Music: Whose Christmas is it?

Musician and author Michael Feinstein’s New York Times op-ed – Whose Christmas Is It? – is an interesting read, focused on the fact that much popular Christmas music was written by Members of the Tribe.

Tracing the Tribe has written on this previously; click here.

Read Feinstein’s piece here. He addresses a weekend of Christmas concerts he did about 10 years ago, accompanied by a California regional symphony. He played a program of holiday classics the first night, but before the second concert, an orchestra board representative told him the program was “too Jewish.” There had been complaints.

What provoked the complaints? Feinstein had mentioned the first night between numbers that almost all popular Christmas songs were written by Jews.

He opened the second concert with “We Need a Little Christmas,” by MOT Jerry Herman.

Feinstein also mentions the evolution of Christmas as demonstrated in its music, which is more secular, and about Santa, sleighs and reindeer.

Yet I also hope that those who feel this encroachment will on some level understand that the spirit of the holiday is universal. We live in a multicultural time and the mixing, and mixing up, of traditions is an inevitable result. Hence we have the almost century-old custom of American Jews creating a lot more Christmas music than Hanukkah music.

Here’s Feinstein’s list of some of the most popular Christmas songs, written by other MOTs.

Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” Mel Tormé’s “The Christmas Song,” “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Silver Bells,” “Santa Baby,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Winter Wonderland.” Most were written for Tin Pan Alley and appeared in sheet music, not in a show or film.

However, Feinstein says Israel Baline’s – excuse me, Irving Berlin’s – “White Christmas was introduced in the film, “Holiday Inn,” while another classic, “Silver Bells” appeared in “The Lemon Drop Kid.”

Read why some very famous Jewish songwriters are not in this list, such as Jerome Kern, the Gershwins, Richard Rodgers and Harold Arlen.

Feinstein shares his idea of seasonal expressions:

It doesn’t take Freud to figure out that the sugarplums, holly and mistletoe all tap into a sense of comfort, longing, security and peace that so many fervently desire; that we all wish the clichés were true. As Jews, Christians, Muslims, Mormons, Buddhists and everything in between, we are all more alike than we are different.

Read Feinstein’s complete piece at the link above, as well as Tracing the Tribe’s post.

Romania: Jewish Museum genealogy resources

There is a Jewish museum in Bucharest, detailed as part of a website devoted to the country’s past and present Jewish life.

If your research includes this once-large Jewish presence in many population centers, Tracing the Tribe highly recommends this website. The museum section of the site details the displays of community history and how it preserves the past. Read below for more details of the exhibits.

According to the site, it is sponsored by B’nai B’rith International (Washington DC), The Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania, Embassy of Romania (Washington DC) and the US Agency for International Development.

Genealogical Treasures

Genealogically, the website and the museum are useful for those searching for details about Romanian Jewish families. Numerous names of individuals and families appear in every section. As one example, in the section on Jewish financiers, viewers can read about the families of Bercovitz, Manoah, Halfon, Daniel, Marmorosh and Blank.

The history details the country’s political and geographical history through the Holocaust and today’s community. The sections – each contain many names – are literature (Romanian, Yiddish), science, press, music, Judaica (silversmiths, objects, architecture, textiles and gold/silver embroidery), fine art, theater (posters, costumes, photos), religious life (personalities, institutions, buildings, synagogue models).

The Community Archive offers Micro-monographies (also accessible through the Jewish Reality section), providing numerous detailed articles on Romanian communities, with history, names and more; and Genealogy research (currently under construction and looking for donors).
There is – click here for the Romanian-only collection – a list of Jewish entrepreneurs in Moldavia (register of documents for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the National Archives, Iasi county division, 1879-1950). See below.

Also, only in Romanian, is the list of Jews in Romania’s first university 1860-1950. See below.
There is also a Family Roots section with information on surnames taken from various records, including Holocaust records held at the USHMM in Washington, DC.

For an interesting overview of what you might discover, choose letter C and click on Cohn for a long list of individuals from various record groups. Be aware that data for each person varies:

Choose ACTION (far right column), and see all the information for a person (address, job, marital status and more), and click at the bottom to see other family members. When we click on Moise Cohn (second in the list above) we see:

And, when we “click here to view all family members,” we see:

The Romanian community included both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, who arrived in the 16th century. By 1715, there was a synagogue and by the 20th century, synagogues and ritual baths were common. When the Nazis came to power, the community was decimated, many Jewish buildings and institutions were destroyed.

The museum – established on January 15, 1978 – is located in one of the few surviving synagogue buildings. Built in 1850, the building was the Holy Union synagogue, known also as the Tailors’ Synagogue, on Mamulari Street in the Vacaresti neighborhood.

Originally called the Museum of Romanian Jewish communities, today it is the Museum of Romanian Jewish History, named for the prominent Chief Rabbi Dr. Moses Rosen, who served from 1948-1994. He founded the magazine Revista Cultului Mozaic (Mosaic Cult Magazine) in 1956, served as leader of the Federation of Jewish Communities from 1964, and a documentation center on the history of the Romanian Jews was established in 1977.

Rosen’s activities were meant to counter the trend of forcing the remaining Jews to forget their ethnic and religious identity and disappear as an ethnic group. The museum demonstrated the creative Jewish presence in every sector of Romanian culture and society.

In its current form, the museum offers a systematic outline of Jewish history in Romanian lands.

Thousands of exhibits reflect the communal, cultural life of the Jews; their economic, social, and political integration with Romanian society; their scientific, literary, and artistic creations-indicating a rich multi-centennial Jewish activity within the circumstances of Romanian history.

The ground floor traces the political, cultural, and eco­nomic evolution of Romanian Jewry from the 14th-20th centuries, along with information on historical roots to ancient Judea and the Roman conquest in the 1st century CE.

A replica of a bas relief from Emperor Titus’ triumphal arch in Rome shows how the Romans chased the Jews from Judea leading to their dispersion around the world, mainly into Europe. A number of archeological findings prove that the wandering sons of Israel, particularly those who served in the Roman troops, occasionally arrived as far as the territory of Roman Dacia.

Medieval Sephardic Jewish world traveler, Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, wrote that he found Jews among the Wlachs, south of the Danube River, and the community was on the map.

Sections of the site include the museum exhibits on Jewish history in Romania, 14th-19th centuries, Jewish life in the early 20th century and contributions to culture and science. Included are maps, portraits, documents, edicts, and economic life.

There are models of old synagogues from the three Danube-Carpathian principali­ties. They include the 500-year-old timber synagogue in Piatra Neamt, the fortress-synagogue in Iasi cited in late 17th-century chronicles, the Sephardic synagogue in Bucharest, and more.

Sections of the website include: Jewish Heritage Trail (a map of community locations), Jewish history chronology, Bucharest’s Jewish community, the Tailor’s Synagogue history, sections on community leaders, rabbis and the work of community institutions, such as the Federation.

This site is well worth a look for readers looking for information on the Romanian Jewish community, past and present.

UK: Miriam Margoyles’ perfect weekend

One of Jewish genealogy’s most well-known UK personalities is actress Miriam Margoyles, a regular at the annual international Jewish genealogy conferences.

The UK Telegraph just ran a focus story on her “perfect weekend,” which includes exploring cemeteries – with which all genealogists can certainly identify – along with a plug for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain.

I try to get the most out of the weekend. I make more hours than most people because I don’t sleep well. I get up about 4am. It’s the perfect time to do a few exercises, but I allow myself not to do them. I go immediately to my computer and I do genealogy for hours, until it is a reasonable time to contact other people.

Towards the end of the story, after she lists her other favorite weekend activities, she adds:

If there’s nothing suitable at the cinema, I love exploring a cemetery. There’s a wonderful one at Brompton Road. I enjoy reading the gravestones and imagining other people’s lives.

However, my main hobby is genealogy, probably because I haven’t got any brothers or sisters, and if there is a Jewish Genealogical Society meeting on a Sunday afternoon, I will go to that.

In addition to Jewish genealogy, some of her other favorite things include going to the cinema, exploring cemeteries, a portrait of her father and her grandmother’s foot stool.

Read the complete story at the link above.

New Hampshire: Living 1919 again!

Tracing the Tribe loves living museums where people and businesses recreate ordinary life as it was in a particular historical period. Williamsburg (Virginia) is one of those places I could visit every year!

In New Hampshire, the Strawbery Banke restoration is a living museum demonstrating some 350 years of preserved Portsmouth homes, stores, churches and history. It’s located in Puddle Dock, a rundown neighborhood that was supposed to be torn down for urban renewal. Fortunately, a 1950s-60s campaign, led by the town’s librarian, saved 42 houses on 10 acres for the museum.

And there’s a Jewish element to the restoration as actor Barbara Ann Paster plays Shiva Shapiro in 1919.

According to this New York Times article, the area was settled in 1623 by the English and named after the wild strawberries they found there. In the early 20th century, the Italians, Irish, English, French-Canadians and Eastern European Jews came to find work. By 1919, there were some 152 Russian Jews, about 25% of the immigrants of Puddle Dock; 18 of them were Shapiro relatives.

