foods
that are not so obviously Jewish sound Jewish.
The first day of the meeting of this symposium, we spoke a little bit
about the intimacy and the immediacy of radio in understanding media.
Marshall McLuhan identifies radio as the hottest of the hot media.
It is a medium that engages only one sense, only the sense of sound
and creates a particular kind of intimacy that you do not have
in media with lower resolution or more sources of sensory input.
In the original Yiddish, he wrote [Yiddish phrase].
[Laughter] Culinary programming on radio faces the difficult issue
of making accessible the multisensory experience of cooking
through just one sense, the sense of sound.
Yiddish and bilingual programs on Jewish radio compound the complexity
of synesthesia with the issues connected with code switching,
both linguistic code switching and cultural code switching.
Advertisements for food on Jewish media attempt to connect Jewishness
to the product to the extent the medium allows.
Now, in the next two cuts, we're going to hear an intro
to "Yiddish Melodies in Swing."
We're going to hear the voice of the announcer and you will notice
that it is completely free of any Jewish markers.
In fact, it is so unmarked that it's almost markedly unmarked.
[Laughter] It is a very, very non-Jewish sounding voice.
And he will have an advertisement, "Yiddish Melodies in Swing -
dusting the dream dust off your favorite melodies,
giving them the danceable beat of today."
From New York's WHN Program, it is bilingual both in language
and in its combination of Yiddish folk melodies
with the sound of today.
The show is sponsored by Edelstein's Tuxedo Brand Cottage Cheese
and features performances by the Dairy Maids, Perth & Gay [phonetic],
the Barry Sisters, and the Dairy Smooth Orchestra.

[Laughter] "Yiddish Melodies in Swing" and other bilingual programs
on Yiddish language radio in the war years
and immediately adjacent negotiate both in fun
and in earnest the language gap and the cuisine gap
between Yiddish-speaking immigrants and their American offspring.
And that is the gap that will be addressed really
in all the examples that you will hear.
Now, in this next clip, we will hear Mister Charles
and then we will hear what seems to be a comedy routine.
Perhaps somebody in the--
can understand it and explain it during the Q&A.;
And then we will hear Perth & Gay sing "Verenicas."
As Miriam Isaacs mentioned, this is a song
where the punch line is in Yiddish.
The verses are-- the verses of the song are translated into English
yet this is a song about a mickrick [Yiddish] Jewish food to go
with the cottage cheese advertisements.
And then the raciest verse, the last verse, is in Yiddish.
And this, again, shows that the Yiddish already,
in '39 when this particular episode was aired, is becoming a language
where speaking the language is as much about the language itself
as the information being conveyed --
what Jeffrey Chandler calls a "post-vernacular" language.
Let's hear these next two clips.   [ Music ]

>> Announcer Mr. Charles: It's funny sometimes how opposites mean the
same thing.
So when you serve your family a cool inviting salad made
with Tuxedo Brand Cottage Cheese, don't be surprised to hear them say,
"Boy, this is hot stuff."
For this smooth, creamy, rich cottage cheese works wonders
in the taste of summer salads and desserts.
It's so fresh, so full of flavor
and goodness you'll enjoy eating it as often as you can.
Hmm, not only that, you'll enjoy serving it too just
to see your family smile approval
when there's Tuxedo Brand Cottage Cheese on the table.
This is the cottage cheese that's making news
with its fast-growing popularity.
So the next time you plan to serve cheese,
make it Tuxedo Brand Cottage Cheese.
And when you feel the need for a refreshing snack just before you go
to bed, try a glass of tea or milk
and some Tuxedo Brand Cottage Cheese on crackers.
And when you go shopping tomorrow, stop in at your grocer's or dairyman
and ask him for Tuxedo Brand Cottage Cheese
and the summer pack seal right
up that keeps all the dairy freshness sealed right in.
And by the way, let me remind you of another delicious summer treat,
Tuxedo Brand homemade style block cheese and cream.
You'll enjoy this special kind in salad
or with fresh cut vegetables and cream.
And for cooking and baking, you'll get extra flavor
in all your cheese dishes and cakes
when you use Tuxedo Brand Pot Cheese in flakes.
>> Sam character: Going my way Mr. Charles?
>> Charles: What's the matter Sam?
>> Sam: I can't get a hitch but I know how to stop a car.
>> Charles: How?
>> Sam: I'll walk right out in the middle of the highway and stop one.
>> Charles: Hey, do you know what will happen to you if you walk
in the middle of that all those speeding cars?
>> Sam: Sure.   I'll be an accident statistic.

>> Charles: While suicide Sam becomes a part of the highway,
the Dairy Maids smash the gloom
with the new interpretation of "Verenicas."
[ Music ]
>> Dairy Maids: [song lyrics] My mother cooks Verenicas,
she makes them with cheese custard.
/My boyfriend doesn't care for them, he likes hotdogs with mustard.
/ Chorus: High ho Veronicas, high ho cheese custard.
/ Hi ho Verenicas hotdogs with mustard.
[ Music ]
My mother doesn't like my boy 'cause he's a jitterbug.
/ But then my mother doesn't know how he can kiss and hug.
/ Chorus: High ho Verenicas, high ho a jitterbug,
high ho Verenicas but he can kiss and hug.
[ Music ]
You can live as cheap as one if they don't roast beef.
/ If he can't make a living, why then we'll go on relief.
/ Chorus: Hi ho, Verenicas, hi ho roast beef.
High ho Verenicas, then we'll go on relief.
//   My mommy cooks the-[Yiddish lyrics]

>> Jochnowitz: Fleifschift/ [Yiddish] - "beef/relief."
These-- the last verse is talking
about the Yiddish expression [Yiddish phrase] --
referring to the tradition that the one does not--
you're not allowed to have dairy products six hours
after having meat.
And more generally, [Yiddish phrase] is to screw up to miss--
to do something you cannot undo.   Hotdogs with mustards turns

up in countless other bilingual comic songs.
It's the stand in the representation, oops,
for American food it's in the [Yiddish song title] -
"Beans and Cornbread," a song from the African-American tradition,
which also mentions Jewish food, matzo balls and gefilte fish.
Ethnomusicologist Mark Slobin has noted that language
and culinary bilingualism is used in immigrant songs, again,
to bridge the gap, the culinary and language gap
between the parents and the children.
The next show I'm going to talk to you about, unfortunately,
is the one that I don't have a recording for,
but I will tell you what was on it.
This is the show "Meet Miriam Kressin," which aired also on WHN
in New York into the early '50s.
This show combined interviews in Yiddish
with occasional English interviews
or apparent interviews with celebrities.
The advertisements for Campbell Soup,
a product for which Kosher certification at that time--
did not have certification at that time,
are filled with luchenkerdish [phonetic] words and references
to Tanakhik themes imbuing this food with audible kashas.
[Laughter] The program which I, unfortunately, am not going to play
for you is from June 1951 and it includes a commercial disguised
as one of these interviews in the content of the program.
Kressin asks a guest to explain the meaning of the word "dukhan."
The guest explains that the word dukhan literally means platform
like what we're on right now.
And explains further that in the days of the temple, the Kohanim,
the priestly caste stood upon a platform to bless the people
of Israel and that the term came to be used for the blessing itself.
How are we going to get to Campbell Soup from here you are wondering?
[Laughter] Kressin expresses suitably appreciative interest
and goes on to say that just as a dukhan is a suitable platform
from which the priests can bless the children of Israel,
so too is a summer meal, the ideal platform for Campbell Soup
because even a cold meal requires one hot course.
And then there's a bubbly little swing tune, "Ein Haskeris,
Ein Haskeris," [phoentic], "One Hot Course, One Hot Course,"
about how you need to have one hot course even with a cold meal.
And then it ends with the Yiddish version of the Campbell Soup jingle,
"Hmm, hmm, gut, / hmm, hmm, gut [Yiddish lyrics]."
Nonstandard Yiddish [laughter]
but what the audience would have been used to.
Interestingly enough both Campbell Soup and the radio feature
in an episode, a very evocative episode in "Portnoy's Complaint."
Winter meal, not a summer one, during a winter snowstorm,
Philip Roth writes, "What is more thrilling
than to hear Aunt Jenny coming over the radio and to smell cream
of tomato soup heating on the stove?"
So again, this non-Jewish food is just made Jewish
in language in context.
"Bay Tate-mames Tish," aired on WEVD from 1938
and through the Second World War,
presented Yiddish radio melodramas written by Nahum Stutchkoff --
who is really the hero, I think, of this whole symposium
and frequently featured the generally--
the generational conflict between old world values and new.
Although in this show, I have not heard perhaps the statistically
significant sample, but it is always or very frequently the children
who are setting a good example for their parents, unlike in the cinema,
which views it from the other way around.
As we saw from Professor Gevinson's talk earlier,
Stutchkoff exercises his lexicographic virtuosity
in the advertisements for Manischewitz matzo
that accompany the programs,
filling them with colorful Yiddish expressions and adjectives,
never repeating himself over hundreds of broadcasts.
The commercials themselves are literary masterpieces as much
about language, they are about matzo.
Last night we heard a clip from the drama.
I will play an intro, including the advertisement.
This is from 1939.
And you will hear again-- you'll hear the music introduction
to the program that you heard before, the orchestra,
the live orchestra onstage plays music that tells us
that this show is very serious and that tell us also that the content
of the show is very Jewish
as the trumpeter imitates the sound of the shofar call.
And then the orchestra this, this large live orchestra sits there
for half an hour and then they play,
the trumpeter just plays the closing theme at the end.
We will notice the synonyms for the excellence of the matzo.
And you will note also
that Stutchkoff uses an interesting nonstandard word that he would,
I'm sure, never have used in his real life.
Number four, no?   >> Sound man: It's not there.

