{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/p843r0qh77/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Bloch, Charles"]},"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/000/110/770/small/Charles-Bloch.jpg?1618940580","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - X2359_Bloch_Charles_v2.mp4"]},"duration":3511.616,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/110/770/small/Charles-Bloch.jpg?1618940580","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-milken.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/110/770/original/X2359_Bloch_Charles_v2.mp4?1616072494","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":3511.616,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Edited Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" Opening Graphic\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=0.0,16.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  We’re, we’re here in, in the heart of Harlem, at the site of one of your first positions singing in synagogue choirs. Isn’t that so?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s correct.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  This is now, I see it says a Baptist Temple.  But in your day, what was it?\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=16.0,32.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Well, the first Hungarian congregation, Ohab Zedek.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  This is where the, the legendary hazzan, Yossele Rosenblatt was…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s correct.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Tell me, how did you get here?  How did you come to be in the choir here?  Give me the whole story.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=32.0,53.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Prior to coming here, at the age of six and a half — at that time, I, we lived in the Bronx.  And I attended a congregation, Hebrew school, called the Montefiore Congregation.  Montefiore Congregation was located then at Hewitt and Macy Place in the Bronx.  And we lived in the Bronx.  I sang there — I’ll give you the circumstances another time.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=53.0,89.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I was singled out of a Sunday school class by the choir master there, who was a man by the name of Fisher.  The cantor at that time, in that congregation, was a cantor Jacob Rappaport, who was a very famous composer of cantorial recitatives, many of which are sung to this day by cantors all over the world.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=89.0,121.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I was singled out in a peculiar way during a Sunday school assembly, by the choir leader, Fisher, who was walking, happened to be walking up and down the aisle, and then stopped short behind me, and leaned over and listened for a while, and then tapped me on the shoulder — I was all of six and a half years old — and asked me whether I would like to sing in his choir.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=121.0,154.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So I readily said, “Yes.  Sure.  Why not?” And this was about ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=154.0,161.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" on a Sunday morning.  He said, “Please.  Stay around.  At ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=161.0,221.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" or 1:00, we have a wedding in the synagogue.  And I’d like you to come and listen.” The choir all sat on the balcony, near the cantor, who was on the main sanctuary floor.  And they occupied the first few rows.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=750.0,189.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I was sitting in the last row, just as a listener.  And when they got through with the wedding, he came over and gave me a big half dollar.  He said, “This is your first earning as a choir singer.” And he took me under his wing as a choir singer, and said, “I will groom you into a soloist.” \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=189.0,217.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" I continued with him for about six months, at which time, we moved to Harlem, to 45-53 110th Street — also called Cathedral Parkway.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And that’s just a few blocks from here.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Few blocks from here.  Six short blocks, right off Lennox Avenue.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=217.0,242.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  And how did, how was Harlem at that time?  I mean, this was a Jewish area, or many…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  It was a very aristocratic, high-level Jewish, economically Jewish area.  Rich Jews lived here.  Affluent Jews lived here. And that’s one of the reasons why they engaged the then-greatest cantor in the world, Joseph Rosenblatt, also known as Yossele Rosenblatt, for this synagogue.  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=242.0,276.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"My father, my late father, knew that Rosenblatt was the cantor in this synagogue, and he said, “Why should you go to a synagogue in the Bronx?” Although the choir master came to my home and tried to convince my parents that he would take such good care of me — he would call for me and bring me home again — provided I would stay with him.  And my parents said, “We’ll think it over.”  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=276.0,314.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" My father, however, felt that since we were so close, geographically, only six short blocks away, he would like to take me over to this shul and ask Yossele Rosenblatt to listen to me. And so, he walked over with me on a Shabbes afternoon, before minkha, and there we met with Yossele Rosenblatt, who came in before minkha wearing a new satin kapote, a jacket, a satin jacket.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=314.0,351.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And he was a jolly little man.  And he showed everybody his new satin jacket and asked for their approval. After that conversation, my father approached him and told him about me, and asked if he would listen to me.  And, he said yes.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=351.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  You asked me about the type of Jewish population.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  And I said that they were very affluent.  They were also very formal.  And in this synagogue, the officers of the congregation never, never came up to the pulpit unless they were dressed, unless they were dressed in striped pants, cutaway jackets and high, silk hats.  High, silk hats.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=374.0,410.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Was this a particularly — in other words, this congregation was called The First Hungarian.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s correct.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Austro-Hungarian Jews.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That is true.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Was there a particularly, a particular Austro-Hungarian population in this area?  Were a lot of the Jews from that…\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=410.0,425.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  They must have been, because even those who were not from Hungary, very often affected a Hungarian accent in their speech of Yiddish, and even of Hebrew.  In fact, I knew, of my own knowledge, of the associate cantor who was a Russian-Polish Jew, but nevertheless, affected a Hungarian accent even in his Hebrew.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=425.0,464.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Do you remember his name?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes.  His name was Turteltaub.  Turtelbaub.  And though from his native environment, where he would ordinarily begin a service by singing, by chanting shochayn od marom v’kadosh sh’mo, here, I heard him start a service as showchan od mowron v’kowdosh sh’mow.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  The German.  The German…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  The German, yeah. As you know, the Hungarian Jews affected a, affected a German accent.  It was a, perhaps a mark of aristocracy.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And what caused your parents to move to this area?  Well, what year are we talking about?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  We’re talking about 1918.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  You moved to this area in 1918.