The Jewish Sound Archive, a website created by Thayer Professor Alex Hartov and co-organized by Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Professor Lewis Glinert, will make its online debut this term, serving as a resource of Jewish music, history and culture.
On this website, Dartmouth students will have access to a wide variety of programming including Yiddish radio jingles predating World War II, a radio broadcast of the United Nations' vote for the creation of the state of Israel and contemporary Israeli folk music.
"As far as I know, we are the first university in the world to create an online streaming database of Jewish sounds," Glinert said.
Hartov developed the archive in 1992 after stumbling upon old records belonging to Eddie Gilman, his wife's uncle.
Gilman had used the records while hosting a Yiddish radio show in Boston called "The Yiddish Hour," and Hartov later inherited Gilman's collection of recordings and transcripts.
Hartov worked hard to restore the records, due to their condition after storage in a basement. "The material had been neglected over the years and was damaged by floods and mold," Hartov said.
Using his engineering skills, Hartov has procured the equipment to digitize the old 78-rpm records, long-playing records, recordable discs -- records made of plastic on a metal substrate -- and tape material during the past 10 years. His goal is to provide easy access to the obscure recordings.
The Archive uses streaming technology to enable students to hear recordings at the computer. The students will not be able to download the files a la Napster, however, due to copyright laws.
In contrast to the relative ease with which students will to be able to listen to files on the website in the comfort of their own rooms, students cannot actually remove CDs and records from the Paddock Music Library.
According to Paddock staff member David Bowden, "CDs and recordings don't leave the library." Instead, Paddock accommodates students with its 13 stereo systems for listening purposes within the library.
Hartov estimates that he has over 6,000 diverse sound files in a dozen or so languages, including Hebrew, Yiddish, French, Russian, English and Ladino -- an archaic language similar to Yiddish in that it mixes Hebrew with the local language, Spanish.
"It extends from Klevmer through Israeli folk music and synagogue music to humor pieces -- you name it," Glinert said.
Far from being limited to just music, Hartov's collection also includes radio jingles and broadcasts, didactic material, historical documents, political speeches, drama and children's music.
Further, students will be able to access information about the technical and artistic aspects of the recording, including its composer and lyrics, Hartov said.
While Hartov has been digitizing audio files for years, Glinert developed the idea of using the database for teaching purposes. He plans to incorporate the website into the curricula of two of his courses: Israeli Literature of War and Peace and a seminar on Jerusalem.
"My immediate thought was, 'I, myself, make a lot of use of Hebrew music,'" Glinert said, adding, "It is a great source for teaching."
The Computing Technology Venture Fund of the College has donated money for the development of the Archive website. According to Hartov, most of the funds were used to hire programmers at Academic Computing Services to design the website. He and Glinert expect the Archive to be online and ready for students to use sometime during this term.
The Archive will be organized into the searchable categories of title, performer, composer and genre.
Hartov said he envisions that the Archive will preserve aspects of Jewish culture that are not being perpetuated, such as the Yiddish language, and continues to find new material, traveling with a tape recorder. On a recent visit to Israel, he interviewed two people who had emigrated there from Yemen, engaging in a practice called "field recording."
"The man had left Yemen because of a rumor that the Messiah was going to come, and he was convinced that it was time to leave," Hartov said. The woman told Hartov what it was like to be a Jew in Yemen, and she described her extensive migration to Israel in 1946. Hartov plans to digitize these field recordings and add conversations to the Archive website.
The Archive is a culmination of the two professors' interests, studies and hobbies, and the two can readily cite favorites. One of Glinert's preferred recordings in the Archive is "Shir Lashalom," or "Song of Peace," composed by Yair Rosenblum and Yaakov Rotblit. Yitzhak Rabin, the former Prime Minister of Israel, had listened to the song right before his assassination and even had the lyrics in his jacket at the time of his death.
Although Hartov said he doesn't necessarily listen to this type of music in his free time, he does enjoy Jo Amar's song "Barcelona." A nostalgic song about the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, "Barcelona" presents Spanish music in the Jewish tradition.
These pieces are only two of the thousands that the Dartmouth community will soon be able to use and enjoy.