>> Jochnowitz: Not there.   Okay. Forget about that.

[Laughter] I have it here.   Can I play it from this?

Will it work?   [Inaudible Remark] Okay, this thing?

[Inaudible Remark] All right.
And it goes in-- [Inaudible Remark] Yes.
Okay. All right.   Wait, wait, hello, wait, wait, wait.

[ Pause ]
[ Music ]   It's maxed.


Announces:   [ Inaudible ]

[ Music ]
Jochnowitz: I'll just hold it up to a mic.
[ Music ]
Announcer: [Manischewitz matzo advertisement in Yiddish.]



Okay.   [ Music ]

[ Pause ]
Jochnowitz: [Yiddish phrase] "They won't ask for any other," he--
very nonstandard use of that word
but he is making democratic the language
of the ad even though I am sure he would never have used this
in real life.
[Yiddish phrase], "do not separate yourself from the people of Israel
by buying some other brand [laughter] of matzo."
But the really interesting ad -- and this one, I think,
is really the crux, is a clip
which introduces a new Manischewitz product,
the Manischewitz' Tam Tam Cracker.   This is an amazing ad.

It begins with a peon to the Yiddish homemaker
and to the extraordinary things she can bake, and it lists a couple
of traditional Yiddish cookies.   Stonniclick [phoentic], anything

over which you make a certain kind of blessing.
[Yiddish foods], I will answer questions about these names
in the Q and A, if there are any.
And then he talks about how we "live in America," and America is --
and listens for what America is.   Number six, oh no no, number--

>> Announcer/Stutchkoff: Yiddish influence--




>> Jochnowitz: "America is a land fund crackers!"
[Laughter] That's Stutchkoff again.
Yes, no unfortunate irony in the Yiddish original.
[Laughter] But this, this is it.
They have [Yiddish phrase], "a Jewish nature
and an American nurture."
"A Jewish lineage and an American upbringing" -- just like whom?
Just like your children.   These crackers are the future!


[Laughter] And this is really Stutchkoff's oeuvre
in this particular ad.
My next piece is from, I'm sure, who-- sorry?
>> Audience member: [Inaudible Remark]
>> Jochnowitz: Oh, in the Q and A, we'll talk about the cookies
in the Q and A. I'm sure many people here still remember Ben Basenko
from the WEVD and the Forverts show [phonetic].
He was broadcasting into the 60's.
He is like Stutchkoff, also a very skilled,
and talented, and popular broadcaster.
Unlike Stutchkoff, he does not have the deep commitment
to the products he was obliged to promote on the air.
[Laughter] As you will hear in this Kojel ad from 1965,
you can almost picture the producer possibly armed, standing over him
to make sure that he reads through the script.
Number 11, no number, the Kojel.   >> [Bell chiming] Announcer:

You're tuned to WEVD-AM and WEVD-FM, New York.
"The station that speaks your language."
[ Yiddish announcer reads Kojel ad. ]
>> Jochnowitz: Right.   Little cut off.

[ Pause ]
In the next-- what did I choose, Kojel.
The next clip is from Israel Lutsky, Die Yiddish Philosophe [phonetic].
One of his famous Carnation spots, it's long.
I might not-- no we don't have that one, either?
[Inaudible Remark] Okay.   Let's hear what we've got.

[ Yiddish advertisement ]
>> Jochnowitz: All right, that one is cut off so we don't get to it.
But really it is for Carnation Instant Milk, if you couldn't tell.
From the content of the ad sometimes, there is conflict
in the family, the Tata, the father wants to do one thing,
the mother wants to do another and it can become very serious
because they are both very concerned about the children.
The problem is allergies.
What can you do if you can't have fresh milk?
The saving of miracle is Carnation Instant Milk.
And what he uses to make this not especially Jewish product Jewish is
the Gemorganigan [phonetic] in many of the ads.
So this was something that the Yiddish Philosophe did.
He used the vocal intonation, singsong associated
with a Gemara [phonetic] study, in the Carnation Milk ads
to give this particular product its audible Kashruts [phonetic]
And I think I have a few minutes to talk about one other thing.
Actually, I will save this also for the Q and A. So I will conclude
with why, especially food, the editorial content
of popular Yiddish radio programs tell listeners that Jewish
and American values are in fierce conflict.
The food commercials on the same programs tell us that American
and Jewish identity can be one.
And that the goals of these identities can be one.
And that the goals of the parents and the children can be one.
And it is the food that can unite the generations that are torn
by every other medium in their lives.
[ Applause ]
>> Max Ticktin: As you may have seen in the notes for our speakers,
Eve Jochnowitz is involved in a blog which is called In Mol Araan,
it goes right into your mouth or inmolaraan.
>> Jochnowitz: Yes.
>> Ticktin: Okay, instead of the araan...
And we heard the voice of Stutchkoff.
And I saw the face of whom I think I've seen perform
but whom I'm meeting out for the first time.
Nahum Stutchkoff, a culture hero of mine,
whom I wish I had met, but I haven't.
We'll hear about him now but you have to understand this man
of extraordinary high energy, put out a Yiddish thesaurus
like Roget's Thesaurus, which is a resource book, very important to me.
He also put one out less, not well known the Hebrew language--
big fat volumes.
And if you read the "Weekly Forward" in Itzik Gottesman's pieces,
you'll frequently see quotes from, letters to the editor written
to Stutchkoff which have been published intermittently
in the current Forward.
Delightful reading, absolute delightful Yiddish.
But we will hear now "Yiddish Drama and the Work
of Nahum Stutchkoff"-- Miryem-- Amanda Seigel.
[ Applause ]   >> Amanda Seigel: Thank you.

So before I begin, I just want to thank a few people.
I want to thank you Nancy Groce for organizing this along
with all the staff of the Library of Congress
and the American Folklife Center.
I also want to thank Henry Sapoznik for bringing Nahum Stutchkoff
to my attention and also Laser Brucko [phonetic],
who's sitting here as well, who's responsible for those episodes
of mama lushen [phonetic] and that you may have seen in the "Forverts."
That was one of his linguistic programs.
>> Ticktin: For that, will he introduce himself?
>> Seigel: Yes.   Laser, please stand, Laser Brucko.


[Applause] So today, I'm going to talk
about Nahum Stutchkoff's Yiddish dramas.
As you heard from Eve, he was also quite well-known
for his commercials.   He was extremely prolific.

