2006 KlezKamp Zhurnal

On sale at the Epes Center!
Klezmorim
In a Kestl
A set of authentic
Klezmer styles for
PG Music’s
Band-in-a-Box
by
Sherry Mayrent
Associate Director, KlezKamp
Musical director, Wholesale Klezmer Band
Comes with 100 klezmer standards already arranged and ready to play.
A fantastic tool for practicing, writing or creating MIDI files for web sites.
Carol Master and Sherry Mayrent joyously announce
the birth of their fourth grandchild
Emma Louise (r{sa) Agne
January 29, 2006
KlezKamp 22
KlezKamp 22: Hasidish Yiddish
December 24-29, 2006/5767 – Hudson Valley Resort & Spa, Kerhonkson, NY
Tayere Zhurnal leyener,
While what you hold in your hand takes the shape and form of a magazine,
it is really in actuality, KlezKamp itself. For, like KlezKamp, the Zhurnal has
grown. Once, a practical photocopied guide to the perplexed KK attendee about
which classes are held where and how to contact fellow attendees afterwards,
the Zhurnal has morphed into something far greater than it’s original modest
conception. As KlezKamp features the best and brightest of the modern Yiddish
world under one roof, so too does the Zhurnal, albeit between the covers of a
publication.
Words are inadequate to express what we feel when we see the KlezKamp idea
used as the model for other events around the world. And like KlezKamp, we
expect to see the Zhurnal help to inspire even greater accomplishments in the
Yiddish world, uplifting us all.
Table of Contents
A Letter from Henry Sapoznik.....................................................1
Map of the Hotel........................................................................2
Program Schedule.......................................................................3
German Goldenshteyn, z”l...........................................................4
Digital KlezKamp........................................................................6
Hasidic Creativity on Cassette by Miriam Isaacs.............................8
Hasidic Klezmer in Israel
(excerpt from Klezmer!) by Henry Sapoznik................................9
Our Other Talented Faculty
featuring artwork by Peggy Davis, Susan Leviton, Adam Whiteman
and Tine Kindermann............................................................. 10
My Uncle Zvee by Isaiah Sheffer................................................ 13
Meet the Scholarship Students................................................... 15
The KlezKamp Crostic
a puzzle written especially for KlezKamp by Rick Winston......... 16
Staff
Editor: Faith Jones
Copyediting: Sabina Brukner
78 labels courtesy of Sherry Mayrent
Photos pp. 4-5 by Bob Blacksberg, Joe Dobkin and Faith Jones
Photo p. 9 courtesy of Henry Sapoznik
Cover Art and Graphic Design: Jim Garber, PaperClip Design
Printed by: Westprint, Inc., Timothy Bissel, President
Cover: Dos iz nisht keyn beygl with apologies to Rene Magritte
In frayntshaft
Henry Sapoznik
Founder/Executive Director
Henry “Hank” Sapoznik founded KlezKamp
in 1985 and plays Yiddish music with his
trio “The Youngers of Zion.” Last year,
he produced the 3-CD box set on country
music pioneer Charlie Poole for Sony
Columbia Legacy which was nominated
for three Grammy awards.
www.klezkamp.org
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
Program Schedule
Sunday
12/24/06
Monday
12/25/06
Tuesday
12/26/06
Wednesday
12/27/06
Thursday
12/28/06
Friday
12/29/06
7:309:00 am
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
9:1510:45
AM1 classes
AM1 classes
AM1 classes
AM1 classes
11:0012:30
AM2 classes
AM2 classes
AM2 classes
AM2 classes
Check out
12:451:45 pm
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
Check in and
2:003:30 pm registration
PM1 classes
PM1 classes
PM1 classes
PM1 classes
Meetings: staff,
3:455:15 pm work study
PM2 classes
PM2 classes
PM2 classes
PM2 classes
Meeting for
5:306:30 pm parents with
kids in the
KlezKids
program
Forshpayzn
Forshpayzn
Forshpayzn
KlezKids
performance
Dinner
6:307:30 pm
Dinner
Dinner
Dinner
Dinner
Inter7:308:15 pm generational
dancing
Intergenerational
dancing
Intergenerational
dancing
Intergenerational
dancing
Teen
performance
8:15pm- Orientation,
??
group singing,
followed by a
Dance party
German
Goldenshteyn
Memorial
Concert,
followed by a
Dance party
Staff Concert,
followed by a
Dance party
KlezKamp
Pajama Party,
Student
Concert,
followed by a
Dance party
Dance Bands
play early
KlezKamp
Kabaret
www.klezkamp.org
German Goldenshteyn, z”l – 1935-2006
German rehearsing with Pearl Sapoznik and Peter Sokolow.
W
hether it was leading a group of wide-eyed acolytes on the bandstand, or quietly chatting
with fellow KlezKampers in the hotel lobby, German Goldenshteyn elicited love and respect
from all who met him by embodying the essence of KlezKamp with his accessibility and
geniality. Musicians knew that his gentle and unassuming personality belied a powerful command of
repertoire and style made all the more compelling thanks to his leading by affable example. Likewise,
KlezKampers innocent of either Russian or Yiddish were drawn to engage him in conversation, even
when the results were mutually incomprehensible. His reaction to the honor and affection accorded
him was to accept it all with a sweet diffidence, which made everyone want to do even more for
him. His response to the offer to record his CD at last year’s KlezKamp came out as a modest “farvus
nisht?” Taken from us too soon, German’s CD and his subsequent book will find him teaching us for
years to come as his influence on American klezmer continues to grow.
May his memory be for a blessing.
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
www.klezkamp.org
Digital KlezKamp: The Living Traditions
Online Digital Sound Archive
I
n 1987, when KlezKamp Associate Director Sherry Mayrent first came into contact with klezmer
music and the burgeoning renaissance of Yiddish culture, access to original sources was minimal and seemed to be controlled by a privileged few. After learning at her first KlezKamp how
important it was to listen to and learn from old recordings, she searched for ways to hear them.
With persistence and luck she was able to find some tinny 33 rpm reissues of earlier recordings, as
well as getting copies of copied tape transfers
from friends, with the resulting sound quality
that you would expect. Sound archives,
a potentially rich source of materials, generally offered very limited access to materials, partly
because of mandates to make
their resources available only
to serious scholars, and partly
because lack of funding made
large-scale transfering of rare
recordings to tape an extremely
low priority.
As she struggled to master the
idioms of Yiddish culture, she dared
to dream of a making the world’s
Yiddish recordings available to
anyone who wanted to learn
from them. “I went so far as
to consult a lawyer about setting up a non-profit,” she
says, “but that seemed like
an enormous undertaking and,
quite frankly, I had no idea how
to gain access to the material
myself.”
This year, that dream is about to
become a reality.
Living Traditions, Inc., is about to make history by opening an online archive that will make
available over the World Wide Web all public
domain recordings from Mayrent’s large collection of Yiddish 78 rpm discs. For a nominal fee,
users all over the world will be able to download
to their iPod or other device thousands of remastered recordings of klezmer, khazones, Yiddish
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
song and spoken word. Thanks to generous
funding from the Corners Fund for Traditional
Cultures, this innovative sound archive on
She dared to dream of a making
the world’s Yiddish recordings
available to anyone who
wanted to learn from them.
This year, that dream is
about to become a reality.
Living Traditions’ website will
allow visitors to search for Yiddish
music by fields including artist, composer, lyricist, genre, Yiddish/English
title, country, and more, and to
hear audio samples of their finds.
Remastering of these recordings is
being done by Christopher King, a
Grammy-award-winning engineer
with the unique ability to restore
the sound to the clarity and
dynamic range present on the day
that it was recorded.
Mayrent’s collection now numbers
more than 2,900 records (over 4,000
unique sides) and is growing all the time.
At its core is a set of over 200 klezmer discs
collected by Richard Spottswood, the author of
the landmark discography “Ethnic Recording in
America,” who was liquidating his vast collection prior to retiring to Florida. Living Traditions
Executive Director Henry Sapoznik, a long-time
friend of both Spottswood and Mayrent, made
the shiddukh, never imagining what it would
lead to.
Mayrent also bought a 100+ disc collection of
cantorial recordings being sold by the son of a
recently deceased khazn. After those two purchases, she was hooked. “I had no idea
that there was so much material still
available,” she recalls. “Without the
internet in general, and eBay in
particular, I never would have
been able to collect the recordings I have. Now I’ve developed
a network of dealers all over the
world who know me and know
what I’m looking for, and because
of that I’ve been able to acquire
some quite rare items, including
more than a few European recordings
from the early 20th century.”
Sapoznik also made another
match essential to the online
archive. His Grammy-nominated
compilation of last year, “You
Ain’t Talkin’ to Me: Charlie
Poole and the Roots of Country
Music,” was engineered by
Christopher King. From that experience, Sapoznik knew what King
was capable of. Unlike current “flat
transfer” digital conversions, King
focuses on each performance’s middle-range tones, while preserving both low-end warmth and
high-end brightness and clarity.
He first thoroughly cleans each
disk and determines what year
and under what circumstances it
was recorded. Then King selects
the correct stylus, recording speed,
and equalization for that particular
recording. Once these variables have
been established, he listens to each recording
several times to make adjustments uniquely tailored to each performance.
To date, King has completed more than 900
sides, and the quality of the transfers is outstanding. Though some recordings are noisier
than others, due to the amount of wear on the
disc and other factors, the transfers in general
provide a remarkably clear aural window on
Yiddish culture in the early 20th century. “The
most amazing aspect of Chris’s transfers is the
intelligibility of the words,” says Mayrent. “One
of the biggest problems listening to copies of copies of copies of things is
that you can hear what sounds
like an amazing song but have no
idea what the words actually are
because the consonants are so
fuzzy. In Chris’s transfers, you
feel like you’re sitting in the
room with the singer.”
Attendees at the 22nd annual
KlezKamp will be invited
to preview it in Mayrent and
Sapoznik’s class, called,
with trademark Sapoznik
humor, “OyTunes.”
While specific details about
the nature of access to the
online archive are still being
worked out, attendees at the
22nd annual KlezKamp will be
invited to preview it in Mayrent and
Sapoznik’s class, called, with trademark
Sapoznik humor, “OyTunes.” In
addition to completing transfers
of Mayrent’s entire collection,
future plans include partnering
with other private collectors and
possibly public archives to make
available all extant Yiddish 78
rpm recordings.
This project is one of the most
ambitious Living Traditions has
taken on so far, with the potential to
democratize access to rare materials and create a well of Yiddish musical culture that can
be consulted for years to come. Soon everyone—musicians, students, writers, teachers, and
just plain fans of Yiddish music—will be able to
study and enjoy a part of Jewish cultural history
that might have been lost forever without the
Living Traditions Online Digital Sound Archive.
www.klezkamp.org
Hasidic Creativity on Cassette:
Intersections of Tradition and Modernity
For two dollars and fifty cents apiece you can
buy an assortment of engaging Yiddish stories
on cassette. The brightly colored labels give you
the phone number of the Uvlekhtechu Baderekh
Tape Company in Monroe, New York. Call that
number and you get an answering machine
with a menu in Yiddish, the disembodied voice
explaining that they offer an inventory of four
thousand tapes. This is but one example of a
burgeoning cottage industry that caters to the
black hat crowd. It employs modern media to
traditional ends.
