{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/h12v40kj7m/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Botoshansky, Mario"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/115/original/Boxed_Milken_Center_logo.png?1628711583","metadata":[],"provider":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/115/original/Boxed_Milken_Center_logo.png?1628711583","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/111/971/small/Botoshansky.jpg?1621432627","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - L3331_MA_2005_Oral_History_Botoshansky_Master_2017_Logo.mp4"]},"duration":3503.40267,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/111/971/small/Botoshansky.jpg?1621432627","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-milken.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/111/971/original/L3331_MA_2005_Oral_History_Botoshansky_Master_2017_Logo.mp4?1619778101","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":3503.40267,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Mario Botoshansky interview [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Cantor Botoshansky, it is wonderful to be here in Miami Beach with you.  And the first thing I want to ask you, the name Mario is not a usual name for a hazzan.\nBOTOSHANSKY:  When I came to Italy and I became the hazzan — the first East European hazzan cantore in Tempio Maggiore di Roma — the spiritual leader was Rabbi David Prato.  And he proposed me to be the hazzan cantore. It wasn’t easy, for many reasons.  The Minhag Roma is a little bit different than in other cities.  And since the salary had to come from the city whole, some of these rabbis didn’t want to teach me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=16.0,86.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Because I was like a threat, an East European young man. So, I went to the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano, studied for the rabbinate, and, at the same time, became the hazzan.  But still, I didn’t know their liturgy.  Because I was born as an Ashkenazi. And in Rome, they have to pronounce the — instead of a tov, a dalet — Mekadesh hashabbad.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=86.0,125.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu, v'al kol Yisrael, v'imru: amen.  The nein is very important.  So, I had to study that.  And it was hard to, to get a teacher. But finally, a man of the board, a rich gentleman, he had in the ghetto cioccolataio by the name of Piperno — Alberto Piperno — he said, “Nobody will, is secure of a job, unless we engage this young man.”  So, the shochet taught me the liturgy. And my first debut was on a Friday night service.  After the service, of course, I was congratulated.  And this Mr. Piperno told me, “I usually don’t kiss my wife.  But I have to kiss you.  This is in the - that you should survive under these circumstances.”","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=125.0,200.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  How did his wife survive?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  I am sure. I was born in Akkerman.  This is, this is, was Bessarabia.  I’m getting a little emotional. My father was a banker.  And they perished during the Holocaust, without publicity.  My father was arrested and sent to Siberia.  They asked for money once.  He produced.  And the second time, he produced again, whatever he could.  And then, finally, they sent him away. My mother was a grande dame.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=200.0,261.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And she had to go to the market every day, to sell a piece of jewelry, in order to survive. It’s not easy, to recall all these events. I graduated from a Hebrew Gymnasium in the city of Akkerman.  And then, I went, to further my education, in Kishinev.  And I studied, and I graduated from a, a modern yeshiva, Magen David.  It was my, under the tutelage of Rabbi Idalep Sierson, a world-renowned rabbi and scholar, which was shot on the street of Kishinev. My father was a, as I said before, a banker.  So, they sent me to Italy, to further my education.  So there, I studied, as I said before, in the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, and privately.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=261.0,339.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And it was the, the crown, perhaps, of my success, to be a cantor in Tempio Maggiore di Roma. And then, of course, and I told you before, I studied with Professor Cassuto — Umberto Cassuto — especially Bible, et cetera. Upon coming to the United States, I came as a tourist, with the Normandie, first-class.  My parents accompanied me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=339.0,392.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And, of course, I got stuck during the war.  It was after the war. And my first pulpit was as hazzan in Reading, Pennsylvania.  And then, I succeeded Richard Tucker in Temple Adath Israel in the Bronx.  And I was there for, their hazzan for 25 years.  Our spiritual leader was Rabbi Henry A. Shaw, and my musical directors and composers were Zavel Zilberts and Samuel Bugatch.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=392.0,444.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Due to demographical changes in the Bronx, the temple was closed.  And the last years, I was engaged as cantor of Congregation ShaareTorah of Flatbush, where the spiritual leader was Benjamin Zvi Kreitman. Of course, I used to concertize and sing with cantors.  And especially for the Jewish National Fund, and other organizations all over this, the three states.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=444.0,492.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Where were you during the war years — from 1939 to 1945?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  In 1945, I was already here.\n\nLEVIN:  So, when did you come to the United States to live?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  In 1942.\nLEVIN:  It was during the war?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.  It was the end of the war.  It was during the war.\n\nLEVIN:  And where did you come from, directly?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  I, I went, I went to say goodbye to my parents.  And I came here. And I forgot to mention that my mother and my younger brother remained.  They always thought that maybe my father will come back.  So, they took them one day, to Odessa.  And there, there was a big fire, and they perished. I have one sister, in Israel.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=492.0,565.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"She was the chief nurse in Hadassah, and a very successful young lady. It’s a little bit too hard for me to recall all these events. When I came to Florida, I came to Florida because Shaare Torah was sold, due to demographic changes.  So, I came here.  And I was the first cantor here for two and a half years, something like that.  In Beth Am.  Beth Am in Margate.  I was the first cantor.\n\nLEVIN:  How many years — you were in, in Reading, for…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  For a short time.\n\nLEVIN:  A short time.  And then…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  And then, I came directly to Temple Adath Israel.  And they asked for a cantor.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=565.0,637.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Katchko, in fact, said that they asked him — Temple Adath Israel, when Tucker left, whom would he recommend?  He said, “I recommend three people.  I recommend Glantz,” and then, Harry Brackman davenned a Shabbas, and yours truly, Mario Botoshansky. The reason they, they call me “Mario,” because it’s, Botoshansky is a difficult name.  It comes from Romania, from a city, Botosani.  There is still in existence in Romania a city Botosani.  So, the old people lived in Botosani.\n\nLEVIN:  Where did you acquire your knowledge of hazzanut?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=637.0,696.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  Now…\n\nLEVIN:  In Europe, or here, or…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No.  The knowledge of hazzanut I acquired when I was bar mitzvah.\n\nLEVIN:  In Akkerman.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  In Akkerman.  So, I, I was sort, sort of a wunderkind, with an alto voice.  And I officiated my bar mitzvah with a large choir, under the direction of Cantor Moishe Kogan. Then, I went to study for a short time in Galați, in Romania, with a hazzan by the name of Shein. I was in Italy, I went for a few months to study in Vienna.  I was in Vienna, and I studied with Professor Fröschels, the method, the method of singing, of relaxing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=696.0,781.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Abandoning.  Having it go just like you speak.  Like a how, or how are, how are you. And that method I perfected.  And some other people noshed from me.  And I applied in my cantorial art.\n\nSEROTA:  Did you study hazzanut with anyone in Vienna?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  In Vienna, I studied with Fisher.\n\nLEVIN:  Emmanuel Fisher?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No.\n\nLEVIN: Heinrich.  I mean Heinrich.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Heinrich Fisher, Heinrich, Heinrich Fisher is the right pronunciation.  He was the hazzan in the Zeitenstädter Tempel.  I studied with him.  I came twice, three times. And he introduced me to this Professor Fröschels.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=781.0,838.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Because I had some difficulties. And one of his disciples, Dr. Desio Weiss, came to America.  And I continued my vocal art, so to say, to study with him.  And I liked his method.\n\nLEVIN:  How many years were you in Italy, all together, there, at that time?  In Rome?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Wait, wait — twice.  Maybe six, seven years.  Eight years.  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  And your parents sent you there for musical education or general education?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  General education.\n\nLEVIN:  Why Rome?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No, no, they send me first to Milan.\n\nLEVIN:  But why Italy?  Why Milan?\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.  Because my father thought maybe I will be a, an opera singer, or something else.  And I liked Italy.  So, they sent me there. And of course, I studied a great deal with, with various cantors.  And since I was imbued with Jewishness, and hazzanut, and a hazzan should have a little hazzan in his belly.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=838.0,921.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Then he is a hazzan.  In my opinion.  I am not an artificial cantor. And I had here a man of 90 years old, which I studied with him in the Bronx.  He studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, as a singer, and a hazzan.  But he came to the United States — couldn’t get a job.  Because he said that coming in America, you have to be young, and you have to know English. And, since he was such a great scholar, I used to climb six… six floor, to get the best out of him.  Or in the park. And the main thing in Jewish liturgy is not the music.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=921.0,993.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Other people and nations have, perhaps, greater music.  Is the words.  The meaning, the interpretation of the word.  Because, from a Shachris, of Rosh Hashanah you can make an opera.  You see?  It’s the word, the pshat, pshat means interpretation of the meaning of the word.  And the music is a side issue. And the music should have, as they say in Verbindung, has a “kesher” with the words of the liturgy.  And we are very rich in words, in our liturgy.\n\nLEVIN:  I notice in Rome, in this position to which you were appointed, the hazzan cantore…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=993.0,1055.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  It is, it’s not just hazzan.  It is hazzan cantore.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Because they never had a hazzan.  We had three, four rabbis.  But not a cantore.  So, they liked that, you see. And it, it was wonderful.  It was wonderful.  It’s a great tradition.  Because, because the Jews of Rome have their own tradition.  Their own minhagim.  And they are very proud of that. There is even a — I don’t know whether you’re familiar or not — they don’t speak Yiddish.  But to find out whether you are a Jew and I am a Jew, let’s say, in the street, or in the train, you say, “quarantacinque.”  It means 45.