Shmutz: Funny and Colorful Songs by Shoah Survivors, with Miriam Isaacs

Lecture #53 in Joshua Horowitz’s series, The Promiscuous World of Jewish Music

Shmutz: Funny and Colorful Songs by Shoah Survivors, with Miriam Isaacs

Monday, July 19, 11am Pacific Time/2pm New York/ 7pm London/ 8pm Paris/ 9pm Tel Aviv. Please confirm the local time.

Length: 1 – 2 hours

Donations to Josh Horowitz are accepted and appreciated, but not required.

Zoom Meeting ID: 967 8901 9038
Password: 156230

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In a hotel lobby on the upper West Side of Manhattan, a bunch of survivors and assorted Yiddish lovers clustered around Ben Stonehill’s microphone to sing and share. They sang to tell their stories and feelings but also to laugh and enjoy themselves. At time, clusters, often of guys, would sing bawdy or funny songs and this talk is about those songs. This material was collected in 1948 and much of this material is available through the U.S. Holocaust Museum or the Center for Traditional Music and Dance. Miriam Isaacs worked with Bret Werb at the Museum to develop this valuable archive. So come and laugh along and be prepared to blush.

About Joshua Horowitz»

This project has been made possible in part by a grant from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, in partnership with the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Grants for the Arts, and The California Endowment.