Many Hasidim maintain Yiddish to achieve
internal cohesion and to shield their children
from unwanted outside influences. Their use
of technology counters a misperception that
advances in media inevitably open avenues of
communication. In these communities electronic
devices actually reinforce separation. While
Hasidim will generally not attend ordinary plays
and concerts, watch TV or listen to radio, they
can use available technology to create their own
home-grown recordings and media outlets.
Recordings are nothing new to Hasidim. Go into
a music shop in Geula or Boro Park and you will
find recordings of Yiddish theater star Pesakh’ke
Burstein, famous for his whistling and joyful,
though not religious, songs. Another favorite is the
badkhn Yom Tov Erlich, a Stolin Carlin hasid. Some
of his songs are rhyming trains of thought, like rap
without the drumbeat.
On the tapes of stories, the narratives fuse
fiction and faith. Common motifs include lost
and found Jews: a stolen child, a lost child, a
kidnapped Jew, all ultimately restored to the
community. Stories usually include a tsadik,
whose agency often resolves the drama. There
is the occasional shlimazl for comic relief. The
very titles of many of the stories evoke shund
theater; “The Best Meat Trade in Crakow,” “The
Drunk Returns Home,” “The Cholent was Eaten
to the Last Drop,” “Drunk Up All the Water: How
the Mother, after Long Years, Found her Child.”
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
by Miriam Isaacs
Hasidic Klezmer in Israel
From Klezmer! Jewish Music From Old World to Our World, by Henry Sapoznik
My Israeli colleagues encouraged me to go
locate klezmer music as it is played today by
Hasidim in Mea Shearim, in one of the oldest
sections of Jerusalem. Donning a plain white
shirt, dark pants, and my father’s old-fashioned
khazonish yarmulke, I looked, with my full
beard, like a regular resident of the quarter, able
to mingle in mufti. With a tape recorder and
a fistful of cassette transfers of klezmer 78s, I
headed out to the old quarter.
Not one of Henry’s finds in Mea Shearim: this is Henry
himself, in costume for his appearance as a klezmer
in the 1981 movie “The Chosen.”
Janet Elias had tipped me off to a Hasid named
Ben Zion Kletzkin, a sign painter and clarinetist
who played in the style of the Meron Hasidim, a
sinewy amalgam of Eastern European and Middle
Eastern sounds. The Meron Hasidim maintain a
vital link with their deparated rebbe by staging
a yearly pilgrimage to the town of Sfat replete
with music, trance dancing, and exuberant nigun
singing. The story goes that their repertoire was
inspired by the cache of klezmer 78s brought by
an Ashkenazic Jew named Wallenstein, who emigrated to Israel in the 1920s.
I found Kletzkin in the cramped sign-painting studio he ran in the old Jewish quarter.
Uninterested in discussing himself, he played me
a tape of his son Gershon, also a clarinetist and
a fine Meron stylist. Afterward, I headed deeper
into Mea Shearim, seeking a place to buy recordings of these unique players. I located an appliance store filled to the rafters with tapes of this
kind, including a CBS Israel LP of field recordings made by Messrs. Adler and Hajdu of Meron
Hasidim. I was elated.
“This one is good too,” a voice said in Yiddish.
I turned to find at my elbow a small young
Hasid whom I recalled seeing only moments ago
in Kletzkin’s studio. It turns out he, Yochanan,
played drums with Kletzkin’s son and was recommending a cassette of their band. Without
hesitation I bought it. He was right. The recording had a biting energy unhindered by self-consciousness. Even the goofy-sounding electric
piano had unique verve. When I mentioned I had
some dubs with me of klezmer 78s Yochanan
grabbed my arm with a strength not hinted at
by his slight frame and led me back to his house.
Leaving me alone, he returned with some fellow
band members and had me play them my tapes,
which elicited whoops and hollers with each new
selection. No sooner did a record come on than
they set to commenting in a rapid, nearly unintelligible fusion of Yiddish and Hebrew. With an
extra tape recorder, I made transfers of the tapes
for Yochanan and have since speculated on how
many copies of copies of them must be floating
around Mea Shearim.
Please join us for a bukh-simkhe in honor of
the paperback publication of Klezmer! at 5:30
Tuesday in the bar (all ages welcome). Bring your
copy of the book (available at the Epes Center)
for Henry to sign.
www.klezkamp.org
Our Other Talented Faculty
W
hen you think of KlezKamp instructors, you probably think of some of the great names in
Klezmer, both of older and younger generations. Or you may think of Yiddish language or
literature meyvins. But there’s another group of faculty who have been flying just below your
radar for years.
KlezKamp’s visual arts and crafts and KlezKids faculty do amazing work, both at Kamp and in the
world. They take commissions for everything from quilts to ketubot; they sell artwork commercially
and make it for their families and communities. They use techniques and media that have been used
by Jews for centuries, and they work in media not generally considered “Jewish.” Here is a small
sample of their creativity.
Susan Leviton
Calligraphy instructor Susan Leviton’s uses a wide variety of media, from painting to calligraphy to
papercuts. Her “CalligraphiCow” was made when, as a participant in her local Cow Parade, she chose
to honor the place of parchment (made from cowhide) in
the development of the illuminated letter. Her papercut
“Home Blessing” unites form and content: cut from one
sheet of paper, everything in a papercut must be connected, just as in the home it is the interconnection of
family members which realizes the intention of the blessing. The “Frank Lloyd Wright Ketubah” was commissioned
by people who were drawn to the clean lines and geometric balance of Frank Lloyd Wright’s art. In his concern for
architecture that provides a unified, livable space, Wright
seems a perfect match for a ketubah.
