The Excitement is Spreading

This morning, Henry Sapoznik and I gave the first session of our class introducing Living Traditions' online digital archive project to the world, and it was a great experience. We told the story of how the project came to be, which is also contained in an excellent article in this year's KlezKamp Zhurnal. One of the best moments was when I played "before" and "after" clips of a couple of tunes. The "before" clip was from the kind of transfer of a 78 rpm record that is commonly circulated among interested parties who don't have access to professionally remastered reissues; the after clip was from the transfer made by the engineer for this project, Chris King, who is a genious at making both words and music intelligible. Jaws dropped in a very gratifying fashion.

I was also able to share images of some of the beautiful labels on these old records. Here's an example of one particular colorful image from a recording of Belf's Rumanian Orchestra made in Rumania about 1908. The writing is in cyrillic, which is the alphabet used by Russian and Ukrainian.

This project, which will make as many extant Yiddish recordings as I can locate widely available at nominal cost, feels almost as important a contribution to the preservation and dissemination of Yiddish culture as KlezKamp itself, and it was clear from the reactions of the students in class today that they immediately "got" this. There can be nothing more gratifying. I can't wait till tomorrow's class, where we're going to be playing examples of Eastern European khazns (cantors) accompanied by choruses.

Monday morning at KlezKamp

AM2 classes are going on right now as I write this. KlezKamp's first full day is well under way. Most of the crises have been taken care of and folks are gathered all over the hotel doing the business of KlezKamp, learning and sharing all aspects of Yiddish music and culture. This is happening after a night of spirited dancing, singing and music last night. The EpesCenter is almost set to open with an amazing array of klezmer and Yiddish related goods, not to mention the KK22 t-shirts and sweatshirts featuring the ever-popular faux-Magritte Dos iz nisht keyn beygl cover to the catalogue.


I'm looking forward to hearing Henry Sapoznik interview his fellow founder of the klezmer revival, Andy Statman, later this afternoon during our forshpayz period before dinner. We're really fortunate that Andy will be here teaching master classes in clarinet and mandolin. I first heard him play on the Vaserl record of new Yiddish songs which was recorded in the mid-70s and have enjoyed his playing ever since.

I'm also looking forward to the German Goldenshteyn Memorial Concert, which is tonight's evening activity. All of the musicians who recorded with German at KlezKamp last year will be playing in his memory. That recording session yielded the wonderful recording German Goldenshteyn: A Living Tradition, which is a fitting tribute to German, who died this past June. One of the best things about KlezKamp is the opportunity to meet and get to know amazing people such as German Goldenshteyn. We miss him terribly but his music was heard all over the lobby last night so he is still with us.

Klezkamp Day 1

wow...it has started...the rush of people coming to register was a sight to be seen...the hotel is transformed into one giant klezmer concert...

the deep sounds of Pete talking with the paino
the smell of Kosher salmon wafting from the kitchen
and the sight of babies in their pj's running wild through the lobby.
Sabina sitting at her large computer...
the people just kept coming...
and coming
and coming...poor Sabina no rest for the weary.
Michael Wex is quietly sitting behind (or maybe in front...)a large green plant...
"Where's Wex" seems the game to play at this moment.
Wait...pause...another question to answer..."yes the bathrooms are across the lobby."
I sit at the Epes Center plunking away this quick blog entry...
the day must be recorded. Day 1 is always the busiest...

On the way to KlezKamp

There is lots of work involved to set up KlezKamp and some of us arrive at the hotel on Saturday to help set up. The office in New York pretty much gets packed up and moved up to the hotel. The state of the office would not make my mother happy.



Amber Feldman came early and helped me organize the mess.

Then our Operations Manager, King of the EpesCenter and ride up to the hotel, Dan Peck, arrived. It had been some time since Amber and Dan had seen each other:



We packed the car up tight and even managed to squeeze Amber in:



But we had to make an important stop along the way, one without which KlezKamp just is not the same:





We made it to the hotel. We were surprised to find that instead of the nearly empty hotel we were promised, the hotel was fully booked with over 700 khasidim, making our theme of Hasidish Yiddish wildly ironic.

But seeing our friends makes everything worthwhile.





A posting on Day One of KlezKamp will follow soon.

Wexes Are In the House

My house, that is. Those who remember last year's panic when the Wexes' plane was delayed because LaGuardia was fogged in, causing them to miss the bus and finally arrive half-starved at midnight, will be delighted to hear that they arrived safely in New York yesterday. Sad to say, most of the panic wasn't actually about the Wexes' comfort or safety but about 75 students enrolled in "Wexology" and "Daytsh af tselakhis" who were worried about getting their full Wex fix at Kamp. In fact, Rill (on the right) has gone up to the hotel today to help set up the kids' program, while Wex and Sabina will be on the bus tomorrow. Unless Brooklyn gets fogged in too.

