The Yiddish Book Center's
Yiddish Book Center Recorded Programs
Lectures, events, and public programs recorded at the Yiddish Book Center
The Voice of a Woman: Diana Blumenfeld and Miriam Kressyn on Postwar Yiddish Radio, with Caraid O’Brien, Anna Rozenfeld, and moderator Alyssa Quint
Anna Rozenfeld | Caraid O'Brien
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The Voice of a Woman: Diana Blumenfeld and Miriam Kressyn on Postwar Yiddish Radio, with Caraid O’Brien, Anna Rozenfeld, and moderator Alyssa Quint
Featuring: Anna Rozenfeld | Caraid O'Brien
A panel discussion with Caraid O’Brien, Anna Rozenfeld, and moderator Alyssa Quint.
Anna Rozenfeld speaks about the artistic career of famed Yiddish actress and singer Diana Blumenfeld (1903–61)—her work in prewar Poland and the Warsaw ghetto, and the role she played internationally after World War II, acting in the spirit of Yidishkayt and contributing to cultural salvation. Blumenfeld’s Yiddish voice—in person and on radio airwaves—took on a public profile of unity, reassurance, and shared loss.
Caraid O’Brien discusses the pioneering radio career of celebrated Yiddish actress Miriam Kressyn (1910–96), focusing on Kressyn’s radio shows from the 1940s, when she introduced her listeners of primarily Yiddish-speaking housewives to American history and culture in programs sponsored by Maxwell House coffee, Campbell’s Soup, and Quaker Oats.
Presented as part of the Yiddish Book Center’s 2022 Decade of Discovery: Women in Yiddish.
This event took place on September 22, 2022. It was presented online by the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA.
This recording was digitized and added to the library in October 2022.
This recording is in English