CalligraphiCow
Home Blessing
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KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
Frank Lloyd Wright Ketubah
Adam Whiteman
Papercutting instructor Adam Whiteman may use a traditional form, but his papercuts show wide
influences grounded in an imaginative consideration of Yiddish literature and culture. His stamp of
Gitl Pureshkevitch (a character from Sholem Aleichem) is from a series of postage stamps peopled
with characters in Yiddish
lore he created for an
imaginary “Yiddishland.”
(Note that the denomination
does not have a currency.)
His commission to illustrate
Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman’s
children’s book Mume Blume
di Makhsheyfe [Aunt Bluma
the Witch] is the source for
the second piece. It uses a
traditional art form adapted
for a contemporary audience.
Gitl Pureshkevitch
Mume Blume di Makhsheyfe
Peggy Davis
Peggy Davis, a member of the KlezKids faculty, is also an
accomplished artist. Her work combines calligraphy and design
in many forms and media. Inspired by traditional texts, she
creates art for life-cycle ceremonies, various commissioned
work, and sells prints of her work. The detailed papercut
“Persian Deer” began with a papercut created by her sister
Barb, who in turn was inspired by a design indeed from Persia.
It has been added to her collection of printed ketubot. It
contrasts with the evocative ink drawing called “Shabbes Tish”
which was used for a wedding Shabbes dinner invitation.
Persian Deer
Shabbes Tish
www.klezkamp.org
11
Tine Kindermann
Tine Kindermann is a visual artist from Berlin, Germany, who has
been living in New York with her family for over 13 years. Her
dioramas fabricated from found objects and figurines sculpted
by her have been shown in New York galleries as well as abroad.
In addition to her work as an artist Tine is the chairperson of
the Artists Alliance, Inc., a not-for-profit artists organization
in Lower Manhattan. The print shown here is one in a series of
monoprints (one-of-a-kind prints) that explore the image of the
hand in different cultures. It was created using a layering printing technique, applying wood block printing ink to an assemblage of shapes made from different materials.
Print #9
Vera Sokolow
Vera Sokolow, this year a co-ordinator of the KlezKids program, makes fabric art for life passages. She
says, “When I create a chuppah, I first choose the overall design of the Jerusalem scene, the general
outline. Since I am not a graphic artist, this
has always meant using someone else’s original
design. My artistic call lies in the juxtaposition
of texture and color, one fabric against another,
until the entire piece meshes. All of this is
done by pure instinct. Other people’s techniques
don’t work for me. In fact, the essence of my
experience has been to learn to trust myself
and to revel in spontaneity.” The inspiration
for “Elisheva’s Chuppah” was a watercolor by an
unnamed Israeli artist. The detail shown from
“Ahava’s Quilt,” a baby quilt with one panel for
each letter for the Hebrew alphabet, shows the
combination of design, embroidery, and quilting
that together make up a playful, decorative, and
Elisheva’s Chuppah
highly detailed home object.
Ahava’s Quilt
12
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
My Uncle Zvee
by Isaiah Sheffer
Z
vee Scooler’s decades of entertaining weekly rhymed recitations, heard at 11:40 am every
Sunday morning, at the climax of The Forward Hour, flagship program of Yiddish radio station
WEVD, were like nothing else that has ever come over the airwaves, before or since. But what
exactly were these ten-minute spoken radio commentaries that
became a beloved and long-running regular cultural experience
for tens of thousands of Jews in the New York metropolitan
area? What was unique about Scooler’s radio persona as “Der
Grammeister” (The Master of Rhyme), and what made his weekly
“gram-monologues” so popular and so memorable to his fanatically loyal listeners?
I think the answer to these questions is that the man Zvee
Scooler, and hence his weekly rhymed radio column, embodied
a unique combination of several different cultural, literary, and
theatrical traditions—an extraordinary blend of liberal political journalist, trusted daily newscaster and radio personality,
observer of American Jewish life, literary scriptwriter, handsome
Yiddish theatre leading man, Broadway and film actor, learned
Hebrew scholar and Talmudist, sophisticated New Yorker, smart
poker player, comical and tuneful badkhen, accomplished linZvee Scooler during WEVD’s heyday.
guist, fervent
Date unknown.
Yankee fan, patriotic Zionist, and
fierce Yiddishist. And it didn’t hurt that he was the
possessor of a rich, resonant voice, which he could
play like any instrument of the orchestra, creating an
audio gallery of vivid radio characters, from Litvaks
to Galitzianer to Lower East Siders, as well as all the
colorful Americans, who peopled his weekly rhymed
feature stories.
He was a writer, of course, who spent many hours
each week creating his Sunday morning secular sermons, polishing the delightful, often multi-lingual
rhymes and outrageously clever puns. He was a passionate editorialist with strong opinions on the events
of the day, a determined campaigner against the vulgarity that threatened Yiddish culture with borschtbelt schlock, and a moralist who could scold his fellow-immigrants who gave in too easily to the tawdry
temptations of life in the goldene medina.
But equally important, Zvee Scooler was a performer.
It is not unimportant for an understanding of his
Scooler’s beard also enabled him to play
grammeisterai to note that it was performed in the
“unorthodox” characters, neither rabbis nor
art-deco Fifth Floor Studio A of the WEVD Building on Jews; here, a Gold Rush ‘49er in an undated
publicity photo.
www.klezkamp.org
13
West 46th Street in front of a live audience. As a child
performer occasionally playing roles on The Forward Hour’s
serialized dramas, I remember well watching Uncle Zvee
(he was my mother’s big brother) standing up in front of
that microphone and playing to that adoring crowd as well
as to his listeners gathered around their radios at home.
This article appears in the booklet accompanying
the Living Traditions CD release “Zvee Scooler Der
Grammeister”, available at the Epes Center or at
www.livingtraditions.org/docs/store.htm.