So I'm going to be talking about some of his Yiddish radio dramas
as well as other Yiddish radio dramas.
And we happened to be very fortunate in New York Public Library
that in the Dorot Jewish Division we have a large archive
of his radio scripts.
So radio scholar Neil Verma writes that the phrase "Theater
of the Mind" serves as, "A synonym for the genre of radio drama,
if not the entire medium.
And that radio drama was perhaps the most prolific form
of narrative fiction for two decades of the 20th century."
If we apply his statements to Yiddish radio drama,
we can perhaps consider it as sort of Yiddish theater of the mind
as well as a form of Yiddish popular literature like serialized novels
that were printed in the Yiddish press.
Yiddish radio drama has the added advantage of being accessible
to those who cannot read Yiddish but can understand the language.
Verma also writes that, "During the golden age of this genre,
radio dramatists confronted the capricious of their medium,
invented ways to guide listeners and stories, and also spoke
to upheavals precipitated by hardship and war."
Yiddish radio drama also played a specific cultural
and social role for its listeners.
Three generations of urban Jewish immigrants and their descendants,
who like many Americans listen most heavily
to the radio during The Depression and the Second World War.
Henry Sapoznik has noted that, "The Yiddish audience didn't want
to escape from their lives.
They wanted something that brought them into their lives,
into the problems that mattered."
Yiddish language radio performances, as it's also been mentioned today,
often create an intimacy between the performers and the audience,
based on the shared language and culture.
Yiddish radio dramas addressed issues of their day
which remains surprisingly current: intergenerational conflict,
domestic violence, racism, anti-Semitism, assimilation, war,
including the Holocaust, and social and economic class.
Radio drama was an easy, if not abundant source of income
for Yiddish actors with low audience and production cost.
[ Pause ]   It required little if any rehearsal

and involved less artistic risk than live performances.
Consequently, many actors felt that radio work had a low status.
Some prominent Yiddish actors such as Bernard Lumet
and Herman Yablokoff, first appeared on the radio anonymously
because they didn't want to be seen
as compromising their artistic standards.
And Molly Picon, although she appeared frequently on the radio,
didn't see fit to write much in her memoirs about that.
Nathaniel Buchwald in his book "Theatre" writes
that radio drama is characterized by tension and compactness and lack
of quiet moments which I don't think we have a problem with that
in Yiddish, [laughter] utilizing maximum expressiveness and clarity.
Using dramatic and descriptive dialogs, actors have to rely
on their voices and the accompanying sound effects and music
to convey emotion and communicate with their audience.
Narrators introduce programs and characters
and also provide summarized descriptions of events.
Music plays an important role in conveying moods,
locations, and the passage of time.
Neil Verma also notes the importance of sound effects
on the psychology of radio dramas.
We know that Nahum Stutchkoff among others used a
"clang castle" [phonetic] or a sound box which we saw yesterday in Henry
and Pete's presentation and other devices for sounds
like slamming doors, ringing doorbells, and footsteps.
And many of these sounds are indicated in the scripts.
[ Pause ]
Yiddish radio drama includes original works specifically traded
for radio as well as adaptations from Yiddish literature
and stage plays for the radio.
Yesterday, we saw a photo of a production of the
"Kisher Macher" [phonetic] with Zvee Shooler,
which is a WPA radio production.   This was a Goldfaden play.

And in the holdings of the Dorot Jewish Division, for example,
we have adaptations of stage plays for the radio including works
by Jacob Gordin, Abraham Goldfaden,
and even Clifford Odets -"Dere Vach o Sing"[phonetic] --
as well as the dramatizations of Chaver-Paver's work.
In YIVO, the archive of Victor Packer,
who did the Sterling Salt man and woman on the street interviews
on the WLTH, we have dramatizations from works by B. Kovner,
[Yiddish title] and Abraham Bookstein and also other dramas
by Gordon and by Packer himself.
The Yiddish actor and writer Israel Rosenberg also adapted plays
by Goldfaden and dramatized works by Peritts and even the history
of Yiddish theater for the radio.
He's also the author of "Menchen On Oygen" [phonetic],
which was mentioned yesterday and which we'll get to a bit later.
This was a Yiddish radio melodrama that was based on his novel.
The American-Jewish Historical Society holds Molly Picon's papers,
which include many comic sketches.
YIVO also holds 150 episodes of "Ma Mutter on Eyr" [phonetic]
which is a WEVD soap opera by Mark Schweid.
And we also saw yesterday in Henry's advertisements serial called


The Library of Congress also holds scripts for several radio dramas
and I look forward to learning more about the collection here


So the slide you see now is a Yiddish radio schedule
from about 1935 and it includes advertisements
for "Der Bronzviler Zeyde," which is program by Baruch Lumet
that he wrote and starred in,
as well as "Bay Tate-mames Tish" by Nahum Stutchkoff.
R.E.Y. Kelman [phonetic] calls Nahum Stutchkoff "the master of the genre
of radio drama," and notes that Stutchkoff's programs focused
on the Jewish family as the source of dramatic tension.
The Nahum Stutchkoff Archive in the New York Public Library is one
of the most prolific collections
of original Yiddish radio scripts by an individual author.
Nahum Stutchkoff, as you've heard, was one of the most unique
and active Yiddish radio personalities
and also an accomplished Yiddish linguist.
A seasoned actor, director, playwright,
and linguist from Poland, Stutchkoff found his place on the radio first
as a host of children's programs on WLDH.
Or as another legend has it, he began his career in the front window
of Al Enton's [phonetic] store for ladies clothing on Pitkin Avenue.
Eventually, he went over to WEVD and became extremely active,
sometimes writing as many as eight dramas a week
in addition to commercials on WEVD.   This is a commercial, I'm sorry.

This is a-- it did have a commercial actually
for Roman's Five Minute Spaghetti, which was the sponsor
of this children's program by Nahum Stutchkoff.
And he is sitting there in the middle
and it's actually signed by him.
This is from a scrapbook which was donated
to the Library by his grandchildren.   So Nahum Stutchkoff's archive

in the Dorot Jewish Division includes radio plays
and commercials, original and translated stage plays,
manuscripts, and correspondents.
And now for a brief word from our sponsor or as we say
in Yiddish [Yiddish phrase]:   [ Yiddish advertisement ]

The Jewish Division holds many other relevant materials, Yiddish books,
periodicals and ephemera published and unpublished Yiddish plays,
manuscripts from the repertoire of Boris Tomashevsky, theater posters
and programs, memoirs, and oral histories
of Yiddish actors including those who worked in radio
such as Miriam Kressin, Seymour Rechtzei,
Molly Picon and Baruch Lumet.
Please contact me more to learn more about the collection
and about our new book, which I just have to put in a plug for this
and present this advanced copy to the Library of Congress.
This is our brand new book which shall be available
to the public in October.
"Jews in America: From New Amsterdam to the Yiddish Stage."
And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

[Laughter] Yiddish radio dramas ranged from melodramatic to comic
in tone and generally revolved around families,
featuring a small group of either new or recurring characters.
Some shows were serialized, following the same family for dozens
or even hundreds of episodes,
while other shows featured a different story each week
or in several installments.
In the case of serialized programs, the announcer, usually Stutchkoff
as well as an actor in many of the programs,
summarized the previous episode, set the scene, and interrupted
in the middle with a commercial.
One of Nahum Stutchkoff's serialized dramas was "Der Mame's Tokhter"
or "My Mother's Daughter" which ran for 65 episodes
in the early 1940s, about the Podolskis.
An extended family with European-born parents
and American born children, which is typical
for Stutchkoff and his listeners.
In one series of episodes, the high-strung uptown matriarch
of the family becomes hysterical when her teenage daughter runs away
to her uncle downtown, who is mom's estranged brother.
Arguments center round money, namely, an insurance policy left
to the mother by her late husband.
Should she invest it in a business or in nice clothes
so she could catch another husband or for her daughter's education?

The show's sponsor was Planter's Edible Peanut Oil,
makers of Planter's High Hat Peanut Oil,
who obstinately canceled the show due to war conditions.
They also sponsored "In a Idisher Groseri,"
which we'll be discussing later.
The cast listed in the last episode includes Nahum Stutchkoff,
Celia Bodkin, Misha Stutchkoff or "Stutch, Junior,"
Henrietta Schnitzer [phonetic],
Marael Groober [phonetic] and others.
And not all of Nahum Stutchkoff's scripts have names of the actors,
but we do know that Stutchkoff along with his family --
including his wife, his son, daughter, and son-in-law --
frequently appeared as well as other actors such as Wolf Barzel
and Leon Harraz [phonetic].
Another show that was sponsored by Planters was the soap opera
"Meine Mutter und Ich" [phonetic] by Mark Schweid found
in the WEVD Archives at YIVO.
It was broadcast on consecutive weekday afternoons,
sensibly geared towards housewives.
This show like "Der Mame's Tokhter" also had a mother at its center.
Like some of its English language counterparts,
"Meine Mutter und Ich" [phoentic] featured powerful women
taking charge.
And in fact, the cast consist almost entirely of women.
The show's heroine, Esther, a European born balabusta,
played by radio mainstay Celia Bodkin provides a secure
and loving presence not only to her daughter Shirley,
played by Miriam Kressin, but also to relatives and friends who confide
in her providing long dramatic monologues
about their troubled lives.
"Meine Mutter und Ich" [phoenetic] was broadcast just like
"Der Mame's Tokhter" in the early 1940s
with World War II as a looming theme.
The show moves quite slowly with little actually happening
but features many intimate conversations.
I started in the first episode where they were talking about a party
that was supposed to happen that day.
By the time I got to the 11th episode,
the party hadn't even happened yet.
[Laughter] It was like just talking and talking and talking.
[Laughter] And the role of gender in Yiddish radio
in theater is worth exploring in future research.
Suffice to say that the portrayals of women
and men were definitely products of their time.
Another serialized family drama from the early 1940s by Stutchkoff was
"An Eydem af Kest," called in English, "Living with the In-laws".
You may know that the idea of "kest" is this tradition of a son-in-law,
usually a religious scholar, who lives with his new wife's parents
and is supported by them.
In this case, the Eydem is Saul, a young Jewish man from Cleveland,
Ohio who comes to New York to his seek fortune as a writer and ends
up living with his bride, Naomi, and her parents in Borough Park,
Brooklyn-- which is a Jewish, but not yet a Hasidic neighborhood.
The program was sponsored by the Good Health Seltzer Association
and the [Yiddish title] or the Union
of Jewish Manufacturers or factory owners.
Another serialized program by Stutchkoff, "Annie and Bennie,"
featured Nahum Stutchkoff as the bumbling, excitable,
and loquacious Bennie, a European-born dress manufacturer
who courts the American-born, more refined Annie played
by Henrietta Schneitzer [phonetic].
"Annie and Bennie" is more comic in tone.
Funny scenes revolve around domestic squabbles and miscommunications.
Why does Annie pack so many shoes for vacation?
Why did they call two taxis?
And going to the movies, she takes forever to get ready
and then he disturbs the other members
of the audience with his loud talking.
There's plenty of lighthearted arguing plus Bennie's famous Yiddish
curses for impatient cab drivers.
These comic conflicts also reflect larger issues
such as cultural assimilation and the relationship
between European and American-born Jews.
Bennie prefers an old-fashioned hamish, Yiddish speaking atmosphere
in the mountains, while Annie, or "Anitchka" [phonetic]
as he calls her, likes the vacation
at Connecticut Hotel with upper-class snobs.
The show sponsors included Coward Shoes, Manischewitz,
and Planter's High Hat Peanut Oil --
with occasional product placement in the script.
In addition to the undated typed scripts in the Jewish Division,
the Library of Congress also holds a stage play
by the same name from 1938.
Another show that dealt with the encounter between Old World
and New was "Der Bronzviler Zeyde," or "The Grandfather of Brownsville,"
which was the Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, by Baruch Lumet,
where he played the title role.
Originally broadcast at an unpopular hour, actually according
to the schedule we just saw was nine o'clock on Wednesday nights
and at some point it might even been at ten o'clock.
So it wasn't of prime listing time,
but it eventually became very popular and as Itzik Gottesman,
I believe, mentioned earlier, they even staged a wedding based
on the show and people showed up to come
to the wedding and they sold tickets.
And eventually it was turned into a touring production,
a stage production with Sidney, the famous Sidney Lumet,
Baruch's son as the grandson, and a sketch with title
of the show is also in the Library of Congress.

Another comic serial was "In a Idisher Groseri"
or "In a Jewish Grocery," a Nahum Stutchkoff show
from the late 1930s featuring the Simon family proprietors
of a grocery store in a poor Jewish neighborhood during the
Great Depression.
Hime Simon, the main character who's played by Stutckoff, is a harried
yet softhearted grocery man who is often fooled by dishonest customers.
Hime and his wife Rifka have a son, Harry or Harshal,
a college student whose lessons are frequently interrupted
by grocery deliveries.
A range of customers provide comic relief.
Children sent by their mothers who don't know what they're buying,
hapless entrepreneurs like Mr. Ficial,
the neighborhood shmozzle, and major complainers.
Some customers come in begging for money to pay the gas
or electric bill only to be found later in the beauty parlor.
Their chutzpah knows no bounds.
One customer asked Mr. Simon to grind coffee that was purchased
at another store [laughter] and then comes back to complain
that it wasn't done properly.
Another customer asks Harshal, along with delivering her groceries,
to also pick up her shoes from the shoemaker
and her meat from the butcher.
Frequent sound effects include a radio to advertise WEVD
in the store's back room where Hime goes to rest
and escape from the customers.
The show was sponsored by, once again,
Planter's High Hat Peanut Oil.
Additionally, there was a stage play, which you see the ad
for that here, based on the radio play that was performed in 1939
at the Second Avenue Theater, and both NYPL and Library
of Congress have scripts for the stage play.
R.E.Y. Kelman [phonetic] writes that Stutchkoff's departure
from serialized programs enabled him to develop his most popular program,
"Bay Tate-mames Tish" or "Around the Family Table,"
broadcast from 1935 to 1940.   [ Pause ]

Okay. So "Bay Tate-mames Tish" was not a serialized program
but rather there was a different episode every week,
different characters, and this new content got listeners more
interested and also meant that they didn't have
to remember what happened from week to week
or listen to a long-winded recaps.
And this new format also allowed greater flexibly
for the writer and for the actors.
The show was broadcast at noon on Sundays, a prime listening time
and it was sponsored by Manischewitz, as you've heard.
There's some surviving audio recordings of "Bay Tate-mames Tish"
like the ones that you heard last night and you can listen to several
of these on the website: yiddishradioproject.org.
Stutchkoff always impressed upon his audience
that the characters are regular people that they could relate to,
that is immigrants and their children, and more often
than not, people of modest means.
The style was realistic and believable
and the show addressed many issues of the day
in heart wrenchingly dramatic style, portraying families torn apart
by class and cultural conflicts, as well as sorted tales of adultery
and crime often with the moralistic theme.
A stage production, which you see in advertisement for here,
was performed in the 1938-1399 season, and the Library
of Congress holds two scripts for the show.
One reviewer, William Edlin of "Der Tog,"
called it "The first Yiddish play
that can interest Jewish-American youth."
Another melodrama, which was actually a serial,
was "Menken on Oygn" [phonetic], which we saw a picture last night --
of Israel Rosenberg, the author of that melodrama.
It was broadcast in 12 parts on WEVD radio in 1941
and it starred Rosenberg's daughter Betty Perlov
as a beautiful young woman whose life is changed forever
after a terrible accident.
"Menken on Oygn" [phonetic] was also performed as a stage play --
which was actually Betty's debut
on the stage during the 1940-1941 season.
The stage play also featured Yiddish actress Viera Rozanka,
the mother of Betty and wife of Israel,
herself a long time radio personality on WEVD


Nahum Stutchkoff's melodrama "Tsores ba Laytn," was,
like "Bay Tate-mames Tish," not serialized.
It had a different story each week, a different tragedy,
and occasionally one that continued for a few episodes.
The show sponsor was not a commercial entity, but a charity.
The Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital also known
as the Dei Brooklyner Idishe Sanatoria [phonetic]
which provided a place
for the chronically ill whose families were unable
to care for them at home.
The show's main motivation was to inspire sympathy for the characters,
who were based on real people and real cases
and to donate money to the hospital.
The names of donors were read aloud on the air.
The stories and characters were varied but the show often focused
on the effects of illness, both physical and mental on families.
In one episode, a young man who is drafted
for World War II seeks a place for his disabled sister
because they are orphans and there's no one to care for her.
In another, a father who is a sole breadwinner
for a household suddenly collapses
and the family is thrown into crises.
And actually when I asked Donny Fifer [phonetic],
a long time WEVD listener, if he remembered that show, he says,
"Oh yeah, you know, they would startup and everything was fine
and then [Yiddish phrase].
So he remembers that it would start up and everything was fine and all
of a sudden someone would just collapse
and everyone would be thrown into crises.
Interestingly, some episodes deal with Holocaust survivors
such as the story of Belka [phonetic],
a young woman who was separated from her birthmother and raised
by her mother's servant in Poland.   After the war in America,

Belka miraculously meets her long lost birthmother
in a New Jersey hotel.
In another episode, Nuyak [phonetic], the sole survivor
from his family, comes to his American relatives after the war.
He is tortured by traumatic memories and ultimately loses his equilibrium
and is unable to function normally.   Nuyak's story, like many,

was presented as a case brought before the hospital's board
of directors, urging them to be compassionate and take him in.
[ Pause ]
Oh, here's another poster of "Bay Tate-mames Tish."
Just to show you some of the actors that played in it.
In the bottom right corner is Misha Stutchkoff, Nahum Stutchkoff's son
who later went on to a career, not only as a Yiddish actor on the stage
and in film, but also became a scriptwriter and wrote for shows
like "The Brady Bunch" and "The Flying Nun"
under the stage name Michael L. Moore.
And in the upper left hand corner is Celia Adler.
So, this is from the stage produciton of "Bay Tate-mames Tish."
So, the sponsor of the "Tsores ba Laytn,"
the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital
or the Dei Brooklyner Idishe Sanatoria [phonetic], they--
Nahum Stutchkoff became ill later in his life and he actually stayed
at the hospital for a while and they took care of him.
And after he died in 1965, this is a condolence letter
from the hospital's executive director to his wife Celia.
Yiddish dramas were an important staple in radio,
providing regular programming
for the Yiddish speaking immigrants and their descendants.
These programs sought to reflect the lives of their listeners
and the issues of the day.
The mood of these shows ranged from comic to melodramatic and a content
from mundane to deeply compelling.
Perhaps the relatively low financial and artistic stakes
and the ephemeral nature of radio allowed Yiddish radio writers
and actors to be more creative and prolific and indeed to flourish.
Encountering these radio dramas today,
many are still artistically and socially compelling.
Though we may laugh at the overly maudlin style and the hamish flavor
of the characters, these shows are invaluable documents
of Jewish life in America.
Viewed through lens of history, they are not just old-time entertainment
but also tools for understanding the lives of earlier generations,
including many listeners today who still remember the programs.
Thank you.   [ Applause ]

