Guide to the Records of the New England Jewish Music Forum, undated, 1953-1990
 
*I-270

Processed by Lael Dalal

Jewish Heritage Center at NEHGS

99-101 Newbury St.

Boston, MA 02116

Email: jhcreference@nehgs.org

URL: jewishheritagecenter.org

© 2019  Jewish Heritage Center at NEHGS, Boston, MA. All Rights Reserved.

Machine-readable finding aid created by Lael Dalal as MS Word document, December 2013. Finding aid was encoded by Christine McEvilly on May 13, 2014. Description is in English.

Historical Note1

The New England Jewish Music Forum was a non-profit organization created in 1958 committed to organizing and presenting performances of Jewish music in the Boston area. The mission of the Forum was to “promote interest in Jewish Music; elevate and maintain high standards of programming and performance; encourage writing of new works and to present young artists as well as established performers. Through a series of four varied concerts each season, featuring solo singers and instrumentalists, vocal and instrumental ensembles, operas, dancing groups, and lectures, the Forum reveals to its own eager and loyal membership as well as to the community at large, a rich treasury of Jewish culture.”

The founders of the Music Forum included Russian-born pianist and composer Lazar Weiner; his niece, Minuetta Kessler, a pianist, teacher and composer; her husband Michael Kessler; Cantor Alex Zimmer; Cantor Jack Seully; and his wife, Rose Seully; composer Herbert Fromm; and his wife, Leni Fromm. The concerts included performances by theater troupes, orchestras, concert choirs, and singers. Past presidents included Alex Zimmer, Cantor Michal (Michael) Hammerman, Mary Wolfman-Epstein, and Murray Coran. Most performances included spoken commentary on the work, and sometimes a small reception afterwards giving members an opportunity to meet the artists.

Concerts were held at various congregations including Temple Israel in Boston, Massachusetts, Congregation Kehillath Israel and Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, Massachusetts, and concert halls at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Audiences often numbered well over 1,000 people. The organization scouted and hired performers for the concerts and critiqued each performance at their meetings. Artists were from across the country and around the world. Those featured at the New England Jewish Music Forum concerts included David Bar-Illan, Theodore Bikel, Jan Peerce, Nico Castel, Minuetta Kessler, Shlomo Mintz, Judith Raskin, and Mary Wolfman-Epstein. The organization closed its doors in 1990 after thirty-two years due to financial hardship and low membership. They gave the remaining funds to the National Center for Jewish Film in order to help underwrite their production of Great Cantors of the Golden Age, a film which debuted in 2006 and featured rare performances of renowned cantors from 1910 to the 1940s.

• Footnotes

• ¹ Information used in this finding aid is from the following sources:
  
  The National Center for Jewish Film "Great Cantors of the Golding Age" <http://www.jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/greatcantors.htm>.
  
  Materials from the Collection
  

Scope and Content Note

The Records of the New England Jewish Music Forum include meeting minutes, by-laws, and finances, as well as photographs of Forum events, performance programs and brochures, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and concert files. Concert files include correspondence between the Forum and the artists, newspaper clippings, and professional photographs and promotional materials from the artist. Although there are no audio or video recordings of the events in the collection, one performance is available online on The Internet Archive: "A Chassidic Evening" by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, performed by Cantor Alex Zimmer and Cantor Michal (Michael) Hammerman at Congregation Kehillath Israel in the mid-1960s.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into 4 series as follows:

• Series I: Correspondence, undated, 1958-1990
  • Subseries A: General
  • Subseries B: Members
• Series II: General, undated, 1953-1990
• Series III: Governance, undated, 1966-1989
• Series IV: Performances, undated, 1953-1990
  • Subseries A: Concert Files
  • Subseries B: Programs

Access and Use

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Director of Collections and Engagement of the American Jewish Historical Society, except items that are restricted due to their fragility.

