There are 20 or so LP albums documented in this script. They are listed in no particular order but this select control will provide the reader with an alphabetical listing of the Album names. There is an attempt to provide some documentation for each of these LPs. Where available, there should be a picture of the front of the album,a picture of the back of the ablum and finally whatever documentation we can find. Click any of the pictures and you will see the picture in the original size that we have it. The tracks are broken down into A and B sides and each track is indicated in red. Click any of these and the music should start. To turn off the music, reclick what was clicked. But, if you click another selection, it will override the previous selection and start the new selection's music. This select control provides an alphabetical listing of the individual tracks.

Sometime in 2016 this web site received four LP records (33 rpm) of music from the 60's. Below we detail three of these LPs and the tracks on both sides. First, let's discuss the 33 rpm record. This is still the LP standard for music although like all audio media it has been eclipsed by digital recordings. The 33 was introduced in 1948 by Columbia records. This company was associated with CBS - the television network - until 1989 when sold to Sony. We think these LPs are from the late 50's, early 60's.

In 1960 the State of Israel would have been eleven to twelve years old. At that time it was one of the newest states in the world. This would soon change as colonial control over much of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean would dissolve with a whole host of new countries being formed and recognized but in 1960, the date that this album, "Sabra - The Young Heart Of Israel", was released, the ad script on this album saying "The Young Heart Of Israel" could have several meanings. Elektra records did have a reputation at that time of being at the forefront of folk music although within a few years its emphasis would move on to rock music. Ron Eliran (picture included) and Nechama Hendel, the Ron and Nama of this album, were one of several Israeli artists to perform on the Ed Sullivan show. Following this appearance, this duet toured around the US and it is said that they (or at least Ron) was the first Israeli act to play Las Vegas. For the active Israeli dancers, Ron will be familiar as the singer of Sharm A Shiekh.

This album is titled "Shoshana Damari Sings Songs Of Israel". Checking the Internet it seems that Shoshana Damari for a while pursued careers in Singing and Acting. The Internet movie data base has her in a bit role in a famous movie, Hill 24 Doesn't Answer and 1956's B'Ein Moledet. However, apparently she was the star in the movie, Hatikvah, and the movie poster - and her prominent picture - is included here. We've tried to check here but it seems that she may be the only Israeli singer active at the time who was not on the Ed Sullivan show but we're sure that she had multiple appearances on Israeli TV. Damari was a Yemenite by birth but her family made its way to Israel, then still under British rule, when she was an infant. By age 14 she was regularly performing and this continued until she was 86 when she recorded several songs for the so called Idan Raichel project just before she died.

In 1998, on the 50th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the State of Israel, the high point of the celebration, aired throughout that nation and shown here, was Ofra Haza's rendition of Jerusalem Of Gold. This song was the product of Naomi Shemer. Shemer was apparently a poet who doubled as a songwriter and this album, 'Naomi Shemer Sings Her Own Works', is her rendition of her own compositions.

Through Phyllis and Howard (who died in 2015), we are making available Israeli dance, Klezmer and Yiddish music though their collection of LP (33 rpm) albums. These albums were moved onto this script sometime in late 2014/ early 2015. The green horizontal line shows the split between Phyliss' albums and Howard's. A few words about this. If we had been smart about this, we would have taken photos of both sides of the album cover and both sides of the 33 LP as we did above. Unfortunately, none of the LPs were photographed and many of the album covers were ignored as to either one or both sides. As we are documenting these albums (the documentation, similar to the above grids appears in the third column) where needed we are using the internet to find pictures of the album covers, both front and back. As of end of March, 2017, we have been able to fill in all the front and back album covers as you will find as you go through this script.

Dudaim, which is a type of melon in Israel not to mention a forest, becomes the name of a duo - Benny Amdurski and Israel Gurion - who were active from the late 50's into the 90's. Apparently the duo was very popular in Israel but must have spent time in France as they performed in Paris for a while. This album, "The Dudaim Ben and Adam, is not exclusively Israeli in its song selection as you can see. Notice that the album was released under the Elektra banner which allows us to assume that this was produced somewhere in the late 50's early 60's when Elektra was heavily into folk music.

Here is the music of the album Klezmer Music Early Yiddish Instrumental Music. Most of the selections are done by the Abe Schwartz orchestra. For those researchers among you, the history of Abe Schwartz, and the various orchestras that he is supposedly associated with, is interesting and is a microcasm of many Eastern European Jews' experience. Supposedly in 1899/1900 Schwartz, at age 18, emigrates to the US from Romainia with his parents. At this point he must have been an accomplished musician for he will become a composer and bandleader. There must have been an affinity for media communications as Schwartz and his bands (it seems they went under several names including the Abe Schwartz Band and the Yiddisher Band) produces multiple records - first 78's and then 33 LPs. The picture included within this inset is of another album theoretically commemorating the band's relocation to the new world although this was simply symbolic. While those participating in Israeli dance in the present era recognize that this dance genre does not include Klezmer, Klezmer itself had a dance repertoire based on its music and its place in Jewish life: Klezmer was an integral part of wedding (and other celebratory rituals) in the Jewish ghettos of Europe (especially Eastern Europe). Since modern Israeli dance is done to modern music, one generally does not run into Klezmer in most dance classes but nevertheless we present this album as part of this script.