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Moved to 110th Street.  45 W 110th Street.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  So your parents were…\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=464.0,536.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  We moved here for an economic reason.  My mother was a very, very gifted dressmaker that created garments out of a piece of robe material for very elegant customers.  And they came from all over, to the Bronx, where we lived at that time.  And they said, “We would like to come to a nicer neighborhood.  We’d go anywhere, but why don’t you move in the Harlem area?”\n\n\n\nAnd so we moved into a very famous apartment at 45-53 W 110th Street, to a nine-room apartment that was then occupied previously by a famous Dr. Jarcho —  J-a-r-c-h-o — who was world-famous at that time. And so again, coming back here, my father walked me over on the Shabbes afternoon, and asked Hazzan Yossele Rosenblatt if he would listen to his boy, his little boy.  He said, “Of course.  Sure.”  He was a very kind and jovial little man.\n\nHe walked us into the choir robing room, closed the door, and he turned to me and said, “Zingen, yingeleh.”  A command — “Sing, little boy.” \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=536.0,642.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And of course, when my knees stopped chattering against each other, I complied.  And I started to sing.  And when I got through singing, he immediately blurted out — and these were his exact words at that time, quote-unquote — “Er vech shoyn zayna hazzan” — “He will surely be a cantor.” And from then on, he became my idol in singing, in his artistry, in hazzanut.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=642.0,683.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" LEVIN:  How many, how many years did you sing in the choir here?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I sang in his choir totally, here and at another location, for almost nine years.  And I was his alto soloist.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Now, tell me — when you sang in, you sang in the choir, do you remember who the choir master was?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Of course.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Who was the choir master?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  The choir master was a famous Jewish composer, Herman Wohl, W-o-h-l.  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=683.0,713.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And Herman Wohl had a dual occupation, as a, as a musical composer.  He not only composed music for the synagogue — liturgical compositions — but, he also composed plays, the music to Yiddish plays, Yiddish theater; and was the then-resident composer-conductor at the People’s Theater on the, which was then located on the Bowery off Delancey Street, between Delancey and the street just north thereof.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=713.0,758.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And the famous stars there were Max Gable and Jennie Goldstein.  Max Gable was a dramatic actor, and Max Gable starred in the play, among many, many, many others, Der Golem — The Golem. \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=758.0,785.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And The Golem was playing at the People’s Theater, but also was playing at the theater at the corner on my right-hand side, called then the Mount Morris Theater.  And the play, at that time, was Der Golem.\n\nThe Golem, which depicted \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=785.0,810.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"the plight of the Jews in Prague at the time of the, the Maharal.  There was no way out for the alleviation of their suffering.  And so, they went to the Maharal and they asked for what kind of protection can we get to at least let us live?\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=810.0,850.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" Let us live. And it was conceived by someone that they create a monstrous figure called Der Golem, out of clay.  But how would he help them?  And they pleaded, the people pleaded with the Maharal to somehow insert into his clay body the spirit of life. \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=850.0,884.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And, he wrote on a piece of paper the shaym hameforesh, the ineffable name of God.  And there was an orifice in the chest of this clay Golem, and into that, the Maharal — Maharal placed the holy name of the Almighty, and covered it with a, an object that looked like a star. \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=884.0,919.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"As long as that was in him, he could walk and act with superhuman strength.  And that, perhaps, would be a protection for the Jews who were being so persecuted, until the very end, when they had to remove that. And of course, he fell dead, like a lump of clay. \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=919.0,946.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" I remember as a child, that with that outfit on him that was so enormously grotesque and heavy, there was a chair always outside the wings where after every scene, would be seated there, to rest while the perspiration ran down him.  I, knowing that he was Max Gable, I was afraid of this figure, the Golem!\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=946.0,976.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"What was my part in this?  The play opened with a prologue in front of the, of a curtain.  And what seemed like hundreds of people milling around in torn and tattered clothes, suffering all of the, all of the burdens of poverty and starvation, as they walked back and forth singing. \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=976.0,1005.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I was dressed as a little child, a girl, they thought a girl.  They gave me a wig that was a girl’s wig. And I was instructed to step forward in front of all of these, what seemed like hundreds of people, and I was instructed to sing,\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1005.0,1037.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"(Sings) \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Ahh, d’mosai ahh d’mosai, vilanoch velen me’leiydmen su, vilanoch vet’leiyden dein fokh yisroel, gottenyu anneinu, sh’ma koleinu\u003e   \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1037.0,1072.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Pleading to God for help.  How long will we suffer?\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  How old were you when you sang that on the stage?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I must have been, well, I was considerably older when I started here.  I was by then about nine years old.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  What, do you remember the repertoire here at all?  Does this bring back memories to you?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Oh, sure.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Were there a lot of, a lot of Herman Wohl’s arrangements?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  A lot of Herman Wohl’s and Rosenblatt’s original compositions, which Wohl arranged.  Rosenblatt was a wonderful, natural, inspired musician.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1072.0,1117.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Now maybe tomorrow we’ll get a chance, let’s hope.  But in case we don’t — you had a choir loft here?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  No, we didn’t have a choir loft.  There was the center — pulpit in the center of the synagogue, and the choir was all around, even on the steps leading up.  We had a choir of approximately — and I don’t, I estimate approximately 30 singers.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1117.0,1151.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  And the men were paid singers?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  The men, the men were — we would have four basses, four tenors, and the rest altos and sopranos.  The altos and sopranos were boys, and the sopranos, in order to make the boys’ voices more prominent then a natural boys’ voice,\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1151.0,1176.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"were augmented by men singing falsetto. We used to call them steam whistles.  In other words, a man who speaks in a bass, bass voice even — a baritone or bass voice — but in the falsetto, in a strong falsetto, that’s like a soprano, a metallic soprano.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1176.0,1200.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Now, you used to rehearse here, of course.  