Many people know that Wex's new book will be out, God willing, in time for Kamp next year. Meanwhile, Born to Kvetch will be at the Epes Center in hard- and soft-cover, and the audiobook, read by Wex himself, means you can feed your Jones until then.

Zayt zeks זײַט זעקס (Page Six)

One of the nice things about the days leading up to KlezKamp is that I get to see KlezKamp staff in person, not just through email or phone conversations. Today was a triple crown day.

First, Alex Kontorovich stopped by the office to pick up the placement recordings sent in by students. Alex can always be seen reading a learned treatise:


Later, Vera Sokolow and I met in Long Island City at the warehouse of a wonderful organization, Materials for the Arts, which supplies donated materials and equipment to non-profit arts organizations. As you can see, we found lots of goodies which we will use at KlezKamp, especially in the children's program, of which Vera is co-director.


We loaded the supplies into a car driven by yet another KlezKamp faculty member, the one-and-only Pete Sokolow.

We are grateful to Materials for the Arts, an agency of the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, and to its donors for their generosity.

I returned to the office in time to see more KlezKampers in the building on the occasion of the Workmen's Circle gala, which was being held on the first floor. Michael Wex was the featured speaker and he was nice enough to come down and sign some copies of Born to Kvetch for my brother. With him was my former Camp Hemshekh bunkmate and KlezKamp staffer, Joanne Borts, who is also on the Workmen's Circle board.

It was great to see so many KlezKampers staff members today and it made me look forward even more to seeing everyone at KlezKamp on Sunday.

A Creative Project, of Sorts

Over the years I have taken numerous pictures of people asleep on sofas, chairs, and floors in the middle of the KlezKamp bustle. New attendees are well forewarned to pace yourselves. It is tempting to try to do it all. These KlezKampers did, and you see where they ended up. My apologies for the quality of some of these shots. I was working without flash so as not to wake the victims, urm, subjects of these pictures.

History will be made at this KlezKamp

We choose a theme for KlezKamp each year around which we organize many of our classes. This year's theme, Hasidish Yiddish, is particularly apt as so much of the future of Yiddish language and culture is tied to its use in the Hasidic community. There need not be a divide between the religious and secular Yiddish worlds. We hope at this KlezKamp to explore the ways in which Yiddish culture survives in all aspects of the Yiddish-speaking and Yiddish-loving community.

One of our special guests at KlezKamp will be Y.Y. Jacobson, the young editor of the Algemeiner Journal (Algemeyner Zhurnál),דער אלגעמײנער זשורנאל, the main Yiddish newspaper geared for the Hasidic community, but which is of interest to all Yiddish speakers. He will give a lecture in the forshpayz period before dinner on Wednesday. His joining us at KlezKamp is a truly historic event, a bridging of what should not be, but is, a gulf between Yiddish communities.

We were put in contact with Rabbi Jacobson through my former Yiddish teacher, Prof. Dovid Katz, who is now research director of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute at the University of Vilnius in Vilne, Lithuania (see www.judaicvilnius.com and www.dovidkatz.net). This was truly fortuitous for all of us. Dovid writes:

Dear Henry and Sabina,

I was honored to be invited this year and was so sorry I couldn't be in the States for these dates, but wanted you to know how much I appreciate your thinking of me, and look forward to working together in years to come.

And, I wanted to extend warm congratulations on your wonderful program. Given the very timely topic (Hasidic Yiddish), I was particularly thrilled that the brilliant 34 year old Y. Y. Jacobson, editor of a major international Yiddish weekly that reaches tens of thousands of Yiddish readers, has been included in the program as a featured speaker. Actually, he is the sensation of the world of Yiddish today: When Gershon Jacobson (1934-2005), the founding editor of the Algemeyner Zhurnál (Algemeiner Journal), passed away in the spring of 2005, folks were kind of sure that his death would mean the end of the Zhurnál (itself heir to the Tog - Morgn Zhurnal). Instead, the youngest of his five children, Yosef Yitschok (“YY”), not quite 33 at the time, rapidly took over as editor-in-chief (and older brother Simon stepped in as publisher) and never has a week been missed. In the year and a half since then, Y.Y. Jacobson has emerged as (for me) the most inspiring personality, writer, and editor in the world of Yiddish of the last generation. It’s been an exquisite pleasure to write for the Zhurnál on a near weekly basis and to be in touch with such an authentic, substantial and sharp readership.

