Sound Archive
The Max and Frieda Weinstein Archive of YIVO Sound Recordings houses over 15,000 recordings, including 78, 45, and 33 rpm discs; cylinder recordings; open-reel and cassette tapes; piano rolls; and compact discs. The collection includes both music and spoken word recordings, and also contains record catalogs, and other materials related to the history of recorded Jewish music. The earliest item in the collection is a wax cylinder, dating from 1900.
YIVO's collection of recorded Jewish music is one of the most extensive and frequently consulted in the world. It embraces all genres, including:
- Yiddish and Hebrew art, folk, popular and theater music
- Holocaust songs
- Liturgical and Hasidic music
- Choral music
- Instrumental compositions
- Children's songs
- Holiday songs
- Klezmer music
The collection includes unique test recordings never released by the record companies that made them, as well as the only known surviving examples of some released recordings.
The Sound Archive also has custody of spoken word and field recordings originating in other record groups in the Archives, including:
Gershon Sirota. (RG 115 Sound Recordings
Collection)
- Over 200 recordings of Jewish radio programs spanning the years 1936 to 1955 (Collection of Radio Programs, RG 130).
- 43 oral history interviews about the history of the American Jewish labor movement, taped by YIVO in 1964-1968 (Oral History Collection on the Labor Movement, RG 113).
- Several hundred interviews with Jews from Eastern and Western Europe, and with American Jews, recorded by Beatrice Silverman Weinreich and her colleagues as part of the YIVO Dialect Project in 1948-1949.
- Field recordings of Hasidic, cantorial, folk, Sephardic, and theater music (Ruth Rubin, Benedict Stambler, and Ben Stonehill Collections, RGs 620, 1014, 533).
The Ruth Rubin Legacy: Archive of Yiddish Folksongs
For reference questions, to make an appointment, donate sound documents or order sound reproductions, call (212) 294-6169 or write to soundarchives@yivo.org. Due to a high volume of inquiries it may take up to a week to receive a response.
The Max and Frieda Weinstein Archive of YIVO Sound Recordings is a division of the Sidney Krum Jewish Music and Yiddish Theater Memorial Collections.
Links to other Jewish sound collections
Feher Jewish Music Center at Beth Hatefutsoth, Israel
The Judaica Collection of the Harvard College Library
Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary