April 15, 2012

Broadcast Date: 
Apr 15 2012

On this Jackie Robinson Day, we talk with Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, author of Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball.

Folklorist Itzik Gottesman talks with us about --and shares examples from-- the musical legacy of S. Ansky's early 20th century ethnographic expeditions in the Pale of Settlement.

Episode segments
  • Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball
    Sports
    Rabbi Rebecca Alpert
    Eve Sicular
  • The Musical Legacy of S. Ansky
    Music, Arts & Culture, Jewish Communities, Jewish Life
    Itzik Gottesman is a folklorist,and  associate editor of the Forverts, the Yiddish language weekly newspaper.  He blogs at The Yiddish Song of the Week.
  • Adrienne Cooper z"l
    Music
    Eve Sicular

    In honor of the 69th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on April 19th, we close today's show with our beloved Adrienne Cooper z"l, accompanied by Lorin Sklamberg on the accordian, singing the Vilna Partisan's song:  'Shtil di nakht iz oysgeshternt' (The silent night is filled with stars).  It was written by the young Vilna poet and partisan Hirsh Glik,  to commemorate the partisans' first successful act of sabotage. His lyrics focus on the heroic actions of the female partisan Vitke Kempner z"l, who passed away on February 16th, 2012.

  • The Music
    Music

    List of the music we played today:

    Treasures of Jewish Culture in Ukraine, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine
     Greetings from Sholom Aleichem
      Freylekhs
      Tsvey Shvesterlekh  Two Sisters

    The Historic Collection of Jewish Music 1912-1947 Volume 1 Materials of J. Engel ethnographic expedition 1912
     Ot Azoy Neyt A Shnayder   

    From Avenue A To the Great White Way: Yiddish & American Popular Songs, From 1914 - 1950. Utt Da Zay, Cab Calloway & His Orchestra

    Upward Flight: The Musical World of S. Ansky, featuring Michael Alpert & Stuart Brotman.
    Children’s Rhymes

    The Historic Collection of Jewish Music 1912-1947 Volume 1 Materials of J. Engel ethnographic expedition 1912
    In di apikorsim Among Atheists

    Upward Flight: he Musical World of S. Ansky, featuring Michael Alpert & Stuart Brotman.
    Ahavo Rabo (klezmer violin improvisation, 1913)

    Upward Flight: he Musical World of S. Ansky, featuring Michael Alpert & Stuart Brotman.
    Ekh zits mir in shenkl (a drinking song)

    Treasures of Jewish Culture in Ukraine, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine
    Durney, Durney Marko/Stupid Marko

    Mosaic Persuasion, Metropolitan Klezmer, The Isle of Klezbos
    In Laws’ Taxim/Mekhutanim Tants

    Sounds of Defiance: Music of Shostakovich, Schnittke, Pärt and Achon Yevgeny Kutik violin, Timothy Bozarth, piano.
    Joseph Achron, Hebrew Melody, Op334

    Shtil di Nakht, Vilde Khaye, 1990 demo (2012 remix courtesy of David Merrill). Adrienne Cooper vocals & Lorin Sklamberg, accordion