A very young Zvee Scooler with faux crepe
beard in an unknown Yiddish theater role.
Zvee Scooler (left), head of the WPA Yiddish Radio Division directing a live on air production of
Abraham Goldfadden’s operetta “Di Kishifmakherin” (“The Witch”) April 19, 1939.
14
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
Meet the Scholarship Students
24-year-old Alicja Głuszek was born in Lubin, a small town in South-Eastern Poland near
Wrocław. It was during her undergraduate studies in International Relations at Jagiellonian
University in Kraków, Poland, that she first came into contact with Jewish thought. Reading
the philosophical dialogues of Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, she began to consider the
world of Judaism and Hasidism in Polish history. Since becoming involved with Kraków’s Jewish
Culture Festival three years ago, Alicja has made it her work to
explore Jewish issues. In 2005 she worked as a tour guide in
Kraków’s main synagogue on Kazimierz Street, leading visitors
through the photo exhibit which described Jewish life in Kraków
before World War II. “This experience assured me how important
it is to remember Jewish life and culture in Poland,” Alicja told
us. “Poles are morally obliged to maintain this remembrance.”
She now works in the office of the Jewish Culture Festival where,
she says, “I have an opportunity to fulfill this duty.” Now a
PhD candidate at the Institute of American Studies and Polish
Diaspora at Jagiellonian University, Alicja has particularly been
influenced by the work of Abraham Joshua Heschel. We are
grateful to the donors whose support makes it possible for us to
underwrite Alicja’s first KlezKamp experience.
Dina Gidon was born in 1981 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia). She completed a
Master’s of Science in Chemistry at the St. Petersburg State University, but for the last two
years has been intensively studying Yiddish language and culture. “In my opinion, one of the
most important activities within Yiddish culture nowadays is
to record and preserve the folklore which is still remembered
by some native Yiddish speakers in Eastern Europe,” Dina said.
To support this work, she has studied at the summer Yiddish
program in Vilna (Vilnius, Lithuania) and in other language
courses. Although she began collecting folklore as part of an
expedition through Ukraine in 2005, she believes her work
in the coming years will be much more fruitful. “Next summer when I go on the expedition again I will be able to talk
Yiddish to the interviewees, which is very important as they
tend to respond in Yiddish only if they are addressed in that
language,” she explained. Dina also sings in the Jewish choir
in St. Petersburg, bringing traditional Jewish music to a local
audience. Like Alicja, Dina will be attending KlezKamp for the
first time, thanks to our generous supporters.
KlezKamp’s scholarship fund enhances our ability to teach and learn from talented students who cannot
otherwise afford to attend. This is particularly important for those striving to promote Jewish continuity
in the struggling economies of Eastern Europe. To learn more about donating to the scholarship fund,
please speak to staff at the Epes Center, or contact the office during the year.
www.klezkamp.org
15
The KlezKamp Crostic
by Rick Winston
Directions:
Welcome to the challenging (but not too challenging, I hope) world of crostic puzzles. Unlike
crosswords, there are several ways to solve a crostic once you get going. Answer the clues;
transfer the letters on the numbered dashes to the correspondingly numbered squares in the
diagram. Work back and forth between the grid and the word list to complete the puzzle. The
finished puzzle will spell out a quotation reading from left to right; black squares separate
the words in the quotation. The “crostic” part of the puzzle (“crostic” derived from the Greek,
meaning “head”) is that the first letters of the clued answers, reading down, will spell out
the name of the author and the source of the quotation. Answer on page 34.
Rick Winston lives in Adamant, Vermont. He and his
wife Andrea Serota own Vermont’s premier art movie
house, The Savoy, in Montpelier. Rick plays accordion
in the Nisht Geferlach Klezmer Band (KlezKamp ‘90),
and constructs crostics twice a month for the Montpelier
Times-Argus. If you have comments or questions about
this crostic or crostics in general, he can be reached at
[email protected].
16
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
A. Yiddish itself; lit. “mother tongue”
L. Hero Jesse at the 1936 Olympics
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
150 96
71
10 141 115 134 83
___ ___ ___ ___ ___
54
67
39 113 126 66
B. A
uthor of Gimpel the Fool” and many others
(initials and last name)
M. British fliers’ group
2
N. Vegan’s request (2 words)
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
60
48
84 149 109 57 118
C. V
ilna-born author of “The Yeshiva” and “The
Agunah” (full name)
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
89
37
64 146 56
29 131 24
3
80
___ ___ ___
125 82 114 46
4
26 103 34
6
145 90 101
139 130 144
1
47 119 27
135 76
72 117 137
33 102 45
9
111 44
35
73 133
8
28
25
85
T. Special ticket offer (slang)
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
I. Emit a siren song
59
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
104 63
41
68 142 31
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
69
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
79 107 138 75
18
U. Building material
J. O
ne of Superman’s attributes
(2 words, one hyphenated)
97
30
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
98 122 17
5
86
S. Naval rank under lieutenant junior grade
___ ___ ___ ___
50 116
K. Polish city for which a bread is named
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
13
70
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
H. Worked at a loom
87
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
R. “The People Have Spoken!” (2 words)
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
43 147 11
O. Popular 1966 book “________ Yiddish” (3 words)
12 140 58
G. Author of book in Clue O (full name)
40
93
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
123 112 19
22
23
Q. O
ne reason to speak Yiddish: “Di ______ zoln
nisht farshteyn”
88
___ ___ ___
92
152 38 100 15
148 132 14 105 51
F. Org. of medical crisis workers
95
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
53
99
P. Admitting with chagrin (3 words)
62 110
E. Agree to another’s wishes
20
124 94
52 129 143 16
D. Gilbert and Sullivan’s “____ Pinafore”
7
___ ___ ___
74 120 61 106 153 127 49
42
91
32
65
36
V. T om Lehrer lyric: “We’ll all go together when we
go/ Every ________ and Every Eskimo”
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
136 121 55 128 151 108 77
21
81
78
www.klezkamp.org
17
LIVING TRADITIONS – WE’RE NOT JUST KLEZKAMP!