All the rehearsals were here.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  No.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  No?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  The rehearsals were not here.  The rehearsals were always at the home of Herman Wohl, who lived then at 55 East 3rd Street — East 2nd Street, I’m sorry.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1200.0,1223.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  So you had to go all the way from this neighborhood, all the way downtown for rehearsal.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s correct.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Once a week, twice a week?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s correct.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And never here?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Never here.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And during the week, what…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Unless we did a little rehearsal between parts of the service.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  But that’s it.\n\n\n\nAnd during the week, this, this was an active synagogue as well, at that time?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes, except that I didn’t participate in any of the activities here, except the Sabbath and holiday services.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1223.0,1254.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  And you sang from memory as a child, or you had music in front of you?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  We had music in front.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Parts?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  In fact… well, yes, of course. I was fortunate in that I was, I didn’t have to be taught by rote.  Beginning with age six, I studied the violin.  And so, I was able to read music.  I was able to sing in other choirs to augment my services here. \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1254.0,1288.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" If they would merely give me the part, give me the music, and I’d come in and do the service.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Tell me something else — this is one synagogue, this is probably the most prominent synagogue in, in those days, in this neighborhood.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  In this neighborhood…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  But, yeah.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  There were other synagogues.  There was a synagogue on 114th Street where a famous cantor, Joseph Shlisky, officiated.  But I never went there when I…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And around here…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I was busy all…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  …in this immediate area?  Do you remember any others?\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1288.0,1318.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  In this immediate area, there must have been.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Shaare Zedek?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Shaare Zedek?  No, Shaare… I don’t know — was Shaare Zedek operating at that time?  But, that was way downtown.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  They had one downtown, and they had one in Harlem, there was a Shaare Zedek in Harlem.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s fine.  As a matter of fact, I have since found out that there was also an Ansche Chesed in Harlem, on Seventh Avenue.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1318.0,1346.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  What about the neighborhood, aside from the synagogues?  I mean, were there… of course, in those days, you wouldn’t have had a, such as a thing as a Jewish school here, a day school in the neighborhood.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I don’t — the Jewish day school movement was not…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  That’s later.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  …not a common thing.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Or yeshivas that weren’t here from…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Not a common thing.  I went to a Hebrew school.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Or kosher restaurants — that you didn’t have here, in this neighborhood?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Well, I don’t know.  I, I ate at home.  And I ate at other people’s homes, sometimes. I might add this \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1346.0,1380.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" that Rosenblatt did not officiate here every Shabbat, every Sabbath.  Being a virtuoso cantor, a great star, world-famous cantor, he officiated once or twice a month.  And other Sabbath, he was free, at which time he would be engaged by some other synagogues in other neighborhoods, with the choir.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1380.0,1412.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And, if there were a shabbosim, Sabbath, when he was not engaged, I personally was engaged by other choir leaders, ‘cause I was very fortunate in being able to take their music and read it and sing the solos in their… And so, I had the opportunity to sing with many other world-famous cantors of the day.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1412.0,1442.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  So here, there must have been a hazzan shayni.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s right.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Who was that?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Hazzan shayni, as I told you, was the Sexton Turteltaub.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Oh, that was Turteltaub.  And he davenned, he, he officiated when Rosenblatt wasn’t here, in between weeks and so forth?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  And also, once, when Rosenblatt was out of reach, whether he was out of the country or not.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1442.0,1467.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"We officiated with another guest cantor by the name of Samuel Vigoda, Shmuel Vigoda.  Right here.  And it’s interesting to note that Shmuel Vigoda became the cantor here, succeeding Yossele Rosenblatt, when Yossele Rosenblatt went to another location.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1467.0,1495.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Now when did this cease becoming a, cease being a synagogue?  I mean, do you remember when that was?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That I cannot answer.  I do know, I have knowledge of the fact that this, the population began to shift, move from this location to a lower part of Manhattan.  The same population in the area of the 90s, the west 90s.  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1495.0,1529.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And so, this congregation, by this name, moved to a location on W 95th Street.  And that’s where it still stands, under the same name as this congregation, at the corner of Fifth…\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1529.0,1547.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  …Avenue, and 116th Street.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And what was it, what was it called then?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  It was called the Mount Morris Theater.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Why was it called The Mount Morris Theater?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Oh, I didn’t name it.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  I thought Mount Morris was in the Bronx.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  No, that was Morris Avenue — that’s something else.  But I didn’t name it, it was just called Mount Morris Theater.  For, I could give you a reason — because a few blocks up, there is a really mount.  You can’t go through on Fifth Avenue, because there’s a little park.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1547.0,1579.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  But this was a Jewish theater.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  It was a Yiddish theater.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  A Yiddish theater…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Jewish theater, Yiddish theater…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And you played in it.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I played in the, in the play, Der Golem, The Golem.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Here…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Right here…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  In this theater?