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FOR THE PRESENT AND FUTURE GENERATIONS

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 JANUARY 2012

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THE FILMS OF TOMEK WISNIEWSKI:
Poland: Bialstyok, Hajnowka, Orla.
The fourth new film is a two-minute presentation of a scan of a synagogue photo, cir 1940, but the town location of the synagogue is unknown. If anyone can positively identify this synagogue and/or its town location, please contact the Museum.
 

THE SYNAGOGUES OF EUROPE: PAST AND PRESENT:
--Belarus: Molchad and Slonim.
--Netherlands: Monnickendam.
--Switzerland: Berne
and Biel-Bienne.
--Turkey: Izmir.


THE YIDDISH WORLD:
--Zalmen Zylbercweig's seven-volume (six were published) "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre": These volumes are currently being translated, mostly by yours truly at present, and to date more than half of the more than 2,800 biographies have been translated into English. These will be made available within the next few months.

It is hoped that I will find Yiddish-English translators who will volunteer to help me further this project. I have also created a spreadsheet of all those listed within these many volumes, and on this spreadsheet besides the person's name is their birth and death date, town/country of birth and the number of the page on which the biography appears in the original, hardcover book. I am simply waiting for someone to step forward to volunteer to create a searchable database for the museum that will be, when finished, available to all.

--Zylbercweig and his wife Celia, between the years 1949 and 1969 had their own recording studio in the back of their Los Angeles home and produced a Yiddish Radio Hour for those many years. With the cooperation of his stepdaughter, the Museum is working in cooperation with YIVO (Yiddish Institute for Jewish Research) to convert nearly seventy reel-to-reel and cassette tapes (which have to some degree degraded over these many years) into a format that can be listened to by our museum visitors. The Museum will be, by the beginning of 2012, launching it's own radio "station", and will be making available online various radio programs and other audio segments once broadcast, not only during Zylbercweig's Radio Hour, but other radio programs as the "Al Jolson Lifebuoy Program" and others now found in the public domain.

Most of the Zylbercweig radio programs are in Yiddish, but there are some with English segments that will be enjoyed by those who cannot translate spoken Yiddish. It is the Museum's wish that a simultaneous English translation be made available for all Yiddish-language programs, but alas, such volunteers are very difficult to come by, so for now it will only be a "fervent wish". However, those who can understand Yiddish, they will enjoy the experience of hearing Yiddish spoken (and sung) so beautifully.

--The Museum is also compiling a list of all Yiddish plays once staged on the American stage. This list will include (when given) The name of the play (English and Yiddish), the season during which the play was performed, the date of its first performance, the cast members, the theatre name and the town and state in which the theatre was located. All inquiries may be directed to the Museum. Other such lists are being prepared, including performances at the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Rumania and Russia, the Vilna Troupe et al.

 I am hoping that at some point the Museum will be the greatest online source of information about the history of Yiddish theatre found anywhere on the Internet. I will announce all as my project progresses....

--The Museum is also preparing a virtual tour of its "Lives in the Yiddish Theatre" exhibition, which will include tributes by family members of those once involved with the Yiddish theatre; not only photos and descriptive text, but also audio tributes. Each family will have its own "room", and it will be displayed as such, i.e. you will have little difficulty imagining that you are in a "real" museum and are viewing photographs, plaques, descriptions, on a rooms four "walls".

Please look for announcements, either posted by the Museum on different discussion groups or on its blog. You should also consider signing up for "Perspectives", the Museum's e-newsletter, to receive the latest news and updates.
 

WORLD JEWISH COMMUNITIES:

--Czernowitz, Ukraine: On its Photographic Studios page, more photographs taken at Czernowitz photographic studios pre-World War I have now been included.

--Zambrow, Poland: The latest English-language installment of the Zambrow Yizkor Book has been uploaded to the Museum's website. The English translation of the Zambrow Yizkor Book can only be found at the Museum of Family History. There will be more to come in the next few months. You can find the newest installment by clicking here.


LINKS:

--Sumter, South Carolina cemetery database.
 


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