Who are we? Founded in 1994, Living Traditions is committed to the celebration and continuity of community-based,
traditional Yiddish culture. We don’t view yidishkayt as a symbol of a lost world, nor as customs that are our “duty”
to perpetuate. Instead, Living Traditions strives to bring the lush bounty of this cultural heritage to new generations
in ways both inspiring and relevant to contemporary Jewish life. We make Yiddish a meaningful part of one’s active
personal identity in a multi-cultural world.
You already know that Living Traditions does
KlezKamp. But that’s not all we do:
n
n
What’s coming up?
n
“ German Goldenshteyn: A Living Tradition” CD: Over four
days at KlezKamp 2005, the late Moldavian klezmer
clarinetist German Goldenshteyn, together with a handpicked rhythm section of today’s
greatest Yiddish musicians, sat down
and recorded 20 tunes from his
staggering collection of over 800 bulgars,
freylekhs, horas, khosidls, and sirbas. See
www.livingtraditions.org/docs/store.htm
for this and other Living Traditions CDs.
n
T
he Yiddish Radio Project: Co-produced with Sound Portraits
Productions, this Peabody Awardwinning, 10-week radio series on
the history of Jewish broadcasting
for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” aired in
Spring 2002. The program sparked a seven-city nationwide
live concert tour, best-selling CDs, and reached over thirteen
million people. See www.yiddishradioproject.org.
n
“ Live from KlezKamp! The Staff Concerts
1985-2003”: A 2 CD set featuring the
best of 20 years of KlezKamp staff
concerts.
“ Zvee Scooler: Der Grammeister“ CD: An anthology of this
beloved Yiddish actor’s selected radio performances, poetry,
and even commerials will be released in December 2006. This is the first in a series in Living Traditions’ releases
— in the original Yiddish — of rare selections from the
Yiddish Radio Project archives.
n
“ Ray Musiker: A Living Tradition” CD: At KlezKamp 2006,
clarinet master Ray Musiker will record the next in our
“A Living Tradition” CD series, featuring Musiker’s original
and classic material and backed by a stellar staff ensemble
of Pete Sokolow (piano), Alex Kontorovich (alto sax), Ken
Maltz (tenor sax), Jim Guttmann (bass), Aaron Alexander
(drums), and Henry Sapoznik (guitar).
n
L
exicon of Yiddish Theater: Living Traditions will offer an
edited and updated translation of Zalmen Zylbercweig’s
seminal seven-volume Lexicon of Yiddish Theater, originally
published only in a limited Yiddish edition, for a new
generation of scholars, researchers, students, and historians.
And don’t forget…
n
“ From the Repertoire of German Goldenshteyn”: a book of
100 of the 800 klezmer tune transcriptions that German
Goldenshteyn wrote down over his lifetime, including 20
songs featured on the Living Traditions CD.
O
nline Digital Sound Archive of Vintage Yiddish 78s:
Thanks to a generous private donor, Living Traditions is
painstakingly digitalizing more than 2,500 78 rpm records
of early 20th century klezmer music, folk and theater
songs, comic dialogues, and Hebrew cantorial works. Soon
you can download these precious public domain recordings
— remastered with lifelike clarity — from our new Online
Digital Sound Archive at www.livingtraditions.org.
“ The Green Duck/Di Grine Katshke: A Menagerie Of Yiddish
Songs For Children”: Your kids will
love this wonderful collection of songs
about animals performed in Yiddish by
Paula Teitelbaum and Lorin Sklamberg,
joined by world-class klezmer
musicians.
K
lezKamp Roadshow: Share the KlezKamp experience with
your community center or congregation back home by
bringing them a one-day, weekend, or week-long immersion
in Yiddish culture. Led by our experienced and inspiring
staff, the KlezKamp Roadshow offers lectures, workshops,
and performances featuring klezmer music, Yiddish radio,
dance, folktales, songs, and crafts. Contact us at info@
livingtraditions.org to order “Jewish Folks Arts to Go” — we
deliver!
n
n
n
K
lezGig Database: Living Traditions’ website will soon feature
a centralized, searchable database of Klezmer and Yiddish
music performances worldwide for music fans.
from the Yiddish Radio Project: Living Traditions
will create a Digital Archive to preserve and catalogue
Yiddish radio artifacts — original scripts, correspondence,
advertising, newspaper clips, posters, photographs,
declassified FBI and FCC files, and 176 newly-discovered
discs of NY’s WEVD Yiddish radio shows from the 1930s
— with public access online and through major libraries.
nM
ore
Through these year-round projects, Living Traditions encourages development of a worldwide Jewish community
knowledgably steeped in Yiddish language, culture, and traditions too often forgotten in modern Jewish life.
18
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
KlezKamp &
Other Programs
82%
Why is Living Traditions like a bagel?
…because it takes dough to make it!
Revenue
Living Traditions’ programs cost a lot of bread.
When you come to KlezKamp, your tuition pays for your
room, your food, and the remarkable musicians, dancers,
writers, and folk artists who share their craft with you
for one memorable week.
Misc.
3%
Contributions
34%
Membership
Fees 4%
But your tuition doesn’t pay for the other 51 weeks
of our year.
That’s when Living Traditions is cooking up our next KlezKamp
and rolling out other invaluable projects: recording performances
by living folk artists, teaching folk crafts to your community,
and preserving and sharing our irreplaceable Yiddish heritage.
Tuition
59%
Expense
Running KlezKamp and our unique programs takes a
big bite out of Living Traditions’ budget bagel.