Use Restrictions

Information concerning the literary rights may be obtained from the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society. Users must apply in writing for permission to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection. For more information contact:
American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY, 10011
email: reference@ajhs.org

Related Material

Congregation Kehillath Israel (Boston, MA), I-488

Mary Wolfman Epstein Papers, unprocessed

Temple Israel (Boston, MA), I-458

Temple Ohabei Shalom (Brookline, MA), I-459

Internet Archive, “New England Jewish Music Forum: A Chasidic Evening Featuring Reb Schlomo Carlebach and Cantor Michael Hammerman"

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); New England Jewish Music Forum Records; I-270; box number; folder number; Jewish Heritage Center at NEHGS.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Cantor Murray E. Simon, 1991.

Access Points

This collection is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

• Subject Names:

  • Epstein, Mary Wolfman -1998
  • Fromm, Herbert
  • Kessler, Minuetta
  • Weiner, Lazar, 1897-1982

• Subject Organizations:

  • New England Jewish Music Forum

• Subject Topics:

  • Concerts -- New England.
  • Folk-songs, Jewish (Yiddish)
  • Jewish composers
  • Jewish dance
  • Jewish musicians.
  • Jewish singers
  • Jewish theater
  • Jews -- New England -- Music.
  • New England
  • Songs, Hebrew
  • Synagogues--Massachusetts--Boston--History
  • Theater performances

• Subject Places:

  • Boston (Mass.)
  • Brookline (Mass.)

• Document Types:

  • Advertisements
  • Brochures
  • Clippings (information artifacts)
  • Correspondence
  • Photographs
  • Programs (documents)
  • Sheet Music
  • Theater Programs

Container List

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Click the box in the request column to learn more about viewing materials at the Jewish Heritage Center at NEHGS.

Series I: Correspondence, undated, 1958-1990
English.
Box 1
Arrangement: Arranged into two Subseries by type of correspondent.
Scope and Content: This series includes correspondence to and from members, the program committee and the board, as well as correspondence to agencies and artists regarding possible performance dates.
Subseries A: General, undated, 1958-1988
English.
Box 1, Folders 1-8
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically.
Scope and Content: This sub-series includes correspondence between board members regarding event logistics, as well as correspondence between the Forum, event venue staff, and artist agencies.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
1	1-8	General	undated, 1958-1988
Subseries B: Members, 1958-1990
English.
Box 1, Folders 9-10
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically.
Scope and Content: This sub-series includes correspondence between the Forum and its members regarding membership recruitment, upcoming concerts, and detailed newsletters of upcoming concert seasons.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
1	9-10	Members	1958-1990

Series II: General, undated, 1966-1989
English.
Box 2.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Scope and Content: This series includes a large collection of news clippings regarding the Forum's upcoming events and reviews of performances from 1958-1990, sheet music catalogs, a list of recorded concert tapes (which are not part of the collection), event photographs, and information regarding the creation and the closing of the Forum.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
2	1	American Conference of Cantors	1966
2	2	Closing of the New England Jewish Music Forum	1988-1990
2	3	Creation of the New England Jewish Music Forum	undated, 1958-1959
2	4	Event Photographs	undated, 1967
2	5	List of Concert Tapes	undated
2	6	Music Catalogs	undated, 1953-1987
2	7-9	News Clippings	undated, 1958-1990

Series III: Governance, undated, 1966-1989
English.
Box 3 and one OS1 folder.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by type of document.
Scope and Content: This series includes Forum meeting minutes from 1966-1986 which include critiques of past performances, information regarding the expense of the concerts, and ideas about upcoming events. The meeting minutes also include a graph of membership numbers on the back of a large black and white photograph of a young girl (located in a shared oversize box). Governance also includes lists of members of the executive board, program committee notes, financial statements of receipts and disbursements, a corporation document, and by-laws from various years.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
3	1	By Laws	undated
3	2	Corporation	1967
3	3	Finances	1966-1989
3	4-6	Meeting Minutes	1966-1986
3	7	Members of Executive Board	1970-1988
3	8	Program Committee Meeting Notes	1977-1979
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
OS1 Consolidated Box		Membership Graph Photograph	undated

