Home Digital Content Library Model Passover Seder, Television Program, April 11, 1954
Audio

Model Passover Seder, Television Program, April 11, 1954

[90004.004]

FROM THE TEMPLE ISRAEL ARCHIVES

This is Temple Israel television program: Model Passover Seder, April 11, 1954. Temple Israel of Boston Archives.

In the April 11, 1954 episode of the This is Temple Israel television program Israel Archives, Senior Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn stages an abridged Passover Seder to introduce Passover rituals to people who have never witnessed or held one. Set up as a family event, Rabbi Gittlesohn plays the role of the father and Helaine (Mrs. James M.) Berenson, President of the PTA, plays the mother. The children, preteen students in the religious school, are Vivian Gilman (who chants the Four Questions), Peter Coppelman, Carol Levy, Arthur Finstein, and Nancy Bayard. The Temple Israel Quartet, led by Temple Israel Music Director Herbert Fromm, performs choral versions of the prayers and sings “Adir Hu,” “Hodu L’Adonai Ki Tov,” and “Eliahu Hanavi.” 

This audio recording represents the seventh episode of the television program, This is Temple Israel, which aired from 1953-1978. Sponsored by the Temple Israel Brotherhood and recorded at the Temple Israel of Boston campus on Commonwealth Avenue, it was broadcast on Massachusetts television station WNAC on the second Sunday of each month until 1978, when the show’s title and format were changed. 

This recording, along with several hundred others that capture services, sermons, and other events from 1934-1979, have recently been digitized by the Temple Israel Archives. Free streaming access to these recordings is available via the Digital Commonwealth, The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), or by request from the Wyner Archives, Temple Israel of Boston. This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Council on Library Informaion Resources

If you have memories of this or similar TI events, or any other comments or feedback that you would like to share, please send them to archives@tisrael.org.