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1055.0,1115.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And that is a cue that we come from the same tribe. Now, when you go, they are all merchants, and you’ll see something good, you say, “Mmm, yafissimmo, yafeh.”  That, that they know.  Or something they used to sell in the streets.  You know, some other things.  And the police came.  They didn’t have license at — “Davar.”  “Desist.”  “Disappear.” This is a special study of their language.  Acher.  That I knew, at the time.  Now, of course, I made it my business to forget. Incidentally, while I was in Rome, we had there a male choir that the choir came in, but Birkat Kohanim in the Shacharit.  And on Friday, of course, as I told you before, Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu, v'al kol Yisrael, v'imru: amen.  And after the kiddush, mekadesh hashabbad.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1115.0,1200.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Baruch Adonai asher natan menucha, le’amo Israel, bayom Shabbad kodesh.  That was the end of the Kiddush.\n\nLEVIN:  When you started in the Bronx, was Zilberts already there?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No.  Before I started in the Bronx, the first High Holidays I was with de Haas, who was a, a German-Jewish composer. And also, I studied — I am glad that I remember — with Oscar Gutman and Dymont.\n\nLEVIN:  Now, where did you…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Jacob Dymont. In the Bronx.  I used to, to, to go to get lessons from them.\n\nLEVIN:  Now, both of them came from Berlin.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Both of them came from Berlin, yes. One, one thing that, as I recall, while I was in Rome, the choirmaster was Henry Shalit.\n\nLEVIN:  In Rome?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1200.0,1269.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  He couldn’t present his compositions, because they have a tradition, you know it.  But, vayikhulu, or something else, they accepted, and we used to sing it.  And he was very proud.  He was the conductor.  Henry Shalit.\n\nSEROTA:  I think I have a record made in Italy.\n\nLEVIN:  Italy?  Yes?  This was after he had come from Munich, I think.\n\nSEROTA:  I think yes.  Yes.  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  He came from Munich, and he went….  And then, of course, he eventually came to the United States.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  Tell me about Dymont.  I, I’m very interested in this, because…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Oh, and Dymont this is as they say in German (SPEAKS GERMAN) that is already a, a chapter for itself. Dymont lived in Washington Heights.  And a very knowledgeable and a fine gentleman.  And Oscar Gutman was a friend of his. They had a dream.  They wanted to make a school of hazzanut.  But it came to naught.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1269.0,1344.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  So privately, they used to teach.  Together and privately. Incidentally, something else which I for- I forgot.  Hayotzei midvareinu.  I was, for three years, hazzan in Astoria Center of Israel, before Adath Israel.  I succeeded Herr Saul Meisels, incidentally.  And Oscar Gutman played the harmonium there.\n\nLEVIN:  Gutman’s…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Gutman wrote B’reishit and some other music.  And he was a music critic.  And they used to call him “der blutiche Oscar.”  He knew how to criticize.\n\nLEVIN:  He was in Berlin, and he conducted at, in the Oranienburger Straße Synagogue for a while.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1344.0,1409.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And, as a matter of fact, his son — he has a son who’s still alive, now.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yeah, Alfred, or something.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Where does he live?\n\nLEVIN:  Well, he was living in Munich, you know, five years ago.  I saw him there.  But I heard — I can find out, because Gershon Kingsley knows him.  I think I heard he moved or something, recently.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yeah, yeah, he was the, the only son.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  His mother used to teach voice, as I recall.\n\nLEVIN:  That’s right.  He changed his name to Goodman.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Goodman.\n\nLEVIN:  Even though he’s living in Germany.  Go figure it out.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  I see.\n\nLEVIN:  But, and then, Gutman, Oscar Gutman, for a while, was in the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.  The end.\n\nLEVIN:  At the end.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  When you say you studied with him, what did you study?  Music or hazzanut, or…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1409.0,1457.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  No, no.  I, with, with him, I studied music.  And I knew, in America, they needed, they knew these German-Jewish composers.  Of course, Lewandowski, and Sulzer, and this.  And so, I studied with them. And he was my, he composed a lot of music for me, too.  Oscar Gutman.\n\nLEVIN:  He composed…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Which I used.\n\nLEVIN:  …composed…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  He, he, he composed something — a Shema Koleinu.  Something, and some other music.  I don’t know — I don’t remember.\n\nSEROTA:  Did Dymont write for you?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Dymont wrote, also, something for me.  I don’t have it.  I don’t remember. But Dymont was a very interesting musician.  But he didn’t fit to the American scene.  He used to criticize too much, the, the American hazzanut.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1457.0,1530.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And so, it wasn’t for him. And somebody else studied with him.  He recently died.  I forget — he was…\n\nSEROTA:  Horowitz.  Martin Horowitz.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Horowitz.\n\nSEROTA:  And I think Arnold Rothstein studied with him.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Also.  Yeah, but somebody else, it doesn’t come, I don’t remember, exactly.\n\nLEVIN:  Dymont wrote an entire service…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  A Friday night service.