Series IV: Performances, undated, 1953-1990
English.
Boxes 4-7.
Arrangement: Arranged into two subseries by type of performance.
Scope and Content: This series contains materials relating to the events that the Forum conducted, including correspondence between the Forum, artists, or agencies; photographs of the artists; newspaper clippings regarding the artist and their performances; promotional materials from each artist; promotional fliers for the Forum's performances; and programs from each performance.
Subseries A: General, undated, 1953-1990
English.
Box 4-7
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by date of performance.
Scope and Content: This sub-series contains materials from the four performances that the Forum held each year and are arranged by date of performance. Most concert files contain the program for the event, correspondence between the artist and the Forum before and after the concert, and various promotional materials that the artist sent to the Forum for publicity. These can be “glossies,” or professional photographs of the artist, and promotional brochures and fliers. There are concert files on most but not every performance. Some concert files are joined together by season instead of individual performance since there was a lack of material for some performances, such as the 29th Season (1986-1987). For a complete look at the performances held, see the Programs sub-series. The concert files include artists such as David Bar-Illan, Theodore Bikel, Mira Gilbert, Boris Goldovsky, Minuetta Kessler, Ruthi Navon, Jan Peerce, and Martha Schlamme.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
4	1	Martha Schlamme, 11/22/1960	undated, 1960
4	2	“The Golem,” 11/14/1961	undated, 1961
4	3	Rakhel Hadass, 11/13/1962	undated, 1962
4	4	Hanoch Greenfeld, 1/23/1963	1963
4	5	“Isaac Levi and Chelm,” 11/19/1963	1963
4	6	“A Literary Evening with Music,” 6/7/1967	1967
4	7	Jack Glatzer, 3/11/1968	undated, 1967-1968
4	8	Netania Davrath, 4/24/1968	1962-1968
4	9	Mira Gilbert and Frances Alenikoff, 11/20/1968	undated, 1964-1968
4	10	Ophra Yerushalmi, 1/22/1969	undated, 1967-1969
4	11	“The Golem,” 3/26/1969	1968-1969
4	12	Ruth Rubin, 5/13/1969	1968-1969
4	13	Herbert Fromm Concert, 4/1/1970	undated, 1966-1970
4	14	Louis Saguer	1970
4	15	Seymor Schwartzman, 11/24/1970	1969-1971
4	16	Concert Including Margot Blum Scheville and Kenneth and Liora Sarch, 1/20/1971	undated, 1969-1971
4	17	The Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, 3/21/1971	undated, 1970-1972
4	18	Contemporary American Opera and Operetta featuring The Capers, 11/9/1971	undated, 1971
4	19	“The Cantoral Art,” featuring Cantors Harold Orbach and Isaac Goodfriend, 5/9/1972	undated, 1972-1973
4	20	A Chassidic Evening,” featuring Shlomo Carlebach, 11/14/1972	undated, 1972
4	21	“Composers’ Evening,” 1/24/1973	undated, 1972-1973
4	22	New England Regional Opera Co., “Jack and the Beanstalk,” 4/8/1973	undated, 1972-1973
4	23	From Israel with Love,” featuring Gadi Elon, Tsachi and Yael, and Sadot Dancers, 5/30/1973	undated, 1973
4	24	Mikhail Alexandrovich, 11/12/1973	undated, 1973-1974
4	25	Theodore Lettvin, 1/20/1974	undated, 1973-1974
4	26	“The Music of Spanish Jewry,” 3/20/1974	undated, 1953-1974
4	27	“Jewish Popular Music,” featuring Mimi Sloam and Stan Porter, 5/14/1974	undated, 1974
4	28	“Piano Music and Songs of Fathers and Sons,” featuring Lazar Weiner, Yehudi Wyner, and Susan Davenny Wyner, 1/22/1975	1972-1975
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
5	1	Misha Alexandrovich, 3/16/1975	undated, 1974-1975