Next is the 'Songs Of The Sabras' by The Karmon Israeli folk dancers and singers. One might think that the Karmon mentioned here might pertain to some Kibbutz in Israel but apparently this pertains to Jonathon Kardon who was a well known folk singer (and leader) during the 1950's. Folk singing can be very different than folk dancing and at this point we don't think that many selections in this album are part of the Israeli dance repertoire.

Our next album pertains to Shabbat and Hassidic songs. Sung by Nira Rabinowitz and Shlomo Nitzin. Arranged and conducted by Yitzhak Graziani

The Yememite Trio - Meir Alon, Arie Kaduri, Sarah Aviani - perform in this record titled appropriately enough as "The Yemenite Trio". In this album the music is arranged by Yaacov Orkibi. The picture here shows the trio in perfoprmance and you can see the singer, Sarah Aviani, surrounded by one of the other two playing the guitar and the other accompanying with an accordian. In the picture in the front of the album the guitar has been replaced by a tamborine and the accordian has been replaced by a clarinet. Notice the label. In our 45's section Tivka records is represented by a 60's record. Tivka today is located in San Francisco but for a thirty year period - 1947 through 1977 - the label was run out of Long Island by a business man Allen B. Jacobs. Jacobs certainly ran a company that had a way with words as you can see if you chack the back side of the album cover. To wit: Every Night is a Yemenite. How 'bout that sports fans!

The Oranim Zabor Troupe presents Hora, the songs and dances of Israel. Fred Berk, pictured here, has a credit in this album which is arranged and conducted by Dov Seltzer. Further down this script is more descriptive discussions of Guela Gill, Dov Seltzer and Oranim Zabor, but let's concentrate of Fred Berk in this montage. Berk used to lead a highly regarded Israeli dance camp in North Carolina for many years. Older Israeli dancers, especially if they were interested in teaching this type of dancing (and this includes those Philadelphia based dancers who made up the "committee" at the Gershman Y so many years ago), would make sure to attend his camp where the aspects of teaching this type of dancing were explored in addition to learning the newest dance selections. We are adding this link to the Phantom Ranch website where a more comprehensive biography of Fred Berk can be found.

Our next album is 'Let's Dance With Yaffa Yarkoni'. Yaffa is apparently the singer that we are listening to. Yaffa (or Yafa) is also one of the giants of the Israeli music industry per her singing career.

Phyliss has provided more than just dance music. The following album pertains to the Israel song festival of 1967. First prize went to Mee Yodaya Kama

Here's a type of generic LP: Israeli Dances. Attribution is to Vocal Solos by Tova Ronni and the Tikva Ensemble. Apparently the Tivka ensemble would be a studio pick up band that Tivka records - the producer of this record - would organize. We'll add the following information here as to further investigation of Allan B Jacobs, the owner of Tivka records. On NPR's Terry Gross' Fresh Air a historian has been on discussing this label and Jacobs. Apparently Jacobs would use glue and cut and paste to create the albums. It probably was through his efforts that the master recordings were completed. Tivka, which went out of business in the 1970's would create records on Israeli classics, hassidic classics and Borcht belt comedians (and anything else Jewish that Jacobs thought could be brought to the market).

Back from Israel is a composite of songs produced by the Israeli dance choreographer Shlomo Bachar. Looking at Aura's Aussie database, we can report that she lists Bacher with 146 credits per choreography of Israeli dances through the years 1962 until 2008 (although some of his dances have no year associated with them.) Apparently the front cover of this album is a picture of Bachar and his wife, Dina, who apparently also is a dance choreographer.

Every summer, around the Canadian Independence day weekend (July 1st), the Miles Nadal center in Toronto plays host to the Toronto Is Real Israeli dance workshop. The Nadal center has been a center of Jewish experience in Toronto since 1953. We doubt whether this was its original name as Nadal is a comtempory Canadian entrepeneur with the wherewithal to fund the operations of this center in the present era, probably not in 1953. It is a distinct probability that the Center began operations as the YM-YWHA Dance Centre in Toronto and if it did, one of its first directors, until her relocation to Israel in 1960, was the artist Teme Kernerman, pictured here. Teme was especially interested in dance and apparently she helped popularize Israeli dance throughout Canada. Today, the Toronto festival's prestige allows it to have the most famous Israeli dance choreographers appear for the weekend, but one assumes that in the early days this was not the case. But, the center had its former director, Teme, to lead and teach the dancing. This album, Dance Israel, is a LP comprised of dances taught by Teme Kernerman in 1968 at the Toronto Israeli dance workshop in Toronto. The album cites Music direction by Shlomo Biederman

Howard was apparently a fan of the singer, Guela Gill. We present one of her albums, