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Garage yields 85,000 folios
of Yiddish ‘golden oldies’
Workers from the National Yid
dish Book Center in Amherst, Mass,
have recovered a treasure-trove of
almost 85,000 folios of out-of-print
Jewish music from a garage in
Boro Park, Brooklyn. The collec
tion, which includes long out-of-
print “hits” from the Yiddish
theater, songs of the Jewish pio
neers in Israel, Yiddish folksongs
and cantorial scores, is believed to
represent the largest single inven
tory of Yiddish music anywhere in
the world.
Virtually all of the music was
published by Metro Music, a well-
known music publisher on New
York’s Lower East Side. When
Metro Music went out of business
in the early 1970s, its entire unsold
stock was purchased on specula
tion by a group of private inves
tors. The Metro Music building
was eventually demolished, and
the collection of sheet music was
stored in a succession of New York
City locations.
As it turned out, the investors
were ahead of their time: wide
spread revival of interest in Yid
dish culture had not yet begun, and
commercial outlets for the sale of
Yiddish music were limited. Even
tually, ownership of the materials
passed to Sidney Rimmer, a part-
time cantor who works as a com
puter auditor for the City of New
York. Rimmer believed that pres
ervation of the music was a mitzva,
regardless of its commercial value.
With the help of friends he cleared
out the two-car garage behind his
home in Boro Park, a primarily
Hasidic section of Brooklyn. He
erected second-hand steel shelving
and carefully packed away the
thousands of folios of sheet music,
hoping that some day they would
be of interest once again.
The materials remained in
Rimmer’s garage for 13 years. Oc
casionally local Orthodox and Ha
sidic cantors would hear of the col
lection and come to Rimmer in
search of a particular piece of
liturgical music. For the most part,
however, the existence of the 85,000
folios remained largely unknown.
Last month, news of the treasure
reached Rabbi Aryeh Gotlieb of
Paramus, N.J. A long-time lover
of Yiddish and cantorial music,
Gotlieb traveled to Boro Park to
investigate. He took one look at
Rimmer’s garage and immediately
recognized the historical signifi
cance of the long-lost collection.
Gotlieb phoned Aaron Lansky,
executive director of the National
Yiddish Book Center in Amherst.
The center is a non-profit organi
zation which has attracted world
wide attention for its campaign to
rescue unwanted and discarded
Yiddish books and return them to
active use. Lansky, 31, immediately
Torah thoughts
Made to order
Adapted from the works of Rabbi Menachem M
Schnecrson. the I ubavitcher Rcbbe, by Rabbi
Yossi New. Chabad of Georgia
Rabbi Schneerson
Moshe reminds Israel that it was
the Almighty "...Who led you
through the great, terrifying de
sert...When there was no water, it
was He Who provided you water
from the flinty rock.”
A cardinal Jewish belief is hash
gacha pratiss, G-d’s particular
providence. An insight into the
workings of this Divine providence
is provided by the verse “(Give
thanks) to Him Who alone per
forms great wonders for His kind
ness is (I’olam) eternal.” The ex
pression “is eternal” is the simple
idiomatic translation of the Hebrew
I’olam. However, I’olam is more
literally rendered “for the world”
(...His kindness is for the world).
The Almighty, through hashgacha
pratiss, takes care first and fore
most of Israel’s needs; but in doing
so He also provides a kindness for
the world. Supplying water in the
desolate wilderness was, obviously,
not a natural occurence but G-d’s
“great wonder” performed specifi
cally for His people Israel. But
there was a “kindness for the world”
too: Being able to drink water in
the desert enabled the Jews to con
tinue serving G-d—.thereby elevat
ing, refining and spiritualizing their
worldly surroundings.
G-d’s providence is in effect not
only in the ancient desert but every
where, including the 20th century
urban setting. Picture the scene: A
thirsty little boy is walking down
the street on a hot summer’s day on
his way to cheder. He knows he
will be able to study his Torah les
sons much better if he can have a
drink. At that moment an ice cream
truck—which happens to carry
kosher cold drinks—turns into the
street. Sheer coincidence?—No!—
hashgacha pratiss. The Almighty
set in motion an intricate train of
cause-and-effect—the truck driver
to get up in the morning at a par
ticular time, to leave on his route at
a particular time, to follow a par
ticular route which would take him
past the cheder child etc.—all in
order that this child should have a
drink and be able to pursue his
Torah studies with a clear head!
Indeed, a “great wonder;” but
where is the “kindness to the world?”
The street corner at which the child
now pronounces the bracha before
drinking may have waited thou
sands of years—perhaps since cre
ation—for a Jewish child to bless
G-d—elevating and sanctifying that
place, fulfilling the purpose of
creation, and “bringing joy and
pleasure” (so to speak) to the
Creator.
phoned Rimmer and arranged for
the entire collection to be donated
to the center, where it could be
properly stored and catalogued.
“This is one of the most extraor
dinary discoveries in the center’s
history,” said Lansky, upon review
ing the collection. “During the last
seven years the Yiddish Book Cen
ter has rescued almost a half mil
lion Yiddish books, but we’ve found
less than 200 folios of Yiddish
sheet music. Until we actually saw
Mr. Rimmer’s garage, we were
afraid that Yiddish music was lost
forever. These folios will be an
incomparable boon to students,
scholars and lovers of Jewish music
around the world.”
Workers at the Yiddish Book
Center are now sorting the music,
entering titles and inventory into a
computerized data base. Although
cataloguing is not complete, hun
dreds of titles have already been
identified. They include favorites
from the Yiddish theater such as
“Roumania, Roumania,” made fa
mous by Aaron Lebedeff, “Rei-
zele,” “Rozhinkes mit mandlen
(Raisins and Almonds)” and “A
Yidish meydl darf a yidishn boy (A
Jewish Girl Needs a Jewish Boy).”
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PAGE 11 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE August 29, 1986