Yiddish Radio Project (Original Radio Broadcast) [Unabridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Henry Sapoznik (Producer), David Isay (Producer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2002

The Yiddish Radio Project is based on a series of stories featured on NPR's All Things Considered in the spring of 2002. The series highlights the golden age of Yiddish-American broadcasting in the 1930s to '50s. In its heyday Yiddish radio was heard from coast to coast, with a dozen stations in New York alone. All that survives from that incredible era are 500 hours of material preserved on 1,000 fragile discs--all of them rescued from storerooms and attics and even dumpsters, by one man, Henry Sapoznik, a musician and historian who has been on a fifteen-year mission to save every remnant from the "golden age" of Yiddish radio. This collection is an unprecedented intimate snapshot of American Jewish life during the '30s and '40s. The series features translations of the Yiddish language broadcasts by a cast that includes Eli Wallach, Carl Reiner, and Isaiah Sheffer.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

HENRY SAPOZNIK is a Grammy-nominated record producer, composer, author, scholar and performer of traditional Yiddish and American music.

DAVE ISAY is the founder of StoryCorps and the recipient of numerous broadcasting honors, including five Peabody Awards and a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship. He is the author/editor of four books including Listening Is an Act of Love, a New York Times bestseller.

From AudioFile

A forgotten segment of the age of radio in America has been found by diligent searching in attics and basements. Enough of the collection has been restored to offer some of the stars of Yiddish radio programs to our ears again. Scott Simon of National Public Radio is the host of the two- hour disc, and some of the translations are read by Carl Reiner and Eli Wallach. For the listener who remembers the era from the 30s to the 50s, it is a nostalgic trip back. For the younger listener (younger than 50), it is a history lesson in the possibilities of com-munication in the America that was considered the melting pot of scores of diverse cultures. J.P. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: HighBridge Company; Unabridged edition (October 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565117131
• ISBN-13: 978-1565117136
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #536,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully assembled history of a time long gone, September 10, 2003

By 

rrobbi "rrobbi" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yiddish Radio Project (Original Radio Broadcast) (Audio CD)

It's a shame that there's only one review of this double CD, and also a shame that it is described as an unabridged CD, as if it's a narration of a book. In fact, this was a radio presentation on public radio, narrated by Scott Simon, on the lost world of Yiddish radio, using old acetates (the flimsy records used to record the shows) recovered from dustbins by Henry Sapoznik, a social historian, who provides his own arch commentary. It is, as Sapoznik says, like listening to transmissions from another planet, because the recordings evoke an entire time period and culture of the 1930's and 1940's when a large audience of Yiddish speakers in New York listened to Yiddish radio. There is a wonderful pastiche of Yiddish advertisements, a hilarious history of Yiddish swing, and lots of dramas, advice columnists of the air, and other gems. It bears listening again and again, and you might find yourself entertaining passengers in your car with selections you like best. It gives you a warm, homey feel of being privy to the everday world of your grandparents, 60 or 70 years ago. I strongly recommend it.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal Documentary of a Long Lost Era..., October 2, 2005

By 

Eddie Landsberg "My 10th year as a reviewer !... (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Yiddish Radio Project (Original Radio Broadcast) (Audio CD)

Fortunately, if you've forgotten all the Yiddish you grew up hearing, or never grew up hearing Yiddish at all, you'll still be able to enjoy this INCREDIBLE radio documentary about the (virtually) lost world of Jewish/Yiddish radio (in NYC) and vanishing Yiddish-American culture in general. Enlisting top name actors (such as Eli Wallach, Carl Reiner, Jerry Stiller, Christopher Lloyd and others) for the first time you can hear the famous MO AND JOE Barton Brother's parody fully translated in all its blue galore... you meet a whole case of long gone, recently gone and a few still living charactors from one men ad agencies and program directors, Yiddish Swing singers, a RABBI who was the first JUDGE WAPNER long before JUDGE WAPNER, hear a radio broadcast in which a holocaust survival is reunited with his father in a THIS IS YOUR LIFE type broadcast, a Yiddish soap opera type radio drama fully re-enacted in English, and commercials for products anyone who grew up in a Jewish household will be quite familiar with (and shocked at the sales tactics... wow whoever knew that Matzah had more powers than a York Peppermint Patty !) - - The story is brilliantly told, through actually recordings, re-enactments in English, and narratives by those who lived it. - - I don't this this INCREDIBLE documentary won any awards, but it should have... It tells lot's of stories and is a peak into a world nostalgic for some, long forgotten by others... and for those who grew up in the "post assimilation era" or who aren't even Jewish, the documentary is an amazing look into the challenges of one ethnic culture balancing between its own identity and the influences of assimilating and incorporating the influences of a then new World for most Jews called America.

Great for repeated listening, so definitely worth getting ! ! ! This is NPR at its best !

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a MUST for those of us who just missed it..., January 15, 2003

By 

Alexshalom (Clovis, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yiddish Radio Project (Original Radio Broadcast) (Audio CD)

or those that lived and loved it live! Zol zein leben a hundret yorin, laugh along with your ancestors and bubbies, be rational serve Hebrew National, and I'm off to the supermarket to see if I can still find Brillo Kosher Soap "the Star of David is worked right through the soap, it never disappears"! btw this is TWO full cds worth, oy what a bargain...