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  And this was, the company that performed was the same company that performed on, at the Bowery People’s Theater, on the Bowery; on the East Side.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Now, how did this type of theater here differ from the… I mean, the Yiddish theaters down in the so-called theater district.  I mean, normally, one thinks of, of Yiddish theaters as all being in that area.  But and here it turns out there was one right out here.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1579.0,1624.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Because this was a solid Jewish population — right here.  As a matter of fact, just a few blocks down…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Which way?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  South.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  This way?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  On the corner of 111th Street and Lennox Avenue, there was another Yiddish theater called The Lennox Theater, which played repertory throughout the year.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1624.0,1647.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Dramatic or musical?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Both.  Because even a drama always had some music so you could go home singing something.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Now, did the people that came out here — I see it now.  There we see it, yes.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I can see the facade.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  You can see the facade, I don’t know what it, what it…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  It’s the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith now.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes, but when you see above the, if you look at the…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  The green-colored stone…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Stone…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  You see Mount Morris.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Oh, yeah.  There it is.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Do you see it?\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah, I see it — Morris, yes.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  On which side?\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Right up there.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  In the center.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  See, it says “Morris.”\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Where?  I’m looking.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Above that center window.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Under the, what do you call the…\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1647.0,1684.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  The green part?\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  …the cornice, under the cornice there.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  On the green part?\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.  See the word “Morris?”  You can’t see the theater, and Mount.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I’ll take your word.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah, I can see, now I can see the word Mount.  Mount Morris — there it is.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Mount Morris Theater.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Mount Morris Theater — it’s quite rubbed out, but you can see it.  This is a good-sized theater.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Oh, yes.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  This was a big theater.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  It was a large theater, you can see the depth of it…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Sure.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  …from the side here.  And you see the facade.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1684.0,1708.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  And this had a pit in it, and it was a regular…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Everything.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Now the people that came up here, to 110th, to 116th Street, people that came up here for Yiddish theater from other areas, or this was mostly from the neighborhood?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Well, I did not check who came there, but it was such a solid Jewish population, that this was right in their home.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  What, what was the time frame here?  I mean, you, do you have any idea how long this lasted as a Yiddish theater?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I don’t know how long it lasted beyond that, because that very same play, The Golem, I continued to sing in with the same company at the People’s Theater…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Downtown.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1708.0,1751.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  …on the Bowery, downtown.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Uh-huh.  Uh-huh.  And I wonder when this started.  I wonder when it became a Yiddish theater — when it was built, or whether it was built as a Yiddish theater.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I don’t know.  I can’t answer that.  I, that’s the way I found it, and after all, I, I wasn’t very investigative at age nine.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  So you came here for rehearsals and everything?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  No.  No.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  For the play, for The Golem?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  No, rehearsals were right, rehearsals were outside, and came here to, just the dress rehearsal.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Did you know where Goldstein’s synagogue was?\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Which Goldstein?\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  The Institutional Synagogue.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes, that’s further downtown.  That’s the West Side…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah, but it was in Harlem, also, at one time.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That I don’t know.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  And in Goldstein’s grandson’s book, he says it was across the street from Ohab Zedek.  That’s what he says, I wasn’t there.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1751.0,1801.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Across the street from… does he mean…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  This Ohab Zedek.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  this Ohab Zedek?\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  This Ohab, this Ohab Zedek.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Well, maybe that was a synagogue there.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Maybe that was the building.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Then maybe that’s the other building.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  If that’s the case, then that’s a, that’s a shul, too.  Well, we’ll take another look when we walk back. Tell me now — this neighborhood, you’re telling us that this was all a Jewish area — these buildings…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I don’t remember the buildings as such.  I can tell you that where we lived, if you want to pass there — W 110th Street, that was opposite Central Park. It was a magnificent street.  In fact, I can tell you that back in those days, it was so aristocratic that there was a switchboard operator in the lobby, with all of the plugging — so you know this is not just another apartment house.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1801.0,1852.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  What did you, what profession was your father?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  My father was not a professional.  He was a master tailor.  My mother was a master dressmaker and designer.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Musicians in the family?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  My mother had a beautiful voice.  She loved music to her last day.  And my father, was a wonderful baal t’fillah, mi kol hash… — he knew every nussach mi kol ha’shanah.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1852.0,1886.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  You learned to daven from him, then?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Of course.