>> Max Ticktin: These are you materials, too.
[ Pause ]
That was a dramatic presentation about drama.
[Laughter] Our fourth speaker has an interesting, varied background.
She is working with another on a book on letter writing manuals,
which is something to look forward to.
She's been the illustration's editor of the "YIVO Encyclopedia
of Eastern European Jewry,"
which gives me a chance to make a plug for that.
And let me indicate to you, you can get it at Amazon cheap,
but not at the original price -- an amazing encyclopedia.
Our speaker is concerned with something that was hinted at the end
of the Amanda's presentation
and that is the two previous speakers who've concentrated
on radio in the 30s and 40s -- then came the war.
And what about the period immediately after the war?
And so we will hear now about radio and "The Golden Door: American-Jews,
Holocaust Survivors and the Radio Programs of the United Service
for New Americans, 1947-48" -- Roberta Newman.
[ Applause ]
>> Roberta Newman: Thank you all, so, putting in a plug for the
"YIVO Encyclopedia" by saying
that you don't even really have to buy it at Amazon now.
It's available online, the entire thing with even additional articles
and illustrations for free.   So, though books are nice, too,

and it's nice to hold those books in your hands.
Some of the last things that Amanda said is a good segue to this paper,
which is about darker subject matter than most
of what we've been listening to earlier today and that is, you know,
issues to do with anti-Semitism and immigration restriction here
and the Holocaust, of course.
And it's actually fitting that I'm the last speaker in this symposium
because what I'm going to be talking about today is, in a sense,
post-Yiddish radio or even anti-Yiddish radio.
We'll be listening to clips from radio programs produced
in the late 1940s by the Jewish immigrant aid organization,
the United Service for New Americans.
Last night, if you were here,
there was one of the programs they produced, Henry played it.
It was the drama with Richard Widmark.
And anyway, these were programs about Jewish Holocaust survivors,
many of whom were of course Yiddish speakers.
But they weren't aimed at Yiddish speaking audiences, instead,
this was radio that presented Jews to English speaking listeners,
both Jewish and non-Jewish.
It not only served as public relations for Holocaust survivors,
but also for the changing American-Jewish community
as a whole.
And it's good to keep in mind one thing
that Itzik Gottesman said earlier today which is that by--
around the time that these programs were produced, the Yiddish press,
for instance, with the Forwards in particular I think,
had a circulation of 90,000 down from like 300,000 in the '20s.
So-- but first of all, let's here if John is there at his console.
He wasn't?
Okay. Let's hear just a taste of introduction to one
of their programs, if you could play clip one please.
>> Announcer: In just seven seconds,
you're going to hear America's newest radio show,
[clicking clock sound], "Reunion!"   [ Music ]

[Background music] The Mutual Broadcasting System presents
America's newest and most exciting radio show, it's "Reunion,"
a new program built with human interest, comedy, and suspense.
It's 30 minutes of surprises, heart talk, and happiness.
And now, here's the man who will tell you more about it, your host,
Maynard Bolton [phonetic] [Applause]
>> Bolton: Thank you friends and welcome to "Reunion."
You know this program is made up of people like you
and you from all over America.
All people who want to be reunited with someone.
It can be a loved one that you're seeking a reunion with
or just a friend you haven't seen in years.
>> Newman: So keep in mind and we're going to be talking more
about this program "Reunion," which was a kind of a series
that United Service for New Americans began producing
in about 1947, that was from July 1947
and that's the introduction to it.
And we'll be hearing some more of that program a bit later on.
And think about the fact that they were no as Eve was calling it,
no "Jewish markers," you know, there was nothing that would lead
to believe you're about to hear a program
that had anything to do with Jews, there.
So before I actually move on, I want to thank Henry Sapoznik
for introducing me to these artifacts long ago
when we were colleagues at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
in New York, 'cause I never would have known about these things
if not, you know, for him.
So, here's a little background: In 1947 and 1948, the United Service
for New Americans or USNA produced
over two dozen radio programs related to the Jewish refugees
who were the focus of its work.
At the time, this refugee aid organization was one
of the largest voluntary agencies in the US.
It was founded in 1946 in the merger of two other organizations
and eventually it disappeared in 1954 when it merged with HIAS,
the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
USNA's activity centered primarily on providing social services
for holocaust survivors, but it also participated
with other civic organizations in a public campaign
for the liberalization of American immigration quotas in order
to allow larger numbers of displaced persons or DPs
to leave refugee camps in Europe and to come to the US.
So what was going on in 1947?
In January of that year, there were still over a million refugees
in areas in Germany, Austria,
and Italy under the control of the Western allies.
This population included about 200,000 Jews.
Restrictive immigration quotas made only a few of them eligible
for US visas and Jewish organizations felt
that immigration laws particularly discriminated against Jews.
American public opinion was against opening the doors
to more immigrants, and in fact, polls indicated that the majority
of Americans were anti-Semitic.
And congress was rife with nativism, anti-Semitism
and growing Cold War paranoia.
And many of the Jewish refugees were coming from, you know, from Poland
and Eastern European countries,
which had already fallen under communism.
So in 1946, the non-sectarian Citizens Committee
on Displaced Persons, or CCDP, was formed to coordinate the work
of pro-immigration organizations.
The CCDP drafted immigration bills and lobbied members
of Congress to sponsor them.
At the same time, other organizations such as USNA worked
in tandem with the CCDP continuing to turn
out their own pro-DP literature films and radio programs.
This goes were most active during 1947 and 1948
when DP advocates made their greatest effort
to place the immigration issue on the national agenda.
And I won't go into a detailed account of all the battles
that took place in Congress over immigration legislation.
It basically went on until 1950 when a bill passed earlier,
the Displaced Persons Act,
was amended with terms considered more favorable to Jewish refugees
than the previous laws had been.
And in any case by 1953 over 137,000 Jewish displaced persons had
succeeded in immigrating here.
So this was the backdrop against which all these radio--
USNA radio programs came in to being.
They were produced by the USNA's publicity departments
and included a number of different programming formats.
There were dramatic plays, there were concerts, there were speeches,
there were coverage of special events.
And we all know, you know, that at that time,
radio was still considered America's most important form of mass media.
And I would say of equal importance with the 1946 FCC guidelines
which required commercial radio stations
to carry a certain proportion of educational
and public service programs in order to retain their licenses.
And small local stations, I think was Richard Russo--
Alexander Russo, is that right?
You know, last night was talking about a lot
about small local stations and how they lacked the resources, you know,
to produce a lot of original programming to fill their time.
And so these small stations were often very grateful
to receive ready-made programs from nonprofit organizations,
someone would sponsor them.
Well, actually, these organizations would sponsor them
and then there would be something on the air.
So, that program we just heard a little bit of, "Reunion,"
was a very strange program.   It was syndicated to local stations.