5	2	Herbert Fromm’s “Four Proverbs” and Leonard Bernstein’s “The Chichester Psalms,” 5/6/1975	1975
5	3	“From Shtetl to Stage Door,” 12/7/1975	undated, 1975
5	4	“The Cantoral Art” featuring Cantors Boris Greisdorf, Murray E. Simon, & Norman Summers, 1/18/1976	1975-1976
5	5	“Soviet-Jewish Artists of the Boston Symphony Orchestra,” 3/28/1976	1975-1976
5	6	The Feenjon Group, 5/11/1976	undated, 1975-1976
5	7	“Gimpel the Fool,” 11/14/1976	1976
5	8	Roman Totenberg, Fredrik Wanger, and The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, 2/27/1977	undated, 1976-1977
5	9	Misha Raitzen, 3/20/1977	undated, 1974-1977
5	10	“The Sounds of Jewish Music,” featuring the Romanul Chamber Players, 4/17/1977	undated, 1977
5	11	“In Celebration of Israel,” Ze’Eva Cohen and Danny Dayan, 5/15/1977	undated, 1976-1977
5	12	Grand Opera with Boris Goldovsky, 11/8/1977	undated, 1977
5	13	“The Cantica Hebraica,” 2/5/1978	1976-1978
5	14	David Bar-Illan, 3/26/1978	1976-1978
5	15	Jan Peerce, 5/7/1978	undated, 1977-1978
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
6	1	Julius Chajes, 3/11/1979	undated, 1979
6	2	“The Art of the Klezmer,” 4/8/1979	undated, 1979
6	3	Judith Raskin, 5/13/1979	undated, 1978-1979
6	4	The Sophie Maslow Dance Company, 11/11/1979	undated, 1979
6	5	The Israel Piano Trio, 3/25/1980	undated, 1980
6	6	Rivka Isachar, Anne Taffel, Ruth Saltzman, and Caltilena Quintet, 4/23/1980	undated, 1980
6	7	Theodore Bikel, 5/27/1980	undated, 1980
6	8	“A Concert in Celebration of Ernest Bloch and Herbert Fromm on his 75th Birthday,” 11/9/1980	undated, 1980
6	9	Joseph Silverstein and Andrew Wolf, 3/25/1981	1961-1981
6	10	The Yakims and Mimi Sloan, 4/12/1981	undated, 1963-1981
6	11	Nico Castel with Anne Lewin, 5/17/1981	undated, 1978-1987
6	12	“The World of the Shtetle,” 5/31/1981	undated, 1981
6	13	The New York String Ensemble, 11/15/1981	undated, 1981
6	14	Fredrik and Jane Wanger and the Voice of the Turtle, 3/14/1982	undated, 1982
6	15	Duo-Reim, 4/25/1982	undated, 1981-1982
6	16	Shlomo Mintz and Paul Ostrovsky, 10/10/1982	undated, 1982
6	17	The 25th Season	undated, 1981-1984
6	18	Honoring Lazar Weiner, 3/13/1983	undated, 1983
6	19	The 26th Season	undated, 1983-1984
6	20	The 27th Season	undated, 1984-1986
6	21	Rivka Isachar and Hamakor, 11/18/1984	undated, 1979-1984
6	22	The Parvarium, 5/5/1985	undated, 1983-1985
6	23	The 28th Season	undated, 1985-1986
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
7	1	The 29th Season	undated, 1986-1987
7	2	American VocalArts Quintet, 3/1/1987	undated, 1987
7	3	Yoseph Yankelev, 3/29/1987	undated, 1985-1987
7	4	“Our Liturgical Heritage,” 5/17/1987	undated, 1986-1987
7	5	Paul Zim, 11/15/1987	1983-1987
7	6	Michael Webster and Barry Snyder, 3/13/1988	undated, 1983-1988
7	7	The New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, 4/17/1988	undated, 1988
7	8	Washington Music Ensemble and Jazz in the Jewish Experience, 6/6/1988	undated, 1988
7	9	The 31st Season	undated, 1988-1989
7	10	The 32nd Season	undated, 1989-1990
Subseries B: Members, undated, 1953-1990
English.
Box 7, Folders 11-14
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by date of performance.
Scope and Content: This sub-series contains a near complete collection of the Forum's event programs from 1958-1990. These were created for each performance by the Forum and indicate the name of artists, date and place of event as well as the title of songs (sometimes with translations) or additional information.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
7	11-14	Programs	1958-1990