Under Y.Y. Jacobson’s editorship, the paper has been publishing an increasing number of authors from the secular world of Yiddish, including (to take some examples from recent weeks) Mordechai Bauman (Boston), Sholem Berger (New York), Khariton Berman (Kiev), Daniel Galay (Tel Aviv), Dobke Jonis (Vilnius), Dov-Ber Kerler (Bloomington), Moyshe Loyev (NY), and Simkhe Simkhovitsh (Toronto). Moreover, in partnership with the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, the Zhurnál has been publishing (and putting up on its website in digital form, for the use of Yiddish teachers, students and readers everywhere) classic works of modern Yiddish literature. Authors published to date include Sholem Aleichem, Shmerke Katsherginski, Moyshe Kulbak, Leyb Naydus and Y. L. Peretz, whose writing is being enjoyed by tens of thousands of living, current Yiddish readers. And, contrary to some popular misconceptions, much of the new haredi writing published is itself dynamic, daring, youthful, internally diverse, vibrant with the authentic living Yiddish spirit of our new century, one that is eerily a direct heir to our beloved Yiddish classics of the last century and a half.

So, my warmest congratulations to the organizers for extending to the youngest (and I’d say, most talented) Yiddish editor in the world today the reciprocal hand of friendship in the common cause of serious Yiddish language, literature and culture. I’m confident that this event at KlezKamp, in a spirit of mutual respect and frank and open dialogue, will be a date of historic note in the contemporary history of Yiddish, coming as it will to symbolize the long-overdue secular-haredi Yiddish junction.

With warmest regards from the already freezing Vilna
and every good wish for a wonderful, successful event

Dovid


I, for one, can't wait.

Why we do what we do

Earlier this week, I was at a meeting involving “alumni” of a mainstream Jewish program which purports to encourage Jewish continuity by sending American Jewish young people on trips to Israel. The participants were well-meaning, well-educated American Jewish young people who were there to help a Yiddish organization (not Living Traditions) develop its website.

It was depressing.

These young people, who are supposedly the best and the brightest success stories of American Jewish education, literally did not know what Yiddish was, except as the butt of self-deprecating jokes. Nowhere in their years of Hebrew school, JCC programs, synagogue youth groups, college Hillel programs or their trips to Israel, did they learn about it or to respect it. The fact that their grandparents or great-grandparents likely spoke the language or lived their lives in Yiddish was lost on them. Those of us at the meeting who spoke Yiddish to each other were asked to speak Yiddish on videotape like the objects of some terribly ironic anthropological expedition.

What these young people also did not know was that the benefactor of the program which sponsored their trips to Israel was once asked if he would consider supporting Living Traditions, to which he answered that he would gladly give money to support the destruction of Yiddish. I can only assume he does not know that alumni of his program are helping a Yiddish organization.

Living Traditions and KlezKamp are means by which we treasure the legacy that these young people have been taught to ignore, as if there were no Jewish culture between the destruction of the Temple and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. We love and respect Eastern European Jewish culture and its language, Yiddish. We find our connection to the generations that came before us by honoring and passing down the music, arts, literature, foodways, and other traditions of that world and integrating them into our lives today. Two weeks from today, hundreds of us will be getting together to celebrate and honor that culture.

That is anything but depressing.

tick...tick..tick....

The plethora of help I'm getting putting KK together gives me time to catch up on playing my Bacon professional 5 string banjo which just came back from the shop. (Wow! What a difference....!) AND preparing for my class with Sherry Mayrent on the new Living Traditions Online Digital Sound Archives. I've been ploughing through Sherry's mind numbing catalog of some 3,000 78s she's collected (more since the catalog was made) and choosing some weird, rare and just plain amazing recordings for the class. Current faves: Joseph Feldman's 1925 "Fun Schlechte Chaverim Tsum Electric Chair" (From Bad Friends to...you know where.), Anna Hoffman's ribald 1923 "Froyen Nacht in a Terkishe Bath" ("Ladies Night you know where....), an extremely rare 1901 Kol Nidre by pioneeering recording cantor Selmar Cerini and a bunch of really kicking Belf klezmer discs. And about 30 more.
I do have to get some fretted instrument playing in. I still have to restring my '39 Epiphone New Yorker archtop guitar in anticipation of the Ray Musiker CD we're recording at KlezKamp this year. (Haven't played it since Pete and I disbanded Klezmer Plus! nearly five years ago...) Pete tells me his meeting with Ray on repertoire was really exciting and he even coaxed out a tango Ray hasn't played in decades in addition to some wonderful tunes made famous by his older and late brother Sammy.

Who can wait?

Update from KlezKamp Central

Things are moving fast and furious here at the Living Traditions office, deep in the basement of the Workmen's Circle building, as we head towards KlezKamp at the end of the month. We may not have windows, light or fresh air but we do have a lot of enthusiasm for what looks to be a terrific KlezKamp.

