Customer Reviews

Yiddish Radio Project (Original Radio Broadcast)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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 !

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...

Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950's, my Father's radio was always tuned to WEVD (or WQXR). As such, I expected more of the lingua franca that the CD purports to contain. Enlish ditties sung by Jewish personalities is cute but not enthralling. I kept waiting to hear actual Yiddish and especially the voice of Zvi Scooler. I cannot imagine any collection of this sort not containing the voice of Zcooler. Maybe I expected too much.

Yiddish, the Germanic language of Eastern European Jews that was imported to the US during waves of Jewish immigration, was once a thriving language that fueled vaudeville, newspapers such as the Forverts, Yiddish comedians, radio dramas, and a rich literary tradition. Sadly, few speakers or vestiges of Yiddish's cultural beacon survive in the US. Numerous Yiddish words such as bagel, chutzpah, glitch, klutz, maven, and schlep have made their way into American vocabularies (for an excellent discussion on Yiddish and its influence, read Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (P.S.) by Michael Wex).

Originally broadcast on NPR, the Yiddish Radio Project was the brainchild of musician/historian Henry Sapoznik. He discovered few dozen acetate-coated aluminum discs at a rummage sale, then spent the next 17 years rescuing surviving discs. Some had been melted down for WWII scrap metal drives, others tossed or disintegrated, but the rare surviving copies opened the door to a long-lost glimpse of Jewish immigrant culture in the mid-twentieth century. We hear bilingual advertisements for Barbasol, Manischewitz, and Hebrew National Meats among others, Yiddish swing, and fascinating Yiddish radio dramas (the soundtrack is available as a standalone CD, Music from the Yiddish Radio Project, featuring highlights of commercials and swing melodies).

Narration is by Scott Simon, and translations are provided by Carl Reiner and Eli Wallach. The two-CD tribute includes segments on Yiddish commercials, radio dramas, and rabbinical radio courts, filled out by snippets of tantalizing products long gone, such as Brillo Kosher Soap: "the Star of David is worked right through the soap, it never disappears"! This is a treasure of those of you who grew up in a Yiddish-speaking household, or who might want to reconnect with the culture of our immigrant grandparents.

The English translation was sometimes drowned out by the background original Yiddish speakers. The Yiddish needs to be quieter.

I enjoyed the "Jewish Philosopher" (an advice program for personal problems much like today's Dear Abbey); .........also,...... the program of a rabbi who conducted on-air arbitration (legally binding after participants signed up) to bring resolution to family disputes,..........as well as...... the program of concentration camp survivors re-uniting for the first time in many years with long-lost loved ones, broadcast live.

I would love a future CD program with an uninterrupted recording of each of the above three Yiddish programs, without any modern-day NPR commentary, but only with an English translation (with the original Yiddish speech too quiet to even hear for the most part, but keeping the music of the original).

Also, I did notice the original Yiddish speech inflections and emphasis of certain words, and their timing with appropriate pauses, and appropriate expression of emotion.....was changed in the modern-day English translation, often losing the essence of the original Yiddish. (I could hear this only at the end of an English translation, after which for two or three seconds the original Yiddish was audible.)


Therefore, the emphasis and emotion of the original Yiddish hosts should be more closely followed and so preserved in the English translation part, if this program is ever re-done.

Also if I am not mistaken, some of the original Yiddish broadcasts contained English translations within the original program itself...were bi-lingual, in other words. These would be priceless, and give me an unprecendented view into this other fascination world of the last century and another subculture than my own! I would love to hear ALL the bi-lingual programs, even ten or twelve hours of the best, if this much is preserved on the old recordings.

To summarize: a great glimpse into the past, but only a glimpse....I would enjoy a much longer audio program. I believe there may well be sufficient material preserved in the old recordings to do this. As the modern commentary says, the original broadcasts of almost a century ago were spontaneous and unpolished but therefore realistic ..... a less-polished modern production would be greatly to my liking, so I can feel I am actually listening to the radio in the livingroom or kitchen of a Yiddish-speaking family in, say, New York City, in the 1930s.

This NPR production, "Yiddish Radio Project", offers only snippets of original broadcast, interspersed with modern commentary. I invite someone to make a program with much longer segments of original broadcasts (with only English translation but little or no modern-day commentary).

Nevertheless, this recent audio program serves as a fairly satisfactory introduction to these old-time radio broadcasts.

Note: I just noticed that music from this NPR program in available on a separate CD, for those who might be interested. "Yiddish Radio Project" did offer some original musical broadcasts which I enjoyed. The CD might be worth a listen as it is edited to simulate a one-hour broadcast of the 1930s or 40s or 50s, according to one customer review!

Great source of hard to get information. Documents the whole Yiddish Radio movement in the United States. Recommend for all interested in this heritage of radio.

This recording presents a fascinating story of how recordings of Yiddish radio broadcasts were discovered and saved. It includes material of great historic interest that is also enjoyable and heartwarming, including music, drama, current events, advice programs, and advertisements. It vividly reflects the culture and experience of Yiddish-speaking immigrants to the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. Recording includes original soundtracks as well as English voice-over so that it can be understood by those who do not understand Yiddish. This is a gem, highly recommended.

I enjoyed this thoroughly even though I didn't have any memories of Yiddish radio growing up.