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah, a Friday night.  A whole, big thing.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  In Germany, in Berlin.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  In Berlin.\n\nLEVIN:  You’ve seen that piece?  You know the piece?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Not in Berlin.  I saw it here.\n\nLEVIN:  That’s what I mean.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Some of the stuff is quite interesting.\n\nLEVIN:  It is.  It’s quite progressive.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  And there are two versions.  There’s one for male choir only.  And one for — without… a capella…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Mixed.\n\nLEVIN:  And one for mixed choir…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  …with organ.  Of the same piece.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.  It’s not popular.\n\nLEVIN:  No.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  It didn’t, it didn’t take. What Professor Weinberg used to say, does das war… music for the bibliothèque, for the library.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1530.0,1598.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"But not music sim gebraucht.  In other words, music that you can use.  Daily bread. I studied a little bit, even, too, with Katchko.  He made, once, an arrangement for me.\n\nLEVIN:  And then came, came Zilberts.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Then came Zilberts.  Yes.  This was an institution.  I studied with him voice, too.  Because Tucker studied with him, also. And he composed a great deal of music specially for me.  And for our quintet.\n\nLEVIN:  Which — now, tell me about the quintet.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  The quintet, and sometimes, six.  We had two sopranos, two altos, and a bass.  And sometimes, we used to, we used to have festivals.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1598.0,1676.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Now, you said Zilberts wrote several pieces for you?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  He wrote, yes.  Especially Friday night, Chatzi Kaddish and some other things.\n\nLEVIN:  Did he eventually publish those pieces?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  I think that he published some of the pieces.  He did publish the Mogen Ovos.  Transcontinental Company must have that. The Chatzi Kaddish was quite interesting.  And then, we sang, of course, Nowakowski, whenever it was possible.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes, yes.\n\nLEVIN:  With Zilberts conducting?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No.\n\nLEVIN:  No?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  That was with Bugatch.\n\nLEVIN:  Oh, with Bugatch.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Because Zilberts liked Zilberts.  Even sometimes he put Lewandowski’s name, but it was his.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1676.0,1727.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"He didn’t recognize others.  That was his shortcoming.  But he was a, a wonderful composer.\n\nLEVIN:  So, you, during those years, you sang a lot of Zilberts.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  For all the — for Shabbos, for holidays, for — yeah?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes, yes, yes.  And in Adath Israel, I want you to know, even in, in my own personal contribution — I have a little tape, or so — that for the first day Rosh Hashanah we sang one Unetanah Tokef, and for the second day, another one. Because when I came there, there, to Temple Adath Israel, what about Tokef?  Terrific (MUMBLES, then YIDDISH), the first day and the second day.\n\nSEROTA:  And Yom Kippur also?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  They were different times.\n\nSEROTA:  Yom Kippur you sang the same one again?\n\nLEVIN:  A third one?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No, no, I repeated the first. You see, they liked variety.  It was before television, and before all these things.  That the, the synagogue was everything.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1727.0,1797.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"People used to come to Adath Israel, with all humility, to listen to me, from Coney Island. And a man used to come — a lawyer — he said, “Now, I have it for a whole week.  Mechaye.” He wrote a special Birkat Kohanim for me and choir — Bugatch.  And, and Zilberts.  And it was inspirational.  We used to have, there in Adath Israel, this was the, the temple, the Park Avenue Temple.  We used to have 13 bar mitzvahs, twice — five or ten. And from the Jewish press, I have here a couple of things; they used to write up the services.  Bikel — this Bikel’s uncle, who was a writer in the day.  And some others.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1797.0,1867.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  This was in the — what?  In the late ‘40s?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Something like that, yes.\n\nLEVIN:  With this — yeah.  What part of the Bronx is that?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Grand Concourse.\n\nLEVIN:  On the Grand Concourse.  Yeah.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY: 169th Street.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.  And tell me what it was like, with Zilberts.  I mean, you rehearsed every week with him, with the choir and the whole…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  With the choir, with Zilberts, Friday night before the services.  The late service commenced at 8:00.\n\nLEVIN:  Mm-hmm.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  So, 6:30 or 7, we had rehearsals.\n\nLEVIN:  Were these volunteer singers or professionals?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No, these were professionals.\n\nLEVIN:  All professional?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  All professionals.\n\nLEVIN:  And did he also have a volunteer chorus in the synagogue?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  He brought some of his volunteers, sometimes, for a special festival.  Same thing had Bugatch, too.  He used to… Arbiter Ring choir.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  And they came to perform, also.  After the services.  Because we used to advertise.