Der Surrey Mitn Fringe Afn Top

 

I am a huge fan of Rodgers & Hammerstein, as anyone who reads this blog knows. But despite the Jewish backgrounds of both Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, you’d be hard-pressed to find a single Jewish character in their musicals. At least on the surface. I’ve droned on in several posts about the hidden Jewish elements in some of their plays. But what would you say if I told you that the songs from their biggest hits were originally written and recorded in Yiddish? Behold the wonders of Gordon MacRae’s Curly Goldberg and Shirley Jones’ Laurey Weissmann:

Okay, fine, I put that video together myself. After my last post, I better be careful about my claims or no one will ever believe anything I say! The Rodgers & Hammerstein songs in that clip were sung by a man named Seymour Rechtzeit (pronounced—and later spelled—Rexite) who for many years had a radio show in which he and his wife, Miriam Kressyn, translated and sang popular American songs in Yiddish.

I became obsessed with Seymour after hearing him sing on the Yiddish Radio Project, a superb NPR multi-part series that won the Peabody Award in 2002. You can hear some more excerpts of Seymour’s work here. I can’t tell you how often I listen to the CDs of this series and Rechtzeit is my favorite. When I first heard him I wanted to jump on a plane and visit him in his creaky old New York apartment filled with old photos and recordings. He literally invited anyone who was listening to do so, and I’m sure he would’ve talked my ear off for hours with wonderful stories from his days as “The Yiddish Crooner” and his career in Yiddish theatre including a long stint as President of the Hebrew Actors Union.

When I looked Seymour up in the newspaper archives, I was bowled over by the account of how, at nine years old, he so charmed Congress with his singing talents that he got them to reverse the quota of Jews from Poland that were allowed into the U.S. that year in order to get the rest of his family into this country. He was then invited to the White House to sing for President Calvin Coolidge. I was also surprised to find out that he appeared with Yiddish Theatre icon Dina Halperin, a family friend of ours, in her U.S. premiere in 1938. Oh, how I would’ve loved to have talked to him and heard every one of his countless recordings. Alas, Seymour died at the age of 91 shortly after the NPR series aired. Damn it. I pray his photos, scrapbooks, and recordings were donated to an archive that will preserve them forever.

When I was a kid and actually surrounded by Yiddish-speaking people, I couldn’t have been less interested. My great-grandparents, about whom I’ve written often, spoke mostly Yiddish until they died in the 1970s, but I couldn’t be bothered by their Old World ways. Why did I not appreciate all of the living links to such amazing history until it was too late? Is that always the way? Is it too much to expect young people to understand the richness and the gifts of the older generations?

This weekend Leah appeared in a short avant-garde play that culminated a two-week summer camp called the Art Thieves Conservatory. It was like guerilla theatre and I loved every second of it. A traditional version of “Hansel and Gretel” begins when all of a sudden Leah and her fellow campers stormed the stage in jump suits and threw the actors off the stage along with their costumes, scenery, and lights. Armed with only flashlights and props they made while on the stage out of newspaper, foil, and tape, they put on their own revolutionary version of the Hansel and Gretel story. At one point, the actors blurted out the names of the previous generations in their family until they couldn’t go back any further. Hearing her pronounce the names of her great-great grandparents, Itshe Meyer and Alta Toba Korolnek, from that stage sent shivers up my spine. Leah can’t help but be aware of her ancestors for all I blather on about them (and the fact that many of them stare at us from our dining room walls during every meal).

I hope that both she and Charlie take an interest in their family background, whatever form that takes. I never gave the older generations in my family much thought when I was young, and now I realize what treasures they were during that never-to-be-repeated period (at least among American Jews) when the immigrants from the Old Country lived side-by-side with their totally assimilated descendents who were growing up in such a remarkably different way than they had in the shtetls of Poland and Russia.

Here’s another short piece about Seymour Rechtzeit. Oh, how I wish he and the other popular Yiddish personalities of the day were still on the radio, I’d be a devoted listener!

Comments

[susan specter]

Fascinating! I also grew up w/ yiddish speaking grandparents, their first language, and huge fans of yiddish comedy theatre! even if we didn't get into as kids, it sure has influenced us as adults in ways that we now treasure! thank you for sharing, and sam specter by darling grampa who came here as a litle kid, absolutely adored american musical theatre, and Oklahoma was his very favorite!!!!

[Neil]

As you know, I went to a Workmen's Circle summer camp in upstate New York for eight years called Kinder-Ring. (Barbara Boxer, too!) It was a Jewish, but not religious, socialist oriented camp with lessons in Yiddish culture. Which was a bit weird, since most of the campers were third generations well-off Jews from Long Island. I had a great time there, and I still enjoy many of the great Yiddish storytellers, albeit in English translation. During the final year, your "group" put on a teen show to all the other campers. For my year, it was.... yes, Oklahoma. I was one of the Cowmen in the Farmers and Cowmen Should be Friends number. I think someone has some photos on Facebook. I will try to show it to you.

[Frances Archer]

Same story here. My Zeide spoke Yiddish to my mother but I had no interest at all. He was in Pennsylvania so I wasn't surrounded with Yiddish speakers year-round, but still, you'd think I'd at least have shown interest once. Have you seen the Yiddish Book Center website? I've found some interesting (in English) books there.

[Marilyn Molnar]

Dear Danny,
Thanks for the memories.... I too grew up in a yiddish-speaking house and heard all the old records by Yusella Rosenblatt, Moisha Oysher, Molly Picon and many others. Too bad most of our kids have grown up with very little yiddish in their backgrounds, but if I know anything, you will keep it going for Leah and Charlie. Abei gezunt!
Love,
Bubbe Marilyn

[margalit]

Like so many other of your readers, I also grew up in a home where Yiddish was spoken, but only by my mother and her parents. When they talked about things they didn't want the kinder yo hear, yhe key word was 'zoognischt' and they switched over to Yiddish. I never realized how much gossippy Yiddish I picked up until I moved to Israel after high school and was able to understand pretty much everything said by the many survivors I met there.

I've thought of taking classes at the Workman's Circle here to hone my Yiddish. And I second the suggestion that you should check out the Yiddish Book Repository in Amherst. Only I think you should take a field trip. :-)

[Danny]

Wow, I can't believe I didn't know about the Yiddish Book Center. LOVE their website and I want to go there!

[Pam G]

There are many elderly Yiddish speakers in the Pittsburgh area. I saw a lot of them at the Jewish Music Festival early in June. One show in the series was about Folksbiene and the efforts to preserve the history of Yiddish theatre in New York. Since I'm not Jewish, and at age 48, was just about the youngest person at the presentation, I had to wonder if any of the younger generation of Jews not in attendance were interested in this fascinating tradition. I hope so.

I first became aware of Yiddish when visiting a family of Holocaust survivors here in the early 1960s. I used to have a collection of Yiddish language learning tools that I donated to our local JCC some time ago in the hopes of keeping the language alive among the younger generation.

[Judy]

Another great blog. I am reminded of my parents who spoke yiddish when they didn't want my sister & i to know what they were talking about. I wish I tried to learn yiddish back then but i plan to learn soon. Like you, I missed so many opportunities to ask my grandmother about coming to America from Romania with her 5 brothers but your previous blog about pogroms seemed to give me answers.
When I tried to ask my father's mother about the trip to America, all she would say was it was terrible. I couldn't get her to reminisce about her life before America. My daughter's grandfather didn't take her seriously when she tried to tape him talking about his life in Germany and coming to America. He was too old when she was ready to ask.

[Gordon]

Dear Danny,
Thanks for that wonderful post. What a sweet man he was. I was surprised that his singing voice was so strong and clear, even as an elderly man.

It's so important to remember the family members who came before us, and to know as much as possible about them.

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to Google my grandfather's name, and up popped an entry from the "Flickr" web site, with a bunch of very old family photographs (with names) which I had never seen before. The best ones were pictures of family members whose names I knew, but now I had faces to go with them.

Thanks,
Gordon

[Sheila Linderman]

Not only is this a great post, the comments are fabulous! I grew up speaking Yiddish, which was the only way that I could communicate with my maternal grandmother. And, Seymour Rechzeit was a household name at 5716 Kimball (along with Boris Tomashevsky, Molly Picon, et al). When cleaning out my mother's garage, the contents of which could only be described as being "fon Tomashevsky's tseit," I came across several 78's of Yiddish music and theater. Needless to say, they did not go into the dumpster!

Thanks, Danny, for reminding me of some of the better moments of my childhood!

Sheila

[A]

Charlie's hair is really growing---it looks as if it might be changing color a bit. Toward redhead?

[Pearl]

Yiddish ANYTHING -- language, music, films, theater, literature -- is so rich!! It so finely captures the Jewish experience through the years, and I'm glad it's had some form of resurgence over the years among younger people.

Zei gesundt, "Tatty"!