The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

"But it Had the Pathos": Difficulties of Recording with Hasidic Singers

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Velvel Pasternak, z"l, musicologist, recalls the difficulties of recording nigunim as sung by hasidim, as well as the rewards of believing in music.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Velvel Pasternak.

This excerpt is in English.

Velvel Pasternak was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1933. Velvel died in 2019.