\nLEVIN:  But let’s take, for example, on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, you say most of the compositions were Zilberts’.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1867.0,1931.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  During Zilberts’ time, it was Zilberts.\n\nLEVIN:  You did a big choral Slichos there?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  I don’t remember too many slichas.  But Bugatch’s slichas I do remember. Bugatch noshed a great deal from Hazzan Malavsky.  And he made wonderful arrangements.  L’chu N’ran’na, et cetera.\n\nLEVIN:  Zilberts left, what — after…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Now, with Zilberts, this, this will be from history, are very important things. After the service Friday night, he used to take the music home.  He never left the music there.  And Saturday morning, he came back and distributed to the singers.  He didn’t permit — nothing.\n\nLEVIN:  They couldn’t take it home?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  At that time, they didn’t have tapes. He didn’t leave a piece of music in the temple.  Never.  Not Friday night; not Saturday morning; and not for the holidays.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=1931.0,2003.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Did he hire the singers in the quintet, or did the temple hire the singers?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  He hired.\n\nLEVIN:  So, it was his choir?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  It was — no, no.  He hired professional — yes. He hired.\n\nLEVIN:  He had many other, he had other choruses in New York.  They had the Zilberts Choir Concert Chorus.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.  And he used to teach.\n\nSEROTA:  How was he as a voice teacher?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  He needed the money.  So, I, and I wanted his cooperation.  So, I took some lessons with him.  He was a real Russian aristocrat. Bugatch was a volksmensch — vox populis.  He was a wonderful man.  He took me, many times, for his concerts — he used to have a lot of concerts with his….  I sang with him the Yiddishe Ligende.  You heard about that music?  I was the soloist there. One of the things about — to criticize Bugatch — is, he liked too much — he used to bathe in accompaniment.  So, the accompanists sometimes covered up the face of the individual.  Too much accompaniment. But he had some wonderful, immortal music, and simple music, like der Maran.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2003.0,2092.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  You’re talking about…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  That I do sometimes, sometimes at a seder, in a public, when I have the opportunity.  It’s terrific.  And some other music. And then, as a man, he was a prince of a man. He was the conductor of Rosenblatt, he told me, in Baltimore.  You know about that?\n\nSEROTA:  Rabbi Rosenblatt.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  Samuel.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Samuel Rosenblatt.  Not Samuel Rosenblatt.  His father, Yossele Rosenblatt.  He conducted his choir.  Bugatch.\n\nSEROTA:  And Malavsky was once the hazzan there?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  And Malavsky — and Malavsky, too.  Malavsky gave him a lot of music, and he arranged it.  He was a good arranger.\n\nLEVIN:  What happened to all of Zilberts’ music?  All the, especially all the manuscripts and everything?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  I really don’t — I, I think they gave it to the Jewish Theological Seminary?\n\nLEVIN:  Well, that’s what they, that’s what people claim.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Not, not much?\n\nLEVIN:  But we can’t find it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2092.0,2157.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  You can’t find it.  What happened with Leo Low?\n\nLEVIN:  What happened to Leo Low’s music?\n\nSEROTA:  Well, it seems that some of the music, his music wound up in Bugatch’s hands.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes, yes.\n\nSEROTA:  And then, some of that music wound up at YIVO.  And it’s a…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  You cannot get it from there?\n\nSEROTA:  And then, I think some of the music was in, in the house that he had in Queens.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  And the house was sold, and the music was given by the subsequent owner to a…\n\nLEVIN:  JCC or something.\n\nSEROTA:  That’s right — a Jewish community center.  And Bugatch’s son has been trying to get it back, and he’s been unsuccessful.  He thinks some of the music is at Queens College.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Maybe.  I would be amazed, because I would remember…\n\nLEVIN:  Nobody seems to know exactly.  Did Zilberts — well, there’s, there’s a book about Zilberts by Mr. Hyman Fliegel.\n\nSEROTA:  Hyman Fliegel.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yeah, I have that book.\n\nLEVIN:  And…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  A very poor book.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.  It’s a silly book.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  It’s…\n\nLEVIN:  But Hyman Fliegel thinks…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Was his protégé…\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  …he helped him a great deal.\n\nLEVIN:  I think he was the executor of the estate, or something like that.  I don’t remember.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  There was very little estate.  There was more executive than estate.  He died a poor man.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2157.0,2222.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  He says the manuscripts were, the music was given to the Jewish Theological Seminary.  But it isn’t there.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Now, I have some of the music that Bugatch arranged and composed for our temple.  Let’s say, because we started, let’s say, Saturday morning, Shochen Ad.  There was a prelude that Bugatch wrote for the organ.  It was à la Park Avenue.  That, that’s, this quality of music. I don’t know whether it’s — for these days, whether it will be advisable. And Bugatch was an enemy of congregational singing.  Not Bugatch — I beg your pardon — Zilberts.\n\nLEVIN:  Zilberts.