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Danny Raskin - Jan. 14, 2000 I-lOUSE OF INDIA For Authentic Indian Cuisine t + i Bring in this coupon for a 1 Mon-Thurs 11:30-10 I 1 ■ FREE appetizer or dessert : Expires 3/31/02 • Fri 11:30-11 Sat 12-11 • Sun 12 - 10 3/15 (248) 553-7391 2002 28841 Orchard Lake Road (between 12 & 13 Mile Rd.) • Farmington Hills 80 ? Yiddish radio grew fewer and fewer, as did its audience. The Reed Johnson Immigration Act of 1924 had already restricted immigra- tion from Eastern Europe and marked what Sapoznik calls "the beginning of the end for a renewable Yiddish culture in America." By the 1950s, whatever vestiges of Yiddishkeit survived the Holocaust now faced the inevitable pull of assimilation, and as the generations of Yiddish speakers faded into silence, so did Yiddish radio. PERRNINWICES: Wed. 7:30 p.m. (Wed. March 13, 2 pan. matinee only no evening performance) Feb. 20-March 24, 2002 Car and Truck Rental from page 77 Rescuing Yiddish Radio Decades later, Sapoznik and Lanset were laboring to resurrect it. But near- ly 10 years into their work, they were struggling to raise funds for continued acquisition and preservation. By 1994, plans for the documentary had begun to stall when Sapoznik met David Isay, an award-winning radio documentarian. While working with Isay on a project for Isay's production company, Sound Portraits, Sapoznik played him some of the recordings he'd rescued. "When I heard the swing version of "Dayenu," I just pestered him to let me get in on it," recalls Isay. Sound Portraits proved to be a per- fect partner. "We usually do social jus- tice kinds of things," says Isay, "but part of our mission is to celebrate hid- den voices. These are ordinary people, and the recordings are very immediate and intimate." The producers at Sound Portraits joined Sapoznik in gathering anecdotes and reminiscences from residents at Jewish community centers and retire- ment homes in New York and Florida. For Sound Portraits associate producer Yair Reiner, this was an especially grati- fying part of the project. "When you ask someone if they remember Yiddish radio and this look comes over his face," says Reiner, "it's an incredible thing." Over the next several years, Sapoznik and Isay sifted through more than 2,000 hours of accumu- lated recordings and interviews. Now, more than 15 years since Henry Sapoznik first happened upon those dusty discs, the Yiddish Radio Project is finally set to premiere. It will offer a survey of Yiddish radio programs, with segments featuring the dramas of Nahum Stutchkoff and a show called Reunion, in which a Holocaust survivor and his father are reunited. Because the majority of the record- ings is in Yiddish, many of the seg- ments will provide translations per- formed by Yiddish theater veterans Fyvush Finkel, Lillian Lux and Seymour Rexite, as well as actors Eli Wallach and Carl Reiner, who por- trays a radio personality known as "the Jewish Philosopher." In addition to selections from Yiddish Melodies in Swing, which ran from 1938-1955, the series features other musical segments, as well as commercials of the era. To coincide with the documen- tary's 10-week run, Sound Portraits and Sapoznik's folk arts organization Living Traditions will launch a pro- motional tour for which Sapoznik has assembled an all-star band of vet- eran klezmorim. (The tour stops at Chicago's North Shore Center for the Performing Arts on April 25. For information, call 847-673-6300.) In addition, a Web-based Yiddish radio "museum" will go online, with virtual "wings" added as each radio segment airs. The site, at www.YiddishRadioProject.org , will offer a complete digital archive of recordings that visitors can listen to with the aid of the "Yid-O-Matic," a Real Audio program that provides textual translations of the Yiddish in sync with the streaming audio. A soundtrack of music from the Project will be released in conjunc- tion with the series launch, and a two-CD collection from the entire series will be released in June. Reflecting on the culmination of his efforts to rescue Yiddish radio, Sapoznik prefers to see it as a begin- ning. "I hope this will open up a brand- new field of study," he says, "a paral- lel field to the mainstream radio his- tory. It's the other golden age of radio. And it shows how exuberant and cutting edge Yiddish culture in America really was." ❑ -- The Yiddish Radio Project airs on consecutive Tuesdays beginning March 19 during All Things Considered, 4 p.m. on local NPR affiliates WDET-101.9-FM, WUOM-91.7-FM and WEMU- 89.1-FM. Web visitors will be able to catch the series, as well as hear additional Yiddish radio shows with real-time English text translations, and explore other related visual and text materials, on • www.YiddishRadioProjectorg.