First things first: It is not too late to sign up for KlezKamp! We still have space and hope that you will join us at the Hudson Valley Resort from December 24-29 for KlezKamp 22. Don't forget that we also have a wonderful children's program, so bring your kids and grandkids (kids- bring your parents and grandparents!) and experience our intergenerational Yiddish Folk Arts Program together. There are links to the important KlezKamp information on the left-hand side of this page. Call us at the office (212) 532-8202 or write us at info@livingtraditions.org if you have any questions or need additional information.

Those of us planning this event can easily become אױסגעקלעזקעמפּט (oysgeklezkempt = KlezKamped-out) during these final weeks leading up to the event. (I've likened it to planning a destination wedding (with classes) for 500-- and everyone is the mother of the bride.) But it is all well worth it to bring our wonderful KlezKamp community together for the 22nd straight year. Please join us.

We hope to see you at KlezKamp!

Klez Kamp Epes Center: New This Year

This will be an exciting year at the Epes Center. We will have many new items on the shelves. A partial list:

German Goldenshteyn/ A Living Tradition (CD): This is the CD that was recorded in an unused bedroom at last year's Kamp and has become a phenomenon. It has become all the more important because we lost our wonderful friend German to a heart attack in June. The music is astounding, like nothing you've ever heard. It has made the Grammy nominating list in 3 categories.

German Goldenshteyn Repertoire (Book): Cookie Segelstein amd Alex Kantorovich have labored long and hard to have the book of German's music ready for this year's Kamp. Proceeds from the sale of the book and CD go to German's family.

Zvee Scooler/Der Grammeister (CD): Another new release from Living Traditions, this is a compilation of the Yiddish theater's great actor featuring radio performances, poetry and even commercials.

Klezmer Music/A Social History (Book) : The long awaited paperback edition of Henry Sapoznik's seminal work is finally available, this time with an included music CD.

As in recent years, we will also be offering CDs of the evening concerts the day after they happen.

Putting the Zhurnal to bed

I've just about finished work on the KlezKamp Zhurnal, our annual magazine that features articles about Yiddish culture, Living Traditions, our faculty, and this year, for the first time, a crostic puzzle created especially for KlezKamp. Editing the Zhurnal is one of my favorite responsibilities in my role as KlezKamp editor, archivist, and house grammarian.

Just to whet your appetite, here's the table of contents:

• A Tribute to German Goldenshteyn, z"l
• Digital KlezKamp (about a new Living Traditions online music database)
• Hasidic Creativity on Cassette, by Miriam Isaacs (in English and Yiddish, for those practising reading Yiddish)
  
• Hasidic Klezmer in Israel, by Henry Sapoznik
• Our Other Talented Faculty (a look at visual artwork by our crafts and children's faculty)
• My Uncle Zvee, by Isaiah Sheffer (about Zvee Scooler and the new Living Traditions CD of his rhyming radio commentaries)
• Meet the Scholarship Students
• The KlezKamp Crostic, by Rick Winston

It's been great fun putting this together. I was honored to be able to do something to commemmorate my friend, the late German Goldenshteyn, of blessed memory (a picture of us together, with Yitskhok Niborski on the left, is above). In addition, all the articles and features are lively and informative--and I got to do the crostic before almost anybody else (although it was LT Associate Director and puzzle maven Sabina Brukner who took it out for its first spin). But my favorite item of all is the scholarship students.

The scholarship program is now in its second year. Dan Peck, KlezKamp's Operations Manager, sorts through a stack of applications from dozens of interesting, involved young people, all of whom have terrifically compelling reasons for wanting to attend Kamp. From these he must choose only two to whom Living Traditions can offer complete scholarships, a program funded by generous supporters such as yourself. For the second year in a row, the scholarship students are incredibly inspiring. I find their insights and reasons for working with Yiddish culture moving. Here's a small taste of this year's recipients:

Polish student Alicja Głuszek, a PhD candidate who lists Abraham Joshua Heschel as one of her main influences and works as a staff member of the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków; and
Dina Gidon, an organic chemist from St. Petersburg, Russia, who has switched studies to become a collector of Yiddish folklore, particularly in Ukraine.

Add to these amazing accomplishments the fact that they are both under 25, and I'm sure you'll be as floored as I was. I can't wait to meet these two first-time Kampers when we get to Kerhonkson. You can read more about these two young Yiddishists in the Zhurnal (it'll be in your package when you get to Kamp).

If you want to learn more about the KlezKamp scholarship fund, call Sabina in the office; we would love to extend this program to be able to bring more of these inspiring young people to Kamp, to join with the KlezKamp community in our collective learning, and to make our hemshekh more complete.