It's unclear how many of them and how many different places
in the US it appeared on the airways in.
But it, you know, this program basically,
the whole aim of it really was to reunite Holocaust survivors
with loved ones-- with their loved ones before live studio audience.
And this, in fact, was a major part of USNA's actual work.
They reunited families split apart by war
and the agency often stressed aspect of its work
in its press releases and other publicity.
So in the particular show we are about to listen to more of,
there is a service man who's reunited with his wife.
A random guy named Bill Clemes [phonetic] with a childhood friend,
and there's also an appearance by a playwright
and radio star Henry Aldrich, who suggests a reunion
of alumni of his high school.
And none of these people seemed to have anything to do with DPs
or Holocaust survivors or USNA's work.
And some of them are not Jewish.
It's only after the audience has been presented
with these human interest stories that we come
to the piece de resistance of the half hour program.
In this case, a young man named Siegbert Freiberg describes
for the audience his family sufferings under the Nazis,
and he seems to be reading from a script at that point.
His father was imprisoned in Buchenwald, but managed to escape.
Siegbert also managed to escape, later.
And they haven't-- he and his father haven't seen each other
for eight years.
And before we play this clip, I'm just going
to warn you it could-- it's a little shocking.
It might, you know, it's, you know,
I feel like this should be a warning.
It might be kind of upsetting.   So if you could play clip 2 please:

>> Announcer: Well, then you came to America?
>> Freiberg: That's right.
The United Service for New American, the wonderful agency --
>> Newman: This is Siegbert.
>> Freiberg: -- that is taking care of so many of us who were persecuted
by the Nazis helped me to come here.   >> Bolton: Well, in all this time,

you haven't seen your father who's been over there in Shanghai?
>> Frieberg: No sir.
You see, I went to the United Service for New Americans again
after I got over here and they said they'd help me.
But so far, I don't know whether or not they have been able
to contact them, after all Shanghai is a big place.
>> Bolton: Yes, it is Siegbert.
Do you think that you'd know him after all these years?
You know, you were just a young boy when you last saw him.
>> Freiberg: I'm sure I would Mr. Bolton,
a son always remember the father.
>> Bolton: Well, now Siegbert, we want you turn
around to see if you know him.   [ Inaudible Remark ]

[ Applause ]
>> Bolton: Ladies and gentlemen, that's really a touching scene.
[father and son crying and moaning in background] ...The father
and son have got each other in their arms.
This elderly gentleman is really broken
down with emotion that he can't speak.
And the son, of course, tears of joy are going down their cheeks
and [Background organ music swells.] believe me gentlemen and ladies
that are listening to me now.
I have never seen such a touching scene in all my life.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, they stand together there
in each other's arms in the emotion of the moment.
It's really too much for them.
And believe me it's almost too much for me, too.
And this 21-year-old son and his father are reunited
for the first time in eight long years,
spanning an ocean and a continent.
"Reunion" has brought together a family
to begin a new life in America.
Where never again will they have to undergo suffering
and deprivation under a tyrant.   This is "Reunion."

[ Music and Applause ]
>> Newman: So, by today's sensibilities, it really, you know,
seems quite weird and, you know, shocking and we would, you know,
it would be-- you would hear great public outcry
if people subjected victims of trauma to this kind
of treatment, you know, on the air.   Because it's not clear to me always

that the people even know what's about to take place.
And this isn't, you know, the only time
that USNA staged this sort of thing.
But I'm going to focus on something else here.
And that is the way in which this program takes the issue of DPs
and transforms it into a human interest story
by arousing the emotions of the audience instead
of making a political argument on behalf of DPs.
In fact, this human interest approach dominated not only USNA's
radio program, but also much
of its press publicity and print literature.
And of course one reason for embedding the issue of DPs
in the entertainment format is that USNA, like anyone else,
needed to present its message in a way that would prevent listeners
from flipping the dial to another station.
So, you-- it's kind of-- they sort of snuck the issue up on listeners.
And so, by sandwiching the reunions of foreign Jews in between those
of native-born Americans, the show minimizes the cultural
and ethnic differences feared by those who are nervous about DPs,
and it stresses the commonality of the listeners
and the DPs war time experiences.
In fact, USNA didn't always identify the DPs in its radio shows
as Jewish, though it did do this sometimes.
And I should also mention that USNA seemed more comfortable portraying
and presenting German Jews than Yiddish-speaking Jews
from Eastern Europe, but this wasn't a steadfast rule either.
And I'd never found any piece of paper in the files at YIVO,
where the records are that, you know, there was any kind
of explicitly stated policy to focus not on Yiddish-speaking Jews.
Anyway, here's another episode of "Reunion,"
a kind of alternate format they sometimes had for the show
in which Mr. and Mrs. Frank--
Max Frankfurter, a refugee couple arriving
in New York harbor aboard the SS America, were interviewed on deck
by a reporter with a Yiddish interpreter
at hand even though they themselves speak in German.
So, let's listen to a little bit of that.
This is clip 3.   Thanks.

>> Announcer: I want you to hear now from one of our Reunion committee
as he was recorded aboard SS America.
>> Committee Member/Reporter: Mrs. Max Frankfurter had just arrived
in United States aboard the US Lines, USS America.
They are standing here on deck now coming down the harbor
as New York slips by on both sides.
They speak very little English, so we've asked an interpreter to work
with us in getting their story as they arrive.
The first question we'd want to ask them is: Did you see much of America
as you came down the harbor?   [ Yiddish question and response]

>> Reporter: Mr. Frankfurter says that he is very overwhelmed
with what little he's seen of America
and he's just very much impressed.
>> Announcer: Will you ask Mr. [ship's funnel sounds]--
will you ask Mrs. Frankfurter if she noticed that large statue slipping
by on the port side of the vessel as we came in?
[ Yiddish question and response ]
>> Announcer: What was that you asked him?
>> Reporter: I asked him if he knew what the Statue of Liberty was
and he says that [ship's funnel] mean that America is--
he said that it means America is a free land.
>> Newman: Okay, did you get that?
Mr. Frankfurter said that the Statue of Liberty symbolizes
that America is, for us Jews, a free land.
And the reporter nervously, and on the spot,
edited out his reference to Jews.
He said, instead: "He says that it means America is a free land."
Stop. So this particular broadcast is unscripted, but it's in line
with the kind of non-sectarianism that USNA strove for elsewhere
in which the Jewishness of the refugees
and the immigration issue was played down or transformed into a kind
of Americanism, actually.
They often asked people just like stepping on shore
to express patriotic American sentiments.
And sometimes, it might have been scripted, but you know,
it was definitely, you know, an agenda.
So, let's listen now to an excerpt from a program
with a different format, a radio drama,
"My Town" from a series called "The Golden Door", which the excerpt
that Henry played last night was also from.
And each episode of this series started by quoting a few a lines
of the Emma Lazarus poem engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty,
which I won't take the time to read again because you all know it:
"Give me your tired / your poor, et.
cetera. In this episode, a Jewish refugee, Jules Schwerin,
has settled in a small town and is meeting
with a fair amount of insensitivity.
Here he is at a party enduring an awkward conversation.
Clip 4 please.
>> Actress: My, you must have had a terrible time
in that concentration camp.
I know just what you must have gone through.
I saw the films.
You know, those terrible pictures of people being burned--
>> Schwerin: I'd rather not talk about it.
>> Actress: Of course.
I guess you don't want to think about that now.
But you'll be going to back to Europe, won't you?
I mean, that's really your country, isn't it?
>> Schwerin: I'm afraid my country is gone.
>> Actress: And your family?   >> Schwerin: They're gone, too.

>> Actress: Oh, you poor thing.   But it'll work out all right.

You'll be able to go back to where you belong someday and that--
>> Schwerin: Oh, excuse me, please.   >> Actress: Of all the gaul!

Janie, did you see him walk right out while I was talking?
Did you see that John?   >> Actor John: You ought to learn

to stop putting your foot in your mouth, Mary.
What are you trying to do?   Deport the man?

>> Actress: I was just asking him
when he was going back to where he belonged.
Now you know he doesn't belong in this town.
Well, he's a foreigner.
>> Newman: So, the John we just heard
from there is the town's most thoughtful
and sensitive resident apparently.
[Laughter] Here, in the next clip, he's--
talks with his father about how the community is failing
to provide a welcoming environment for Julius-- for Jules.
And, clip 5 please.   >> John: Do you what we've done?

We've built a displaced person's camp for Jules right smack
in the middle of this town.
No barb wires, strictly invisible stuff.
But we're keeping him out, we're labeling him foreigner,
and we're keeping him out.
>> John father: It's beginning to shape up like that, son.
>> John: Dad, I don't want to sound corny.
But when it comes right down to it, we're all foreigners in a way.
I learned that back in the army.
I learned it when Tony Capparelli pulled me out of the ditch
and got me to the dressing station.   You know what I mean, dad.

We start out learning that America was put together by outsiders.
We have nowhere else to go.
We are all outsiders in a way, foreigners,
but we're Americans, too.   Do we forget about the whole deal

when someone comes along who's a little new and raw?
Do we shove him into a corner and put up a sign that says "stay out?"
It's not right dad!   It just isn't right!

