Evelyn B. and Janot S. Roskin Papers

Janot S. Roskin was born in what is now Rezekne, Latvia on April 17th, 1884 to Arja and Rosa Roskin. He studied music from a young age, becoming a choir boy at age seven and later graduating from the Riga Conservatory. He received a scholarship to the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin and also studied under Hugo Riemann and Professor Siegfried Ochs. He completed his musical training in 1908.

Roskin directed the Hallenseer Conservatory of Music for nine years and held positions in several synagogues in Berlin before rising to the post of choir director at the largest synagogue in the city. He left this post in 1937 to emigrate to the United States. He settled in Boston, where he became Director of Music at Temple Israel, Boston, and later, Director of Music at Temple Emanuel, Newton. He also founded the Roskin Art Choir, a mixed-voice choir.

Roskin began collecting traditional Jewish folk songs when he was a child, and once he moved to Berlin, he founded the Musikverlag für Nationale Folkskunst, renamed Verlag Hatikvah in 1921, to publish and distribute these tunes, along with his own compositions. When he moved to the United States, Roskin continued to publish and distribute sheet music under the name Hatikvah Music Publishing Company.

Roskin met Evelyn Borofsky when he became the Director of Music at Temple Israel, where she was the organist. Evelyn was born in Boston in 1903 to Jacob and Ida (Snyder) Borofsky. She was a singer and pianist, who gained a following in Boston as a soloist and accompanist on the WNAC radio channel. She received her musical training from Boston University College of Music, and she studied under Felix Fox at his school in Boston.

Borofsky was a lecturer at the Boston Center for Adult Education, and she conducted a choral group at the Jeremiah Burke Evening School Center in Roxbury. She played the organ at Temple Israel and was the assistant to Henry Gideon, Roskin's predecessor.

In 1940, Janot and Evelyn married. The following year, Janot became a citizen of the United States, and the couple moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where Janot was the Director of Music at the Temple Beth-El Zedeck. Janot died in 1946, and Evelyn returned to Boston to take up a position as Music Director and Organist at Temple Sinai in Brookline. She remained in this position until her death in 1967.

Also included in this collection are papers and photographs created by and related to other members of the Borofsky family. Evelyn’s father, Jacob, was born in Poland in 1880 and immigrated to the United States, where he became a citizen in 1903. He became a postman for the City of Boston, though he had to retire early due to ill health. He and Ida Snyder married in Boston in 1902 and had two daughters, Evelyn and Edith. Jacob died in Boston in 1965.

Ida Snyder Borofsky was born in Russia in 1883. She was known for her contributions to the Jewish community in East Boston, Chelsea, and Roxbury. She was part of the group of women who pushed for the establishment of a Jewish hospital in Boston, which became Beth Israel Hospital. She was an honorary director there, and when Beth Israel moved to Brookline, she was a member of the Roxbury Ladies Bikur Cholim Society that worked to found the Jewish Memorial Hospital on the same site in Roxbury. Ida worked as a vice president and a social worker at JMH for over thirty years, and she was named lifetime honorary director of the board for her service on behalf of the hospital. Ida died in Newton, Massachusetts in 1982, just shy of her 99th birthday.

Edith Borofsky-Grosbayne was born in Boston in 1905 and worked as secretary to the Vice President of Hovey’s Department Store. Once the store was bought by Jordan Marsh, she became executive secretary to Rabbi Murray Rothman at Temple Shalom in Newton. She played piano and violin and often accompanied Evelyn. After Evelyn’s death, Edith acted as the executor of her estate and managed Hatikvah Music Publishing Company. Edith married Mitchell Grosbayne, a piano tuner who also played violin in the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra. Mitchell died in 1982 in Newton, and Edith died in 1993.

One folder of the collection contains a photograph and descriptions of a book written by Mitchell Grosbayne’s brother, Benjamin. Benjamin was a professor of music at Brooklyn College, as well as a conductor and author on the subject of conducting techniques.

1880

Jacob Borofsky is born

1883

Ida Snyder is born

1884

Janot S. Roskin is born

1902

Jacob Borofsky and Ida Snyder marry

1903

Jacob Borofsky becomes a United States citizen

1903

Evelyn Borofsky is born

1905

Edith Borofsky is born

1937

Janot Roskin immigrates to the United States

1940

Janot Roskin and Evelyn Borofsky marry

1943

The Roskins move to Indianapolis

1946

Janot Roskin dies

1947

Evelyn Borofsky Roskin begins work as the Director of Music at Temple Sinai

1965

Jacob Borofsky dies

1967

Evelyn Borofsky Roskin dies

1982

Mitchell Grosbayne dies

1982

Ida Snyder Borofsky dies

1993

Edith Borofsky-Grosbayne dies