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Didn’t, didn’t like. Do you know something about Jassinowsky?\n\nSEROTA:  He was a cantor at the Jewish Center.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2222.0,2285.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  He arranged a lot of music.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  You knew him?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  I knew him.  A very fine gentleman, and a scholar.  And he also composed a lot of Yiddish music, you know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2285.0,2306.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Songs.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Songs.  And some liturgical music, which he had a Birkat Kohanim, which I don’t like.  It’s unifil ungemach. But he studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, or somebody — he was a good musician.  And then, he had what Bugatch used to say, he had “sitzfleisch.”  Day and night.  He played the piano nicely, too. There was a tragedy in his life, I think, with his daughter, or something.\n\nLEVIN:  Jassinowsky?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY: Jassinowsky.\nLEVIN:  And then — well, did you sing, did you sing in concerts?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Oh, yes.\n\nLEVIN:  You did a lot of hazzanas?  Tell me about your, your…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Well, I will show you something you will copy.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2306.0,2352.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN: You have here the synagogue in Rome.  And the interior.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  The interior.\n\nLEVIN:  And this is you?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  That’s me.\n\nLEVIN:  In that period of time.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  In that period of time.  And that is a wedding.\n\nLEVIN:  Uh-huh.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  Performing a wedding in the synagogue?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  Yes.  Did they have the choir for a wedding?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  And actually, this is not an Ashkenazi synagogue.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No.  It’s Sephardi.\n\nLEVIN:  Is it Sephardi or an Italian rite?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Italian Sephardi.  That’s all there were.  That’s all.\n\nLEVIN:  Because there is a difference.  You know, there is a third, there is an Italian — it’s neither exactly Sephardi or Ashkenazi.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No, no.\n\nSEROTA:  Nusach Roma.\n\nLEVIN:  Nusach Roma, yeah.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  If this had been a (SOUNDS LIKE koma) — for instance, they have, kol nidre is kol hanidarim.  Everything is done in the plural.\n\nLEVIN:  There’s a thing called the Old Roman Rite.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes, something like that.  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  Liturgically.  And it’s pretty extinct, in most cases.  I mean, is there a, there is an Ashkenazi synagogue in Rome, also?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2352.0,2415.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  Not in my days.\n\nLEVIN:  Not in your day.  But now, probably.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  There, there used to be another little synagogue — Spanish, they used to call it.\n\nLEVIN:  Uh-huh.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Español.\nLEVIN:  So that’s really the Sephardi…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  In Español. Well, this is, this is the, the, Kol Mekadesh Shvi’i.\n\nLEVIN:  Oh.  Tell me that story, now, about the Kol Mekadesh Shvi’i.  Did Avineri… contacted you, or how did that happen?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.  I was in Tel Aviv.  And a gentleman by the name of Professor Henoch, Henoch…\n\nLEVIN:  Avineri.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Avineri.\n\nLEVIN:  By the way, his real name — do you know that his real name was Leuwenstein?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  That, I don’t…\n\nLEVIN:  Herbert Leuwenstein.  And you can see how it got to be Avineri — Leuwenstein.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Leuwenstein.\n\nLEVIN:  It’s Evan-Ari, and then…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yeah, I understand. He came and he said that he wants to collect all these z’miros of Kol Mekadesh.  This was the, the world’s most big Kol Mekadesh reading for Friday night.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2415.0,2482.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"As I heard from my father. So, I sang it for him.  He took it, he arranged it, then he wrote me a letter.  And it was accepted, with probably others, too, in the University of Tel Aviv.\n\nLEVIN:  And this is the, this is his notations?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  His, his notations.\n\nLEVIN:  Based upon the way you sang it.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes, yes.\n\nLEVIN:  And what year was that, that he was working on that? \n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Sixteen years ago.\n\nLEVIN:  There are many, many versions of Kol Mekadesh.  But they’re all similar.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.  Yeah…\n\nLEVIN:  They’re all…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  They’re all, all, more or less…\n\nLEVIN:  …begin up a fifth, and they’re all…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.  I wanted, in fact, to — I didn’t have time — he wanted, the, the Passover, some of the niggunim of my father and my mother.  But we, we couldn’t come together.  \n\nLEVIN:  In 1958.  Ah, yes.  The Grand Cantorial Concert.  Put that in there.  Let’s take this off there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2482.0,2558.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  They are working, yeah?\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.  A concert of liturgical Israeli Jewish music, with yourself, and Murray Bazion.  Murray Bazion.  What ever happened to him?\n\nSEROTA:  He’s around.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Someplace in Brooklyn.\n\nLEVIN:  And…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  I didn’t preserve a lot of these things.\n\nSEROTA:  Cantor Roskin lives in Jerusalem.  He’s 95.  Yes?\n\nLEVIN:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  And he was hazzan in Lodz.\n\nLEVIN: But here is something interesting, from 1938.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  From, from Umberto…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Umberto…\n\nLEVIN:  Della Seta.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Della Seta.  One of my members of the…\n\nLEVIN: Yeah.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  …of, of, of the board.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  One who was my chief sponsor.\n\nLEVIN:  And this letter, basically, what does this say?  Just…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  And now, this, this is when I came to America. He…\nLEVIN:  Oh.  He sent you a letter here.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yeah.  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  Yes.  And…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Umberto Della Seta.  Now, what is this? \n\nLEVIN:  In The Jewish Journal.  And this is — oh!  Here’s Mascha Benya, here.\n\nSEROTA:  Right.\n\nLEVIN:  This is 1944, a clipping… clipping from, from The Morgen-Journal, isn’t it?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2558.0,2634.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BOTOSHANSKY:  No.  This is…\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.  It’s from The Morgen-Journal.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Morgen-Journal?\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.  Morgen-Journal.  And this must be that you were giving a concert — did you give a concert together with Mascha Benya?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  I don’t recall.\n\nLEVIN:  It must be.\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah.  Probably something with, by Bugatch, some of Bugatch’s music.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  And the two of you sang solos, probably…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  …with one of the choral groups that he conducted.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yeah.  Maybe so, something.  What, what’s this?  This is…\n\nLEVIN:  Careful, okay? That’s the — yeah.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  What is this?\n\nLEVIN:  And this — here, again, there’s another, also with Mascha Benya, at the same, must be…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No, this was in a different time.\nLEVIN:  In The Forward, this was in The Forvitz, but it’s the same thing.  Yeah.  “Der Große Concert.”\n\nSEROTA:  I remember years ago, going into the Metro Music Company, seeing some records with green labels, Apollo Records.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  You made records for such a company.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  Habibi.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Habibi, Artzenu Haktantonet.  And there was something else that it didn’t come to light.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2634.0,2706.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  I see.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Some must have some.  I don’t know where they are, the, the original.\n\nSEROTA:  How did you come to make such records?  And who was Apollo Records?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Apollo Records was a company, a private company, that wanted to make a record between me and Kapov-Kagan, something.  I don’t remember.  And this man was in this business and thought he will make money.  So, he, I recorded.\n\nSEROTA:  Who accompanies you?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  An orchestra.  There was an, an, there is the name of that — Abe something.\n\nSEROTA:  Schwartz?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Schwartz.\n\nSEROTA:  Abe Schwartz.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  Then, I remember you made a record with Bugatch, conducting the music of Mr. Aharon Ron.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.  That wasn’t such a good record.  And not such a good, good music.  But had some nice spots.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2706.0,2772.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Who was Mr. Ron, and why was it recorded?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Mr. Ron was an Israeli, self-proclaimed composer.  Had some taste in Jewish music.  And the reason is that we made that he had connections to, to make some money for himself.  This was Ron.\n\nSEROTA:  Who did the orchestrations?  Who conducted?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  The orchestrations, I think, were Bugatch’s, if I remember.  But he had a lot of connections. This Ron. He was a sick man.  Sephardic.  A little bit of a poet.  And an interesting individual.  But I don’t think that he was a, a great musician.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2772.0,2833.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  In the 1960s, you participated in a record of z’mirot…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  …in which the choral parts are sung by the Cantors Ensemble of the Cantors Assembly Metropolitan Region.  Richard Newman conducting.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  And you sing a solo Kol Mekadesh.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Kol Me — with a beautiful accompaniment.  That accompaniment is very good, to Kol Mekadesh.\n\nSEROTA:  Woodwinds, I believe.  Woodwind quartet.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Not quartet.  Company, or something.  That, that is, I would like to, a copy to have for my own…\n\nLEVIN:  Whose composition is it?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  This Kol Mekadesh?\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.  On the recording.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  On the recording, it was Mario Botoshansky.  It was similar to this.  But he had, but Richard Newman provided the accompaniment.\n\nSEROTA:  Did you sing with this ensemble on a regular basis?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes.  I sang with that ensemble on a regular basis.  We gave a lot of concerts all over. And with this ensemble, I sang, as I told you, that sefir, sefir song Hineni  Muchan Umzumon L’chaim, with a Sefiras Omer by Allman.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2833.0,2900.