>> Newman: So, you know, it's obvious to see
that this radio play is an admission of the existence
of anti-foreigner sentiment and of the problems
that refugees might encounter while adjusting to American life.
The fictional town also serves as a paradigm for American society.
Here, the problem of Jules the refugee is solved democratically
by a populous, which has been reminded
of its own immigrant origins.
Later at a town meeting, the residents agree
that they haven't done enough to make them feel welcome.
Heartlessly rigid special rules are examined--
reexamined by those who were formerly inclined
to isolate themselves from the rest of the world by refusing admittance
to someone who is a little new and raw.
So this is the way that this program encourages acceptance of foreigners
in American society and criticizes restrictionist immigration policies
as xenophobic.
It dramatically makes the point that open immigration and acceptance
of foreigners is in the American tradition.
In fact, at the height of the battle
for more liberal refugee legislation,
pro-DP activists made experimental use of another verbal tactic
to link open door immigration policies with American tradition.
DP, someone decided, could really stand for "Delayed Pilgrims,"
[laughter] instead of displaced persons like--
I'm not making this up!
Okay. This new label placed Jews and it was like trying
to be rebrand, you know, DPs really.
This new label placed Jews and other foreigners who are languishing
in refugee camps firmly in the context
of American immigration history on the same continuum
with the Mayflower pilgrims, who as advocates were quick to point
out with themselves refugees from oppression.
While it's difficult to determine which organization coined the term
"Delayed Pilgrims," its earliest use may date in November 1947 when used
on a staged, a Thanksgiving dinner for refugees at the Morrissey Hotel,
its refugee shelter on New York's Upper West Side.
The occasion was publicized as the "Delayed Pilgrim's Dinner"
and included speeches by prominent guests such as Secretary
of Commerce Averell Harriman and former New York Governor
and UNRRA Director Herbert Lehman.
And the event was broadcasted on radio station WMCA
and was also recorded by Paramount as a newsreel.
And the "Delayed Pilgrims" label caught on among pro-DP advocates.
By January 1948, officials and legislatures were using the phrase
in public speeches; and within a year,
the CCDP had broadcast a radio play entitled "Arrival
of the Delayed Pilgrim," which included a whole--
a dramatization of a Congressional debate and pilgrims arriving
in the shore, you know, in 17th century and all that.
The attempt to cast Jewish refugees as heirs to Mayflower Pilgrims spoke
to a larger goal than the immediate need to immigration reform.
And that was the full enfranchisement of American Jews
as a whole in a culturally pluralistic America.
USNA was eager to demonstrate not only that Jewish DPs had things
in common with the founding fathers
and that America's integrity was bound
up with liberal immigration policies,
but that foreigners could easily be integrated into American life.
Their publicity materials made a big point
of showing new immigrants celebrating American holidays
such as Thanksgiving and George Washington's Birthday
and playing baseball and football.
But USNA also seemed concerned with showing
that Judaism itself could be integrated into American culture.
The publicity department staged special events
in which American organizations and agencies, such as the Boy Scouts
and the New York Police Department, participated in the celebration
of Jewish holidays such as Hanukkah and Passover.
As Will Herberg noted in 1954 in his classic book,
"Protestant-Catholic-Jew," religion was the one thing
that immigrants were not expected to change upon coming to America.
In fact, he suggested, American identity rested on belonging to one
of the three main American religious denominations.
By creating a place where Jews, Judaism, and immigrants
within American history and emphasizing Judaism
as a religion rather than an ethnicity, advocacy groups
such USNA sought to render Jews and foreigners as less other.
USNA's media attempts to foster tolerance of a more ethnically
and culturally diverse America also do sustenance
for wartime government propaganda
which condemned bigotry as un-American.
Remember that comment by John in the last clip about having served
in the Army with an Italian-American?
It's a direct imitation of a lot of wartime propaganda
which often featured multi-ethnic platoons.
That was a big, big thing.
USNA's radio programs also drew upon a new postwar media awareness
of anti-Semitism.
In fact, the groundbreaking Hollywood films about anti-Semitism,
"Gentleman's Agreement" and "Crossfire," were both released
in 1947, right at the same time as these programs.
Promoting tolerance and condemning anti-Semitism were in the air.
The willingness to confront anti-Semitism, however obliquely,
was a growing trend in the American-Jewish community itself.
As Deborah Dash Moore has noted in her book "GI Jews,"
young Jews were greatly affected by their service
in the Army during World War II.
Some, away from Jewish neighborhoods for the first time in their lives,
had shocking encounters with anti-Semitism.
Some participated in the liberation of concentration camps
and were forever marked by the experience.
And some, seeing life overseas,
newly appreciated American life and values.
As she notes, the war strengthened their Jewish and American identities
and produced an assertiveness that contrasted with pre-war patterns.
So, our next clip has three women characters, and it's another episode
of "The Golden Door," which aired on WNYC radio in July 1947.
And this show can be seen-- these women in this show can be seen
as symbols of that new assertive American Jewry.
Mrs. Walter Cronin has arrived in America to find
that her son has died a war hero fighting in the American Army.
Mrs. Malena [phonetic] is haunted
by terrible atrocities she has endured during the war in Lithuania.
But in America, will be able
to "fight" the lingering shadows of yesterday.
And Mrs. Gertrude Berman and her son Ludwig have survived the war
and are beginning a new life in the US.
Young Ludwig arrives home from school
with his clothing dirty and torn.   He reports he's been in a fight.

Clip 6 please.
>> Mrs. Berman: Ludwig, how did you get so dirty?
The new pant and the shirt, oh Ludwig!
>> Ludwig: I couldn't help it!
>> Berman: But you must be able to help it.
Today is Sunday.   >> Ludwig: I was in a fight.

>> Berman: A fight?
>> Ludwig: Some boys started pushing me around.
>> Berman: What did they do?
>> Ludwig: This big boy came up to me and said,
"You're a new kid around here.   Well, I'm the boss, see?"

And he kept shoving me.   >> Berman: And what happened?

>> Ludwig: I pushed him right back.
>> Berman: Ludwig, go inside and wash up.
And Ludwig?   >> Ludwig: Yes, mama?

>> Berman: You did the right thing, Ludwig.
I don't like fighting, but sometimes you have to stand up for yourself.
And in this country, you have the right to fight back.
[ Music ]
>> Newman: So USNA's radio programs might be read
as more assimilationist than militant.
There was no room for Yiddish in their vision of Jews in America,
or at least that's not what they would have wanted their non-Jewish
listeners to focus on.
But their persistent conflation of American and Jewish values insist
in no uncertain terms that Jews had a legitimate right
to help define what America was and what it would stand for.
That's it!   [ Applause ]

>> Max Ticktin: Thank you; a very subtle analysis.
There are four speakers, covered very different topics.
We have some time for brief questions that may deal
with the development of the audience that we--
the Yiddish audience that we heard
in the first speech, in the first report.
The second was on cooking and advertising
for cooking and the radio dramas.
And the third was the radio dramas-- Stutchkoff, a variety of them.
And the fourth, "The Golden Door."   Question, comment?

Yes please, right here at first row.
>> Male audience member (Michael Biel): If I'm not mistaken,
wasn't that first episode of "Reunion" the one
where years later they went back and found the son
and played the recording for him, he had never heard the recording?
>> Newman: Yeah, I don't remember.
Henry might remember this more 'cause I think Henry actually--
Henry should probably take this question
because I think he actually met with Siegbert Freiberg.
There was an article in the "New York Times," but Henry can--
>> Henry Sapoznik: As a matter of fact, Michael Biel,
I have no secrets from you,
one of the great radio historians in the first row.
When I found this disc, it was unbelievably moving
and when the production began for the "Yiddish Radio Project,"
we began a multi-year search for Siegbert Freiberg.
We thought, "Oh, that can't be hard to find."
It actually took four years to locate him.
It turned out that he was living in Queens at the time and was
in the phonebook not under Siegbert Freiberg but under his wife's name,
Herta, who if you listen to show, is revealed as a non-Jewish woman
who is a friend of Siegbert Freiberg's father
who hid him during-- hid Siegbert Freiberg during the war.
We found Siegbert Freiberg.
And in one of the great ironies that only comes to a project like this,
we actually stimulated a second reunion.
We reunited Siegbert Freiberg with his father again
through the radio broadcast and through the actual broadcast
which he had never heard, because it was live radio.
This was an incredibly powerful moment for him to listen
to this program and to comment on it.
In fact, you can hear-- in fact,
there was a second show the following week
where the USNA sent Siegbert Freiberg and his father
around New York as tourists and then interviewed them
and asked them what they thought of America.
It was actually-- it was so contrived,
but it was actually deeply moving.
So-- and you can, if you go to the "Yiddish Radio Project" website,
www.yiddishradioproject.org, you can hear the documentary
where Siegbert Freiberg hears the documentary--
hears the show for the first time and it's again as moving
as it was the first time from 1947.
>> Ticktin: Thank you.   [Inaudible], right here, please.


