Washington Jewish Radio

Hi Everybody!! On this week’s program, now up on the website, is our special program for Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Memorial Day. With very special rare and poignant recordings we pay tribute to the six million in our particular way. These are recordings which you can only hear on Washington Jewish Radio, culled from our family archive.  Ben and I hope you will find the program special and meaningful.

PROGRAM OF SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 2014-YOM HASHOAH

Z’Chor-Sol Zim-1983

Special Av Horachamim-Cantor Moishe Oysher (1907-1958) . Taken from a Yizkor commemoration at New York’s Madison Square Garden in May of 1945, shortly after the end of the war. This rare recording is taken from the radio broadcast of the proceedings.

Partizaner Leed (Song Of The Partisans)-Jan Peerce-1964

Memories-Journeys-1989

Warsaw Lament-Cantor Moshe Ganchoff (1905-1997). This taken from another Yizkor commemoration and broadcast in the New York area in 1945. A song in Yiddish about the destruction of one of the great Jewish centers, Warsaw, the capital of Poland.

The Struma (Who Will Answer?)-Avi Kuntsler-1984

Nessun Dorma-Joseph Schmidt (1904-1942). A great opera singer and Chazzan, he was known as the “German Caruso”. He died in a Swiss internment camp in 1942. His voice was one of the greatest of the 20th century. This recording made for the EMI company in Berlin on June 7, 1934, shortly before he left Germany.

Keil Moleh Rachamim-Cantor Sholom Katz (1914-1982). This is the original recording made for Ultraphon in Czecheslovakia in 1946. Cantor Katz survived the Holocaust and came to the United States in 1947 and became Chazzan of the Beth Sholom Congregation in Washington. This recording was re-issued by Mercury in America in 1949 and was honored with the “Prix Du Disque” prize by Paris Match magazine in 1950, the only time a Jewish recording was so honored. It also was used in the film “The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis” in 1971. Cantor Katz was one of the finest cantors of his generation. He passed away in 1982.

Z’miros L’Yom Hashabbos-Cantor Israel Bakon (1910-1943). A lesser-known, but fine cantor. After serving several congregations in Germany and Poland, he was about to accept a major position in Cracow, when the war broke out. This recording was part of series he did in 1939 for Parlophon in Poland. Cantor Bakon, his wife and his little son all died in the gas chambers of Belzec in 1943.

Adoshem, Adoshem-Cantor Gershon Sirota (1874-1943)-One of the most famous Cantors of all time, Cantor Sirota was the chazzan of the famous Tlomatzka Street synagogue in Warsaw for many years. He was the first cantor to make phonograph records beginning in 1902. He was the only one of the great cantors of the Golden Age not to settle permanently in America. He was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto and died there either in 1942 or 1943 along with his entire family. Twelve years after his death in 1955, the British Record Collector magazine called him “One of the finest recording tenors of all time”. This recording was made in Warsaw in 1929 and features the choir of the Tlomatzka Street Synagogue.

Excerpt from “On A Note Of Triumph”-Written by the legendary Jewish radio writer Norman Corwin (1910-2011), this program was broadcast on the day Germany surrendered, May 8, 1945. It proved so enormously popular that CBS re-broadcast again five days later. It is a poignant, sobering look at what happened. The famous actor Martin Gabel was the narrator.

Never Again-Sol Zim-1983-At the end of it all, what else is there to say? This is our prayer always.

BEN’S SELECTIONS ON THE PROGRAM:

Theme from “Schindler’s List”-John Williams and Itzhak Perlman

Ani Ma’amin-Yehuda Dim

Red Sector A-Rush

Racheim-Lev Tahor

Ben and I hope you will find this program meaningful and that it will add something special to your observance of this somber day. Ben and I also remind you to forward the website to everyone you can and spread the good word about Washington Jewish Radio.

On next week’s program we will, in honor of Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, rebroadcast “Israel at 50”, a look back at the turbulent story of the creation of the State of Israel. The program was first aired in 1998.  Using rare commercial, archival and broadcast recordings we will bring you, as is the annual custom, a program you will long remember!! Have a great week and always remember-NEVER AGAIN!!