Public Programs

Jewish Music Lost & Found

As we move further and further away from the “World of Our Fathers,” many of the cultural traditions that were second nature to our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents are in danger of being lost. Our Lost & Found Music Series provides a public format for musicians who have dedicated themselves to saving Jewish music. In December, violinist Yale Strom presented his In the Memory Of, a stirring repertoire of songs he uncovered on a trip to Romania. There, in the 1871 synagogue of Carei, he discovered an abandoned box of books including the cantor’s songbook with over 250 melodies.

Other concerts included Jake Shulman-Ment’s A Redele, which was co-sponsored with the National Yiddish Book Center. Just 25 years old, Shulman-Ment has dedicated himself to researching and playing music associated with the Jewish and gypsy communities of Hungary and Romania. Program Director Hanna Griff-Sleven describes the scene: “Imagine if you will the restored sanctuary of our 1887 landmark synagogue. Fifty-foot barrel-vaulted ceiling, the richly hued stained-glass windows, and the majestic carved-walnut ark, still lined in its original crimson velvet, original hand-carved wooden pews, all gently lit by original brass and glass fixtures. Jake and his all-star band comprised of Pete Rushefsky, Art Bailey, Benjy Fox-Rosen and Ben Holmes took to the stage and played. Almost instantly our crowd of 200-plus sat up and focused.  Jake’s violin soared above the bimah as his music took us to Eastern Europe and beyond, at times ecstatic, playful and always deeply soulful.”

2009 funding for the Museum’s Jewish Music Lost & Found Series has been provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Charles and Mildred Schnurmacher Foundation.

Oral History Project

Our oral history project infuses our programs, tours and exhibits with an important human dimension, giving a face to historical facts and events. These include interviews with early 20th-century parishioners like Max Smith, who recalls his bar mitzvah at Eldridge Street in 1927 and Lillian Fried, another early member, who relates this lively scene: “Mr. Parness [the sexton] said that [women] should leave the children home. My mother, having the first seat, leaned down and said, ‘Mr. Parness, next year we should live and be well, and there should be more children!’ And there was applause.” Our oral history collection continues to grow. In 2009, Hanna Griff-Sleven, our Program Director and a folklorist, taught classes at the New School for Social Research and New York University. Her students interviewed former parishioners, long-time Lower East Side residents, and people involved in the rescue of the synagogue in the 1970s-80s, with the culminating results displayed in our Gural-Rabinowitz Family History Center.

Public Programs

Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival

Once the heart of the Jewish Lower East Side, the Museum’s neighborhood is now a part of a vibrant Chinatown. While the lingua franca is Fujianese not Yiddish, the scene is still very familiar: a community negotiating longstanding cultural traditions and American sensibilities. To celebrate the Chinese and Jewish communities – and the dynamic immigrant legacy of New York City – in 2009 we presented our 9th Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival. This free annual event is our most popular, this year drawing a record-breaking attendance of 6,700 people. Borough President Scott Stringer has called it one of his favorite events. And what’s not to like? With music, mahjongg, Chinese and Yiddish language lessons, scribal art, folk art demos, and tasty kosher egg rolls and egg creams in the synagogue and on our block.

2009 supporters of the Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival are the Manhattan Borough President’s Office/The Honorable Scott Stringer, National Endowment for the Arts the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, and NYC & Co. Foundation.