>> Male audience member: Thank you.
I'd never-- I've not heard before about USNA.
I find it fascinating that it existed.
Was there some-- HIAS already existed at that time?
Was there some sort of political or a philosophical problem with HIAS
that caused USNA to have to be formed?
Do they have some disagreement with HIAS?
In particular, I'm suspicious of how they reacted to the question
of whether the DPs should go to Palestine or to America.
>> Newman: No, I don't think that there--
that they were a separate organization for that reason.
HIAS focused on getting people here.
At least at that time, that was their main focus was
aiding immigration.
And United Service for New Americans was an agency
that helped them once they were here,
so it was a difference in mission.
And there were a couple of other organizations
which I didn't read the names but--
National Refugees Service and the National Council
for Jewish Women Service to the Foreign Born,
those two things came together
to form the United Service for New Americans.
So it's just a kind of consolidation.
And later then, HIAS, I think HIAS did--
either was doing that kind of work already or decided to expand
into that but, you know, now HIAS does also indeed, you know,
aid refugees once here as well.   >> Ticktin: Any other comment?

Yes.
>> Female audience member: There were two things saved--
>> Ticktin: Ah, back to the cooking.   Go ahead. [Laughter] Go ahead.

>> Female audience member: There were two things saved for the Q
and A, so now we need to hear them.   >> Jochnowitz: Okay.

The recording mentions some very interesting baked goods.
The one that everybody wants to know about is the shkotzim [phonetic].
Although, I'd love to talk about the stonakluk [phonetic],
if anyone wants to know about stonakluk.
I had to finally-- after years, I've finally found out what a lot
of these baked goods are from a cookbook that I am translating.
And if I can also break for a word from our sponsor:
it is the "Vegetarish-dietisher kokhbukh" from Fania Lewando,
the "Vegetarian-Dietetic Cookbook" by Fania Lewando.
It was written in Vilna in 1938.
And it is full of the most surprising modern, original,
unusual, unexpected vegetarian recipes all in Yiddish
from all sorts of different sources.
Stonakluk are turnovers made of a sweet rich yeasted dough.
Something very similar to a hallah dough filled
with a fruit or other sweet fillings.
And shkotzimluk [phonetic] are crescent rolls sprinkled
with poppy seeds.
[Inaudible Remarks] Well, according to Michael Wecks [phonetic],
the reason that shkotzimluk are called shkotzimluk is
because they look sort of uncircumcised.
[Laughter]
>> Ticktin: You can count on him to do that.
>> Jochnowitz: Yes.   [ Laughter and Inaudible Remarks ]

>> Ticktin: Yes?
>> Male audience member: 'Cause it happens purely by coincidence,
I was in the office of a co-worker, a woman about 30 years old,
yesterday and I saw something on her desk with capital letters DP,
which turned out to be a flyer from the Daily Pennsylvanian.
[Laughter] But that prompted me
to ask her whether the letters DP meant anything to her.
And I wasn't surprised; I was disappointed,
but not at all surprised that she had no other connection with this,
nothing in her education or experience.
Well, the reason I'm saying anything at all now is that, as it happens,
my initials are DP and I was a little boy growing
up in a mostly Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn.
And I have very clear recollections of my little boy playmates,
maybe the girls, too, I don't remember, but certainly many
of my playmates regularly ridiculing me, "Ah, he's a DP!
He's a DP!"
So there was something in their experience in a Jewish
in neighborhood in Brooklyn in the late 1940s that said
that this is something not quite right.
>> Ticktin: There were overtones to the word "refugee"
within Jewish circles, too, which I think are the same.
Any other comments?
>> AFC staff: Maybe one more question?
[ Pause ]
>> Male audience member: We got a little about Telebende.
I've heard the name.
I've always wondered what she was: a radio character, a prose character,
if so, where did it appear?   A comic book character?

And part B of this question.
In our family, we used a term, [Yiddish word]
as a hopeless service person and I wonder whether that was part
of the same, whatever family it was, whether anyone else has heard that,
along with Yente Telebenda?   [ Inaudible Discussions ]

>> Female audience member: Yente Telebende was the invention
of A Yiddish writer whose name begins with a "nun" [inaudible].
[ Inaudible Discussions ]
>> Amanda Seigel: What about B. Kovner?
There's actually in the archive of Victor Packer,
there's some Yente Telebende material that's adapted
from B. Kovner, but that wasn't his real name.
[Inaudible Remarks]
>> Seigel: I think his name was Adler,
but people got him confused with, you know, Yankev P. Adler.
>> Female audience member: At any rate,
I'm a young lady, as you can tell.
I've heard about Yente Telebende all my life and I came across--
I might even still own it - a book of short stories,
funny short stories with tales about Yente Telebende,
which was she was a [Yiddish word] for one,


>> Ticktin: Well, that's a good note to end on, [laughter]

but we can't end without reintroducing the hazzan, Henry.
[ Applause ]   >> Mayrent: He introduced you.

>> Seigel: It's you.   >> Henry Sapoznik: Oh, thank you.

[Laughter] I thought you were talking about Yente Telebende.
Yente Telebende was not a yenta; she was a yakner [phonetic].
Yente was a perfectly fine Yiddish name.
And actually, in the original column, she was a woman who stood
up for herself and only years later got sort of transformed
into a kind of a shrewish character.
I am deeply touched and deeply moved by this turnout both for my friends
and colleagues, who have agreed to be part of this symposium
and to share their deep layer of knowledge about Yiddish culture
and about its effect on us as literate Americans today.
It's deeply meaningful to not only share this in the context
of the great joining here at the Library of Congress,
but to have such an incredible turnout of our fellow citizens
who bring an unquenchable thirst and interest and passion
for this material transcending the simple- minded nostalgia
and to show just how powerful this layer of culture is
for us on a day-to-day basis.
It really underscores the sort of the meaning of my choice
of bringing the materials here to the Library of Congress --
that I feel that Yiddish culture will find an ongoing home,
shoulder to shoulder with the other cultures
that make us a deeply moving bicultural, multicultural community.
This is a vital importance to us as we go forth in realizing
that the narrative that we have inherited needs constant renewal
and constant refreshing.
And because the mission of the Library of Congress is one
about open access for every succeeding generation,
I can only imagine that the decision to make this collection --
put together a kind of a strange, audio,
crazy quilt that existed solely in off-told anecdotes
in family gatherings and a hoary web-- cobwebby stories of, "Oh,
there goes Uncle Max again talking about these old radio shows."
Suddenly, we find that they do have a terrific meaning
for us both as Jews and non-Jews.   I was hoping in the original,

every time that these materials become part of a public forum,
I keep hoping that it will reveal a new generation of scholars
in other communities who look to what we've done here
in the Yiddish community, "Wait, where's my culture?
Where are the great Spanish language shows, the great Greek programs,
the great Black and Hillbilly programs?"
I was disappointed that in the outreach that we did
for this conference, we really didn't reveal that next generation.
I am truly hoping that the platform that we've created here
with this event will bring out that next generation of scholars
who will do the same sort of fearless dumpster diving
that I would like to think that the Olympic Committee will someday
recognize [laughter] as an important competitive event.
This kind of work does not at all happen in isolation.
It is certainly, simply because my name appears above the title,
it might in fact seem that I am some sort of a visionary.
I am not. I am just someone whose curiosity knows no bounds
and who just wanted to see if my idea about what the punch line
to this story was actually was, in fact, my sense.
And it turns out, I was completely wrong.
It was far, far, far more interesting
and more diverse than I had thought.
I am hoping that subsequent generations of scholars will dig
in to this collection and reveal as my friends and colleagues here
on these various panels have revealed, the great riches
which our predecessors in the American-Jewish community shared.
I can only imagine that they are thinking that radio
which was auf der luft [phonetic] -- like a puff of smoke --
real tangible, visceral for the moment and disappearing
and suddenly, it has not disappeared.
Suddenly, it is here again and again and again and we can dig deep
into it for each successive generation.
I would like very, very much to express my great thanks
and unending gratitude to the members
of the American Folklife Center.
This particular program is the work of many hands and I would
like to recognize those hands.
In no particular order, Stephen Winick, Thea Austen,
the former director of American Folklife Center Peggy Bulger,
the current director of the American Folklife Center, Betsy Peterson,
John Gold, John Reagan, Jennifer Cutting, and Marcia Segal.
My great thanks go to David Taylor for having humored me,
lo these many years ago in helping
to bring this collection here to the Library.
And I want to thank my dear friend, my old pal, my partner-in-crime,
Nancy Groce for helping make this event a memorable one,
hopefully as much for you as it has been for me.
A gut shabbos, a gut yule [phonetic],
thank you very much for being part of this.
[Applause]
>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.