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Sure.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  But he didn’t have a professional voice.  It’s very melodic.  Yes, he davenned for the holidays in his later years.  As a matter of fact, in a hotel, in the hotels in the country, he got paid for services.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Barnett’s.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Huh?\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Barnett’s.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Barnett…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Dov Ber.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s right — Dov Ber.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Your tie clasp.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  No, this is another one.  This is Shlomo’s.  But I have the other one in my pocket.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  No, this one says Dov Ber.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Oh, that.  Oh, then I’m wearing it.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  You’re wearing your father’s tie clasp.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s my father’s tie clasp.  I’m Shlomo Yeshayev, but I’m Dov Ber. And my father also officiated, officiated as hazzan for the High Holy Days in Woodruff Avenue Shul…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Where Kieval was?\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1886.0,1938.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Where, yes, before Kieval was Rabbi Peymer.  He’s a wonderful baal nussach. And my mother loved to sing, and she loved music.  We were all, there were three children.  My brother, my only brother, passed away at age 28, and he was a fine musician, clari-, sax and clarinet, had his own orchestra, and doing wonderful things.  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1938.0,1971.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  All right, Cantor Bloch, we’re here in front of another one of your past lives.  The Temple Emanuel…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I’ve lived a lot of lives.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Temple Emanuel of Borough Park.  Now you were here as a, a singer in the choir first.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I was the tenor soloist in the choir for about eight years, prior to 1944.  In 1944, I became cantor here.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1971.0,1999.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  And who was the choir master there?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  The choir master was Herman Zalis, Z-a-l-i-s — a very wonderful musician and composer who had been, as a child, a singer, and with the choir master, the late David Nowakowsky.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  As a child?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  As a child.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Oh, that’s interesting.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yeah.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Zalis was in Odessa.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Zalis was in… I’m not sure of the city.  But Odessa…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Well, that’s the only one Nowakowsky was.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Oh, Nowakowsky, and Minkowsky was the hazzan.  Pinhas Minkowsky, known as Pingen Minkowsky.  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=1999.0,2037.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Zalis studied harmony, theory and composition, with Nowakowsky long after he stopped singing even, and he continued his musical education with the great Rimsky-Korsakov.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  How did you come to sing in the choir of this synagogue?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I was just engaged as a, as his, as his tenor soloist.  And thereafter, I decided that I would prepare for the cantorate seriously.  And I did.  I studied with a great man by the name of Simon Raisen.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2037.0,2082.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  But it all, so your decision to become…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  And then I became cantor here.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  …your decision to become a cantor started here, in this synagogue.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s correct.  And I became cantor here in 1944, and served until 1949, when I then went to Temple B’nai Sholom in Rockville Centre.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2082.0,2102.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And when you were here, what kind of music did you sing in the choir here?  Was it all Zalis’ arrangements, or no?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  No, Zalis — everything that we sang, even whether they were Zalis’s compositions or the compositions of all of the great Jewish liturgical composers…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Primarily Eastern European, no?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  …they were all… Eastern European for the most part, although you had French — Naumbourg and others.  And, but everything that we sang, Zalis always arranged.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2102.0,2135.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Even if it was published, printed music?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Even… we had no printed music.  It was all…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  For example, if it was Lewandowski?  If it was Naumbourg?  He still arranged it?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  He still arranged it.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  He rearranged it, that is.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Rearranged it.  Men and women were in a choir.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  How many singers were in the choir?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  We had approximately nine — eight or nine singers — doubled up on each part, and sometimes three on one of the parts.  There were times when we had three sopranos, two altos, two tenors, two basses, et cetera.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2135.0,2167.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  How often did the choir…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  In those days, in those days, did the hazzan face the omed, or did he face the…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  The hazzan faced the congregation.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Even then?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s correct.  I don’t know what they did subsequently.  But when I went to Rockville Centre, I was succeeded by the late David Kusevitsky, who remained here as cantor for, I think, about 40 years, until he died.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2167.0,2193.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I can also point out that Herman Zalis served this congregation first as choir master with the late Zavel Kwartin, of international repute, then with Benjamin Levitt, then with Charles Bloch, and finally, with David Kusevitsky.  His, he served here for 50 years, and then retired.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2193.0,2225.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  When Zalis was…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  And I might point out that upon his retirement, he turned over all of his manuscript music to me.  I was his friend, his confidante…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Who is this?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Zalis.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Zalis, turned — I was going to ask you that, yeah.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes, Zalis.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And he conducted for you after you served here, while you served here as a hazzan, too; not just while you were in the choir.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s correct.  That’s correct.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  I hear they didn’t have children in the choir, did they?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  No.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  No.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Although, we did have, at one time, a female alto who sang in the manner of a boy alto.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2225.0,2263.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Bobbie Miller.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Bobbie Miller was one of them.  Another one was a Kanefsky.  Did you know that?  The daughter of…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Bernice.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s right.  The daughter of a Hazzan Kanefsky.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Yossele Kanefsky.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s right.  And…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  So Batsheva sang with you?  She sang in the choir while you were the cantor here?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  That’s correct.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  All right.  Now to go back to Batsheva.  Who is Batsheva?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Batsheva is a girl by the name of Bernice, was a girl by the name of Bernice Kanefsky.  The daughter of a cantor, Yossele Kanefsky.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Yossele Kanefsky.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2263.0,2302.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Yossele Kanefsky.  And she was the wife of a fine musician and arranger who arranged many cantorial pieces that are recorded, and some of them, I think, by Barry Serota.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Not yet.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Not yet.  Well, they will be. At any rate, the reason for that was that the Jewish public loved to hear a boy alto voice, rather than a mezzo-soprano or even a contralto.  But the sweetness of a boy alto voice, which had a particular quality to it that was very unique… \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2302.0,2343.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"…to such an extent, that there was a time when a certain lady by the name of Bobbie Miller was engaged by — I think, Ben Friedman — at an Orthodox synagogue in this neighborhood, and sang from the balcony. Men and women did not sit together there, they were separated; separate seating.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2343.0,2372.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And for a considerable time, nobody, including the rabbi of a congregation — a very illustrious, wonderful, pious man — didn’t know that that was the voice of a lady, Bobbie Miller, and thought it was the voice of a little boy.  She had — before going in there, she would put up her hair into the, into the style of a boy, and dressed like a boy, much like the… Barbra Streisand in Yentl, if you remember.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2372.0,2407.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Did she ever get discovered?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I’m not prepared to go into any further facts on that subject.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  You heard the same story I heard.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I am not prepared…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  I heard a second story.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes?\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Can I quote the story?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Well, you may say anything you…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  You can say anything.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  It’s a free country.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.  I spoke to Oscar Julius, who was conducting before Friedman, and he told me a story that he had a boy as the soloist who went off to camp and came back and lost his voice; and he engaged Bobbie Miller to sing solos. And it was discovered, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; and he was advised by the rabbi of the congregation, that unless she left the choir, the rabbi would be losing his position in the congregation.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2407.0,2449.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  I hadn’t heard that one, but…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Is the story I heard true?  Or, have you heard the same story that… as she got up to leave during the layning or something like that, that her hair fell down.  And she was discovered.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Oh, that’s a very interesting…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Isn’t that the story?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  But I don’t know that story.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  You don’t know that story.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  And if I did know it, you wouldn’t know it from me.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Now tell me about Temple Emanuel here.  At, I mean, was it, in those days — in other words, in the late ‘40s — was it the main, the principal Conservative synagogue in this whole area of Brooklyn?\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2449.0,2486.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  It was not only the principal synagogue — Conservative — in this neighborhood, I think it was the only Conservative synagogue in this neighborhood.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And it was, it was populated well, wasn’t it?  I mean, it was…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  It was very well populated.  In fact, if you didn’t arrange — even in my time — if you didn’t arrange for your holiday seats far in advance, you couldn’t get any.  That’s how full it was; and that is including a balcony.  There’s a balcony which runs all around the synagogue.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2486.0,2522.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Uh-huh.  And how does it look today?  How does it look today compared to what it looked like in the old days?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Well, I think that it’s pitiful to look at the physical condition.  And there must be reasons for it — attrition, lack of funds, and perhaps lack of Conservative Jews that attend the synagogue because this is, at the present time, a differently populated neighborhood —  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2522.0,2557.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" very Jewish, yes, but of a different character.  They are Orthodox Jews and even ultra-Orthodox Jews, Hassidic Jews. If you look on the side streets, you will see many, many private individual synagogues.  We call them “shteblach.”  They are not regularly organized synagogues, but perhaps one particular rabbi or rebbe has his followers.  And it’s a very intimate type of service, with an intimate cliché.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2557.0,2600.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Now, was this…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Or clique, rather.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  In the late, even by the late ‘40s, would you say this neighborhood was a kind of mecca for hazzanus?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Hazzanus was big here.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes, it was.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Did people come…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  If you go back before then, it was a great, great mecca.  For example, we’re at 49th Street and 14th Avenue.  And this synagogue, there’s another synagogue about four blocks down, 45th and 14th Avenue, called Congregation Anshe Sfard.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2600.0,2636.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"In that congregation, I sang with Yossele Rosenblatt as his alto soloist.  And the same, we had the same choir, led by Herman Wohl, that we talked about in Harlem — you remember? Then, because many Jews — oh, there was a, yes — there was a man in that congregation, a very wealthy man by the name of Jonas, I think it was Max Jonas.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2636.0,2669.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Yes.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Am I correct?\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Yes.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Max Jonas was very much in love with having Rosenblatt come to this community.  And I’m talking now about the years of…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Before the Crash.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  About 1924, ’25, ’26.  And before the Crash, the famous Crash was 1929.  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2669.0,2700.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And he brought him, Max Jonas brought the famous Yossele Rosenblatt to Anshe Sfard and took two apartments, broke through, and made them into one nine-room, one large, a very large apartment, because Rosenblatt had nine children, and wanted good accommodations. At that very time that I sang with Rosenblatt in Anshe Sfard, in this edifice, Temple Emanuel, the cantor was the world-famous Zavel Kwartin, with  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2700.0,2740.