Episode
The Lost World of African American Cantors 1915–1953
- Podcast
- New Books in Jewish Studies
- Published
- Apr 28, 2026
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK3950199992.mp3
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-jewish-studies-313327/episodes/the-lost-world-of-african-american-cantors-1915-1953/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-jewish-studies-313327/the-lost-world-of-african-american-cantors-1915-1953.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Histories of Black-Jewish cultural interaction often focus on how Jews adopted and adapted Black vernacular music—ragtime, jazz, swing, R&B, blues—as performers, promoters, managers, club owners, and record labels. The phenomenon of African American musicians who performed Yiddish and cantorial music in and for the Jewish community in theaters, on record, on radio, and in concert between the World Wars deserves such scholarly inquiry. This talk will honor the memory of now forgotten Black cantors – Mendele der Shvartser Khazn, Reb Dovid Kalistrita, Abraham Ben Benjamin Franklin, Thomas LaRue Jones, and Goldye di Shvartse Khaznte, the first known Black woman cantor. This talk by award winning producer, author, and ethnomusicologist Henry Sapoznik will feature dozens of historic graphics, translations of period Yiddish newspaper previews, ads, and reviews, and the playing of the one known 1923 Yiddish and Hebrew recording of Thomas Jones LaRue. This lecture originally took place on June 15, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies