TI’s Wyner Archives “Past Voices Audio Recordings Digitization Project” is now complete, online, and freely accessible
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to attend Shabbat and High Holy Day services at Temple Israel in the 1950s or to hear religious school students talk about their religious beliefs in post-World War II America? Might you enjoy listening to Rabbi Harry Levi and other eminent Jewish leaders at Temple Israel’s 1934 radio broadcast of Temple Israel’s 80th Anniversary? Or to Rabbi Joshua Loth Leibman as he dictates drafts of his speeches and sermons or advocates for the future state of Israel in 1947 in Boston Garden in front of 16,000 people and a vast radio audience? Would you like to sit in on Temple Israel’s centenary celebrations in 1954, Rabbi Roland P. Gittelsohn’s explanation of the design of the Riverway sanctuary when it was completed in 1973, Louise Nevelson’s remarks about her sculpture, Sky Covenant, at its dedication later that year, or Rabbi Bernard H. Mehlman’s installation service in 1978?
These, and several hundred other audio recordings dating from 1934 to 1979, a period when Reform Judaism was profoundly transformed by world events and changes in American society, have recently been digitized by the Wyner Archives of Temple Israel thanks to a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources. The recordings reveal our rabbis’ and congregants’ perspectives on critical issues of their time such as Zionism, antisemitism, the Holocaust, the Nuclear Age, civil rights, and also mid-century approaches to gender relations, parenting, work/life balance, mental health, intermarriage, prejudice, racism, and more.
You can listen to all the recordings online, where they are free and fully searchable, at either the Digital Commonwealth or the Digital Library of America (DPLA). They are also available by request from the TI Archives. The Wyner Archives page of the TI website has a complete list of the collection.
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.