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And wonderful music.  And my part, with all humility, was one of my best.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any copy.\n\nSEROTA:  Were there occasions that you sang on the radio?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yes, there were occasions that I sang on the radio.  A shul niggunim.  I used to be on WEVD.  I sang a couple of times. And there was, we sang with Temple Adath Israel choir, under the leadership, I think, of, of Bugatch, a Kiddushah by Millet, which is very interesting.  I would like you should hear it, and to give me a copy.  Because I would like to remodel it.\n\nSEROTA:  You don’t have it, I gather.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  I don’t have it.  Unfortunately.\n\nSEROTA:  Do you have recordings of any of your broadcasts?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  No.  I, I didn’t pay any attention to this.  Just as a flake.  As you heard, my, my, I have the tape, which I have it with me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2900.0,2974.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"If I might give it to you, to lend you.  But you will hear something of the pshat, the interpretation, how I interpret Jewish liturgy. And, in my experience as a hazzan, I had sometimes people — two teachers at one time — this old man, a Hazzan Blumen, and Tabori — I studied with him voice — came specially during the holidays to hear me and to criticize me.  I engaged them.  I wanted that, they should be there.  Whatever is good, I know it.  Tell me what is not good. Those were the days.  It was an idealism.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=2974.0,3034.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  How do you view the whole changes in, the whole series of changes in hazzanut in America?  The musical…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  The changes in hazzanut in America is the changes in Jewish life.  In America. We suffer from amaratsus.  People don’t have patience.  People don’t have any knowledge.  It’s an artificial form of Judaism.  And liturgy in Jewish music is, unfortunately, at this time, on the back burner. Congregational music —","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=3034.0,3100.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"In other words, a hazzan, now, is just to lead you in prayer.  That’s all.  They don’t have the patience; they don’t have the knowledge; they don’t have the understanding.  And the people don’t have the need to have liturgical music as we knew it before.\n\nLEVIN:  Why do you think that developed?\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Well, that developed because of the, first of all, television.  And some of the rabbis had a disease — which I called “hazzanitis.” In my career, many times, on Friday night, when we went away, come by, I told to my, some of my people, “Good Shabbos. I enjoyed it.”","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=3100.0,3173.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I said, “Please, don’t compliment me in front of the rabbi.  Please, I beg you.” But now, it’s improving.\n\nLEVIN:  When you say it’s improving…\nBOTOSHANSKY:  In, in, in other words, because the hazzan, the cantor, does more than before.  He has, he has to be a cantor, because they cannot help it.  They must have somebody, whether they like it or not. And some of the worshippers, and some of the rabbis don’t have to have special naches in the cantor, or to enjoy, and he should just sit, and shep naches.  There are yotzei min haklal.  There are certain rabbis exceptional.  Kreitman is one of them. And those who are secure with themselves, they like hazzanut.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=3173.0,3243.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Do you see any, any return, or any revitalization of, of hazzanut, or…\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  In part, in part.  And a little bit, I must blame a little bit the Jewish composers.  Some of them didn’t write proper music for the synagogue.  It was too curly.  Too modernistic. People came to enjoy, not to learn.  And the results are not so good.  Therefore, tefillah beit tzibbur, or congregational singing of one line and something, is popular and digestible. You don’t have to think.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=3243.0,3306.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I am glad that I was born before, and I had a taste of the European Jewish life, and American Jewish life.  So, my contribution to Jewish music was d’varim hayotsim min halev nikhnasim el halev.  Things that come out from the heart must penetrate the heart of somebody else.  And that was my satisfaction. It’s not a performance.  It’s something divine.  And the divinity is in the words.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=3306.0,3369.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"As one of the rabbis — I have it somewheres written down — used to say, “Cantor Botoshansky caresses the Hebrew word.” I try to caress the word.  And I knew what I’m saying.  And if I would make a mistake, I could correct —— a better Hebrew word than it, it is in the liturgy.  Because I, I have studied, and I know something. I hope and pray that the day will be not too distanced that tornyamelin tikkah — we will make, we will revive the, the antiquity, and polish it up, so it’ll be good for God and for people, for all time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=3369.0,3436.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971/transcript/40686/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Well, I think we share the same hope for Jewish music in America.  And I want to thank you for talking with us today.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Thank you.\n\nLEVIN:  And that I’ll be talking to you in the future, and I’m probably going to come visit you and take a look at some of the music.\n\nBOTOSHANSKY:  Yeah, whatever I will give you, it will be almost half of my kingdom.  Except my wife.  That, I don’t share. Thank you very much for your consideration.  And I hope and pray that you will do, not only for me, but you will be the messenger of, to perpetuate this art of music for all time.  Because the Jew is forever.  And his song is forever.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40306/file/111971#t=3436.0,3503.40267"}]}]}]}