Personnel &
Overhead
15%
KlezKamp &
Other Programs
82%
Fundraising
3%
We spend more on our programs (82%) than we take in from
membership fees and KlezKamp tuition (60%). But we spend
only 18% for overhead and fundraising.*
*based on 2005 audited financials.
That’s why we depend on tax-deductible donations from
people like you who want Yiddish culture to be part of your
life — and the lives of your children and grandchildren.
Become a member of Living Traditions. And make a gift to support KlezKamp
and our programming. Help shmeer Yiddish culture nationwide!
I know that Living Traditions kneads my dough for KlezKamp and its year-round programs.
Here’s my membership fee of:
Revenue
■ $75 Individual
■ $100 Family
■ $180 Supporting Membership
Contributions
Misc.
And here’s my 34%
tax-deductible donation of:
3%
Membership
4%
■ $18
■ $36
■ $72 Fees
■ $100
■ $250
■ $36 Full-time Student/Senior Citizen
■ $360 Sustaining Membership
■ $500
■ Other___________________________
Name:_______________________________________________________________________________________
Tuition
59%
Address:_____________________________________________________________________________________
City:____________________________________________ State: ________ Zip Code:_____________________
Phone:____________________________________ E-mail:____________________________________________
Living Traditions, 45 E. 33rd Street, Suite B-2A, New York, NY 10016 USA
tel: (212) 532-8202 • fax: (212) 532-8238 • [email protected] • www.livingtraditions.org
www.klezkamp.org
19
²¬¢ª£µ §¬ ¬ª£›«±¦ÓÙ ©¢£¨ ´¡ª ¢í¬³
WINTER EVENTS AT
with David Mandelbaum,
Allen Lewis Rickman
and Yelena Shmulenson-Rickman
Yiddish translation by Miriam Hoffman
Directed by Isaiah Sheffer
Peter Norton Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street
Tickets: $25, $60,
$100 (includes reception with artists following
the performance)
For tickets and information please call:
212-864-5400
20
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
www.klezkamp.org
21
To Hank and Staff,
We applaud your commitment
to ensuring the endurance of
Yiddish music and culture
for generations to come.
Yasher Koach!
The Legacy Fund
Marsha A. Dubrow, Ph.D., Director
22
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
www.klezkamp.org
23
24
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
www.klezkamp.org
25
In memory of
Max (Motek) Kleiner
and
Regina (Reginka) Gerst Kleiner
Holocaust Survivors, Devoted Yiddishists and KlezKampers
Grandparents of Vica and Vitaly Kleiner
Parents of Lydia Kleiner
26
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
CELEBRATING
YIDDISH CULTURE & KLEZMER MUSIC
Join us at
KlezCalifornia at the JCCSF
January 6 – 7, 2007
With the award-winning band Budowitz
For information and to register
see www.klezcalifornia.org or call 415.789.7679
Read the KlezKamp Blog
www.klezkamp.blogspot.com
www.klezkamp.org
27
28
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
Mazl Tov to Our Friend Christopher King
Remastering engineer for the
Living Traditions Online Digital Sound Archive
on his third Grammy nomination
“Good For What Ails You:
Music of the Medicine
Shows 1926-1937”
Hank, Sherry, Dan, Sabina
www.klezkamp.org
29
The "Forverts" announces a new series of recordings
for all lovers of Yiddish literature:
"Masters of Yiddish Prose"
Read in Yiddish by Michael Ben-Avraham
The series will offer ve CD recordings:
1) Chasidic World in Yiddish Literature
2) Tsvi Eisenman: "The Spectacle" and Other Stories
3) The Stories of Yosl Birstein
4) Women Yiddish Writers
5) The Work of Efraim Kaganovski
The rst two CDs are all ready to be shipped and will cost $10 each.
IF YOU SUBSCRIBE TO ALL FIVE TODAY,
YOU ONLY PAY $45. (plus $5 for shipping outside of the US)
Short samples of the recordings can be heard on the "Forverts" website: http://yiddish.forward.com
Each compact-disc costs $10, plus $2 shipping. Outside of the US, please add $4 shipping.
Please make the check out to "Yiddish Forward" and mail to:
the Yiddish Forward, 45 E. 33rd st, NY NY 10016
or order on line at our website: http://yiddish.forward.com.
Information: 212-889-8200 x400
30
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
Discover the World of
Yiddish Writers through Film
‚¯Ú·„σ‚ Ú˘Ëȇ
progressive educator, poet,
editor and literary critic
Itche Goldberg:
A Century of Yiddish Letters
LEARN TO PLAY
KLEZMER MUSIC
IMPROVISING IN
THE TRADITION
(For All Instruments)
taught by
ANDY
STATMAN
with
ZEV ZIONS,
ACCORDION
A Josh Waletzky film
Yiddish with English subtitles
Produced by the League for Yiddish
First in the series
Worlds within a World:
Conversations with Yiddish Writers
Available for purchase at Epes Center
VHS or DVD – $30.00
You may also order
„ÈÏËÒ·¯ÿ‰ ∫ÔÿÓÒÚ˃‚≠¯ÚËÎÚ˘ ÚÏÈÈ·
Beyle Schaechter Gottesman:
Autumn Song
Pick up order form at Epes Center
League for Yiddish,
Publishers of Afn Shvel, A Yiddish
magazine for the 21st century
45 E. 33rd St. #203
New York, New York 10016
[email protected]
www.leagueforyiddish.org
Khaveyrim
Nina and David Rogow
Learn from a master musician! Andy Statman
teaches this exciting style, with its compelling
melodies and rich ornamentation, providing
history, musical insights and all the nuances
needed to perform it correctly. Songs: Purim
Niggun, Moshe Emes (Breslev Niggun), Meron
Niggun and The Old Sher.