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Zalis as choir leader.  On 15th Avenue and 48th Street, one block to the right and one block to the left, Temple Beth El had the famous cantor Mordechai Hershman at the same time.  So within this few block area, you had three, perhaps, of the greatest cantors of the era, of that era.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Of all time.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  There were other great cantors in this neighborhood, too.  B’nai Yehuda is a synagogue on 16th Avenue.  And of course, you have Shomrei Emuna a few blocks down. And there were wonderful cantors all over, but I’m mentioning only three who had the greatest world-famous names — Rosenblatt, Kwartin, Hershman — Hershman, Mordechai Herschman.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2740.0,2799.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Let me ask you — there, there was a time, not too long ago, when they used to have what they called the, the slichas double-header.  Remember that?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Well, you tell me…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Now, was that, well, was that in your day?  In other words…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  When you say “slichas double-header”…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  I mean that people made a point of going first here and then to Beth El.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2799.0,2817.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Well, they did, they did better than that.  What do I mean by better than that?  They would, very frequently — with such great, great hazzanim here, they would go to one hazzan — Rosenblatt, let’s say, for shakhris and haytso ha’sefer, taking out of the Torah.  And they would come over to Emanuel and hear Kwartin maybe do part of the mussaf, \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2817.0,2850.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"or they might come earlier and catch a hallel on a yontiff.  And then they would go to \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Vay Sayl\u003e on 14th Avenue, 15th Avenue and 48th Street, and hear mussaf with Hershman. So you see, you could not go to a greater cantorial exposition than that in one day.  That’s a triple-header.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  When you were cantor in this synagogue, who was the cantor at that time in the Anshe Sfard?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  When I was cantor here?\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Right.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  In Temple Emanuel?  I am not sure, but I think there was Mandelbaum, there was a Cantor Mandelbaum…\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  That was Taubé’s teacher.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Uh-huh.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  That was Moshe Taubé‘s teacher.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2850.0,2898.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Is that correct?  Cantor Mandelbaum.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  Who was the cantor in Beth El?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Who was the cantor in Beth El when?\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  When you were cantor here?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Berele Chagy. \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2898.0,2909.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH: You know what a forerunner Rosenblatt was of the so-called congregational singing?\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Yossele Rosenblatt.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Are you aware?  Yes.  I, he was criticized at that time for it.  They said, “What?  In the middle of a beautiful recitative, a kavonnah and everything, why does he do into a liedel?”  Do you remember?  A most, a great many of his recitatives ended with a liedel.  Elokai neshoma?  And then he winds up with \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2909.0,2936.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"(singing) Modeh ani li’fanecha… et cetera.  So you see…\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2936.0,2963.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  But that’s not for shul.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  That’s a concert number.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Well, I’ll give you… there are shul numbers also where you have it.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  But you started, you started to explain something.  You said, why did he do that?  You were giving that as an example.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2963.0,2977.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Because I think he felt the \u003cSOUNDS LIKE funch steimel\u003e.  You know.  Amcho.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Could understand that.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  And he also had a Hassidic background.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Of course, I mean, just for the record, this phenomenon of ignoring anything deep or any significance or the meaning of the text and just glossing over with the tunes is not any more in the Orthodox than it is in the Conservative than it is nowadays in the Reform Movement.  It’s all, this is equally spread out.  It has nothing to do with Hassidim anymore, nothing.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=2977.0,3013.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Is there any point…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  As a matter…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  …in singing a t’fillah — whether you’re Reform, Conservative or Orthodox, if you’re not going to say something?\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Of course, you know my answer to that is “no”.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Well, of, please.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Of course.  But the point is, we’re interested in what you…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  It is the word.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  But he had an interesting point, you have to acknowledge it.  It isn’t necessarily true that people sitting back and loving you here in 1947 understood the real meaning or cared about the text any more than they would today; just that they liked the emotional and the artistic.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3013.0,3050.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  May I go to an extreme?  You know the intensity and the holiness of the words of the hymn adon olam asher mollah b’terem kol, yetsir neivrah?  I mean, this is not to be played around.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  No, it’s a serious, it’s a serious…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  How would you like it, how would you like to hear, after the World Series, they get up in a congregation and they all sing, (Singing to the tune of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”) Adon olom asher mollah b’terem kol yetsir neivrah?  Take Me Out To the Ballgame.  And that’s okay, huh?  Because everybody knows, it’s a nice tune.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3050.0,3088.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Do you know any synagogue where people have done that tune?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  I do, too.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I heard it.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Just for the record, so that we’re not joking.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I heard it.  I don’t, I don’t speak…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Let me ask your opinion of another thing.  Supposing a congregation comes to a hazzan and says, “You know the theme song of The Gong Show?”  (He hums it)  And says, “You must sing Adon Olam to this theme song of The Gong Show.”\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I believe it.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Or you’ll be fired.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I believe it.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  What do you think of that?\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3088.0,3114.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Hah, it’s pitiful.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  What if — I’m going to ask you the leading question, as they say, in your other profession.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  How do you know I have another profession?  None of these people do.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  We’ll talk about that tomorrow.