When we think about Yiddish music, we usually think about klezmer. And theater songs. And Hasidic nigunim. And cantorial performances and Borscht Belt staples. But opera? As Yiddish Book Center Fellow Dina Gorelik notes in her recent From the Vault piece, “In the early twentieth century . . . opera was a prominent part of mainstream culture . . . Yiddish speakers . . . had a number of ways to access opera, through fully staged productions in Italian and English, productions in Yiddish, and opera excerpts performed in concert.” Other types of Jewish music have received plenty of attention, so this week let’s explore the often overlooked but once prominent Yiddish opera scene.

Each month we ask a member of our staff or a special friend to select favorite stories, books, interviews, or articles from our online collections. This month’s picks are by Sasha Senderovich, a faculty member at the University of Washington and the author of How the Soviet Jew Was Made.

Danny and Robin Greenspun, longtime supporters and the first donors of cryptocurrency to the Center, share their passion for the Yiddish Book Center