80-minute DVD $29.95
Includes music
Visit our website or call for a free catalog listing hundreds of lessons
on DVD and CD: 845-246-2550 or 1-800-338-2737
Homespun, Box 340, Woodstock, NY 12498
www.homespun.com
Fraynd
Larry Lesh
www.klezkamp.org
31
New Releases from
www.Yiddishlandrecords.com:
“Fli, Mayn Flishlang”
Original Yiddish Children’s by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman
A Progressive Jewish Magazine
founded in 1946
Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman was awarded the National Heritage
Fellowship in 2005 by the NEA, the first Yiddish poet to be so honored!
“Yiddish Songs for the Soul”
performed by singer and Yiddish actor, Hy Wolfe
“On The Paths: Yiddish Songs With the Tsimbl”
with Rebecca Kaplan and Pete Rushefsky
“Bay Mayn Mames Shtibele”
Yiddish Folksongs sung by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman
“Af Di Gasn fun Der Shtot”
Original Yiddish songs by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman
It’s not just for
your bobe any more
— even if she’s an
extremely hep bobe.
Hear the best singers and musicians on these recordings,
including: Michael Alpert, Adrienne Cooper, Frank
London, Lorin Sklamberg, Theresa Tova, Deborah
Strauss, Pete Rushefsky, Binyumin Schaechter, Paula
Teitelbaum, Jeanette Lewicki, Henry Carrey, Sharon
Bernstein, Margot Leverett.
KlezKampers can subscribe for
$20 per year — a 33% discount!
Visit us at www.jewishcurrents.org.
Creative Seminars
Conference Recording
Audio Recordings from past KlezKamps
and many other programs of interest
Visit our website at www.cstapes.com
32
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
In memory of
Joseph and Muriel Bases
Presenting the new
memorial album
AT
NCE
TION SI
R A DI
+
1982
Shura Volovets
KLEZMER BAND
Music is my Life
Yiddish songs of social significance
& traditional dance music –
for concerts, weddings, bar/bas mitzve.
See our website for guides to music &
dance for traditional celebrations.
CDs at EpesCenter or by mail.
Yosl Kurland
Wholesale Klezmer Band
www.WholesaleKlezmer.com
, @G,:HUTFDU P HT?
§ÎÂÖÅ»tØÍÉÇÉÚÁÃÂÈ×
This new CD features Shura singing
Yiddish favorites. At EpesCenter
or by mail–$10 + $3 shipping .
Peggy H. Davis Calligraphy
www.HebrewLettering.com
389 Adamsville Rd
Colrain MA 01340
413-624-3204
www.klezkamp.org
33
34
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
Michael Wex, “Born to Kvetch”
“Yiddish-speaking Jews long ago figured out how to express contentment by means of complaint:
kvetching becomes a way of exercising some control over an otherwise hostile environment.”
A. Mameloshn
B. IB Singer
C. Chaim Grade
D. HMS
E. Accede
F. EMS
G. Leo Rosten
H. Wove
I. Entice
J. X-Ray Vision
K. Bialystock
L. Owens
M. RAF
N No Eggs
O. The Joys Of
P. Owning Up To
Q.
R.
S.
T.
U.
V.
Kinder
Vox Populi
Ensign
Twofer
Cement
Hottentot
Answer to the Crostic
(page 16)
Listen to RADIO KLEZKAMP
102.3 FM
‫גריץ משּפחה‬-‫די ּכץ‬
The Katz-Gritz Mishpokhe
from Jewish Currents
the 2006 Moishe Katz Award
Winner of
HENRY SAPOZNIK
We are delighted to congratulate
t
n
i
r
tp
s
e
W
re
e
h
es
o
g
Ad
www.klezkamp.org
35
36
KlezKamp 2006: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
KlezKamp 2006:
The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
Sponsored by Living Traditions
45 E. 33rd Street, Suite B-2A
New York City, NY 10016
(212) 532-8202 (phone) • (212) 532-8238 (fax)
[email protected]
www.klezkamp.org or www.klezkamp.com
Henry “Hank” Sapoznik, Founder/Executive Director
Sherry Mayrent, Associate Director, KlezKamp
Sabina Brukner, Associate Director, Living Traditions
Judith Bro Pinhasik, Associate Director for Development
Dan Peck, Operations
Laura Wernick, Technical Director
Faith Jones, Archivist and Editor
Living Traditions is supported by a development grant from
the Corners Fund for Traditional Cultures
Living Traditions, founded in 1994, is dedicated to the celebration and continuity of community-based traditional Yiddish culture. Living Traditions brings the lush bounty of Yiddish culture
to new generations in ways both inspiring and relevant to contemporary Jewish life. Not as a
symbol of a lost world, or as a “duty to perpetuate” but as a meaningful part of one’s active
personal identity in a multi-cultural world. Living Traditions places a high value on cultural
literacy by presenting Yiddish music, dance, history, folklore, crafts and visual arts through
its classes, publications, recordings and documentaries as well as through KlezKamp. Living
Traditions thus encourages the development of a worldwide Jewish community knowledgably
steeped in its language, culture and traditions, too often forgotten in modern Jewish life.
Living Traditions is a non-profit organization under section 501 c (3) of the Internal Revenue
Code. Gifts to Living Traditions are tax-deductible to the extent provided by law.
The 2006 KlezKamp is dedicated
to the memory of our friend and teacher
German Goldenshteyn a”h
In his honor we announce the release at KlezKamp
of “From the Repertoire of German Goldenshteyn”
transcriptions of 100 of his freylekhs, horas, khosidls
and sirbas including the 20 featured on his CD “A
Living Tradition” recorded at last year’s KlezKamp.
www.germangoldenshteyn.com