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I’m a shaliach tzibbur in…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Another shaliach tzibbur…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  …in more, in more than one sense.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  …before, before a different kind of judge.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  But if, if a congregation came to you and said, you must sing Adon Olam to Gong Show or Take Me Out to the Ballgame or The Saints Go Marching In, would you do it?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  No.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And what if they said then you’re, then you’re not for our congregation.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I would, then I’d have to look for another congregation.  I don’t, I don’t think, I would not stoop to that, okay?\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3114.0,3156.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  And what if all cantors in America stuck together on that kind of a position?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I think we would get somewhere.  I think we are more than just singers.  We are educators.  We have to bring the congregation up, not go down to the level that they have sunk.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Hear ye, hear ye.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3156.0,3176.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  I heard, and this is with my own ears, I’m not speaking about hearsay — oh, somebody did such-and-such — because hearsay is not important to me, and it’s not admissible in my ears, because of my, my own other frame…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Other profession.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes.  But, if I tell you that I also heard Adon Olam sung to the tune of La Donna e Mobile from Rigoletto…\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3176.0,3209.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  And does anyone listening to it even have an idea what the Italian words to La Donna e Mobile even mean?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes.\n\n\n\nSEROTA:  That’s why they’re singing it to that melody.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3209.0,3238.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Sure.  And I’ll tell you.  And why do they, and they sing it to? I said, “Do you know who sings that?  That’s sung by the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto.  And you know what he is?  He’s a lecher!  Come on!  He’s a… no woman is safe around the place when he’s… and that you’re putting on Adon Olam?”\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And do you know what the answer of the congregations who want that is?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  “This is what the public will.”\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Right.  The people…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I’m very, very sorry.  Then I, then I say, we’re, if we cannot be educated, why not give them what they like?  Maybe they’d like to have a Broadway show put in front of them.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Well, I’ll tell you what I answered when one of my, a student of mine told me that she was instructed to sing The Gong Show tune to Adon Olam.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  You told me that.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  I said, “Supposing they ask you to daven without any clothes on?  Would you, I mean, the people would love it — would you do it?”\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3238.0,3267.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  Well, that’s the same thing.  And suppose I were to tell you that a hazzan in, in an Orthodox congregation would get up before the open ahron kodesh, and instead of whatever is appropriate for the words etz chaim he, gets up and acts like an opera singer and sings, (Sings, to the tune of The Toreador’s Song from Carmen, imitating) “Etz chaim he l’machazekem bah…”.  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3267.0,3299.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\n\n\nAnd the public, the officers and the baalei battim, “Oh, it’s a regular opera singer!  Wunderbar!” You know who sings, where that’s sung?  That’s “The Toreador’s Song” from Carmen.  Do you know when it’s sung and by who it’s sung?  It’s sung by the Toreador, the bullfighter, who’s a bum!  A real bum!  And you know when he sings it?  When he’s victorious in the bullfight, and he comes back to, as a hero, and he, he goes where — to a house of ill-repute. \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3299.0,3331.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And he jumps on the table and all the women are around him, adoring him.  And he sings, (Singing) “Oh raya bam…”\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  But…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  To that you sing etz chaim he, and the congregation says, “Oh!  A regular opera singer!”\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  But you don’t know any congregation really, in America, that, where they sang that melody for etz chaim he.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I don’t want to say.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  You don’t have to say which one.  Just say…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I won’t say.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Do you know any congregation that actually did that?  This is for history — you don’t have to name the congregation.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  No, I will not.  I will not.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3331.0,3366.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Or did you just make it up?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I’ll tell you that, I’ll tell you that they won’t even do that in a Reform temple or a Conservative temple.  But there are many operatic tunes that are stuck into Orthodox services by Orthodox…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Traviata has been stuck into the kiddushe…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  …hazzanim.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  …and so forth, of course.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3366.0,3383.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BLOCH:  And I’ll go one step further.  I don’t think it’s appropriate even to sing in a kiddushe an Israeli love song.  It’s not appropriate.  What you sing…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Are you referring to Erev Shel Shoshanim?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  Yes.  Thank you very much.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Did you ever hear…\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  (Sings) Erev shel shoshanim… and the congregation loves it.  Oh, they go crazy over it.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  And it has nothing to do with the words whatsoever.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3383.0,3415.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":" BLOCH:  Nothing to do with them.\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  It doesn’t even fit the words.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  And what’s more, what’s more, it’s a violation of bayn kodesh la’chol.  It’s a violation of bayn kodesh la’chol.  What is sung on the street, albeit Israeli.  This mundanity is in Israel, too. And so far as shuls are concerned in Israel — you want to hear great hazzanus, you go to a concert in Israel.  They’ll stay till 2:00 in the morning and love it.  \n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3415.0,3417.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/106","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\n\n\nBut go into an Israeli shul, an Orthodox shul albeit, they want to get started at 8:00 in the morning, and be through at five minutes before eight.  There’s no hazzanus.  They won’t listen to it. Why?  There’s a reason also.  Because it’s a five-day, you have a six-day week; not a five-day week.  On Shabbes, you’re going to rest.  Sunday you go to work again.  So Shabbes, you daven fast, come home early, and you have time for a lot of…\n\n\n\nLEVIN:  Yes.  So what are you going to do to change it?\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  I’ll have to call on Eliyahu ha’navi\n\n.\n\nSEROTA:  Rap.\n\n\n\nBLOCH:  And on that we close.\n\n\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3417.0,6853.73"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770/transcript/24195/annotation/107","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\n ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39394/file/110770#t=3494.0,3511.616"}]}]}]}