“Shlom Aleichem!” Shiva Shapiro said in a heavy Yiddish accent to her visitors.

As she deftly stuffed cabbage leaves with rice and stewed tomatoes, and displayed other dishes she has made on her 1900 Beauty Hub coal stove, Ms. Shapiro drew her guests into her life.

“This is 1919,” she said. “Last year was the end of the influenza epidemic and the end of the war to end all wars. We’re a Jewish family and we’re keeping kosher in our home. I don’t read English, only Yiddish and Hebrew. My daughter Mollie learned about bananas at school. I think that bananas are mushy, but I take her to buy a hand of bananas for 25 cents.”

In her persona as Shapiro, Paster’s cooking follows the seasons and the Jewish calendar. She makes strawberry jam, pickles cucumbers with dill and puts up peaches with brandy. For Rosh Hashana, she made pasta dough strips into bowtie noodles for her kasha, as well as honey and poppy seed cakes.

Mrs. Paster, 61, has been portraying Mrs. Shapiro since the Shapiro house opened in 1997. “My entire life was made for this job,” Mrs. Paster said with a laugh. “I married an Orthodox man. I’m Jewish from Russia, so I know the rules of kashrut and family purity. I am also a storyteller.”

The first Mrs. Shapiro arrived in 1905 from Anapol, Ukraine to meet her future husband from the same town in Portsmouth where Abraham worked in a shoe factory and later was the Portsmouth synagogue’s president.

As Shapiro, Paster portrays a 34-year-old woman whose time is spent in a kitchen with coal stove and icebox. The museum staff were very careful about the historical accuracy of the foods Shapiro/Paster prepared and what items the family actually would have had available.

“To authenticate the Shapiro house,” said Michelle Moon, director of education for the museum, “the curatorial staff interviewed 30 people from the neighborhood and took pollen and seed analyses to determine what grew and was eaten in their home.”

The immigrants brought seeds of traditional vegetables such as yellow Ukrainian carrots, kale, parsnips, yellow Ukrainian tomatoes and others. Seed catalogs of 1919 included Russian cucumbers and yellow Zubrinski potatoes, which now grow there. Read about Strawbery Banke’s historic gardens and heirloom seeds here, which offers information on the Shapiro Garden:

The Shapiro Garden is a recreated Russian Jewish immigrant family’s garden of 1919. It is representative of the many small urban gardens planted by the different ethnicities that made up the early 20th-century Puddle Dock neighborhood. The Shapiros used their garden to propagate many types of vegetables, such as heirloom cabbage, garlic, breadseed poppy, hyssop and yellow Ukrainian tomatoes, which helped to preserve the diet and culture of their homeland.

In the nearby town of Greenland, Jewish farmers even grew buckwheat (kasha), an immigrant staple.

If you are ever near Portsmouth, take some time to visit Strawbery Banke.

Lithuania: Panevezys conference, memorial, Sept. 24

An international conference and memorial dedication, dedicated to the thousand-year history of Lithuania, European Jewish heritage days and the Panevezys region Jewish community, will be held September 24 at the Panevezys Jewish Cemetery.

It begins at 10am with registration and talks will be held at the city’s municipal building.

The program, in chronological order, includes:

– Simonas Gurevicius: Conference Opening
– Joana Viga Ciplyte: Fragments of Jewish history of the region
– Gennady Koffman: The history and fate of the Panevezys Jewish Cemetery
– A 1932 film about the Jews of Panevezys
– Israeli Ambassador Chen Ivri Apter and Panevezys Mayor Povilas Vadopolas: Award ceremony of the Righteous among the Nations
– Unveiling of the “Grieving Jewish Mother” memorial, Remembrance Square.
– Lunch at the Jewish community hall
– Tour of the city and its Jewish history
– Exhibit Opening: History of Panevezys Jews
– Book Presentation: J.V. Ciplytes, “Small Jerusalema: History of Panevezys Jews.”

On the evening of September 25, there will be a play, “Always Yours, Anne Frank,” based on the Goodrich/Hackett play, “Diary of Anne Frank,” by the Juozo Miltinio Drama Theatre, along Jewish folk music.

Partners and sponsors include the city and regional municipalities, Jewish Community of Lithuania, Embassy of Israel, Embassy of Russian Federation, American Fund for the Jews of Lithuania and Latvia, Lithuania’s departments of cultural heritage and national minorities and others.

Also listed are some 30 individuals, some of whom are familiar to Jewish genealogists, such as Howard Margol, Deborah R. Kaye, Dr. Charles B. Nam and many others.