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The history of Black-Jewish cultural interaction primarily focuses on how Jews adopted and adapted Black vernacular music — ragtime, jazz, swing, R&B and blues, etc. — as performers, promoters, managers, club owners and record labels. However, what has never before been explored were the African-Americans who performed Yiddish and cantorial music in and for the Jewish community, in theaters on record, radio and in concert between the World Wars. The talk will honor the memory of now forgotten Black cantor Thomas LaRue Jones. The talk will feature historic graphics and translations of period Yiddish newspaper previews, ads and reviews and the playing of his only known Yiddish and Hebrew recording.
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This program features the breathtaking stories and genealogical sleuthwork of Doreen Carvajal and Genie Milgrom, who succeeded in reaching back centuries to find their Jewish ancestors in pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal. (more…)
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This Father’s Day program pays tribute to three generations of men in the Morgenthau family — an American Jewish dynasty whose continual fight for justice has brought them to the forefront of the most dramatic events of the past hundred years. From fighting for international action against the genocide of Armenians on the cusp of WWI, through the efforts to rescue Jews during the Holocaust despite American political obstruction, and on to the struggle to reduce street crime and pioneer the prosecution of white collar corruption in New York City, the trajectory of the three Morgenthau generations epitomizes the American experience and the lasting value of public service.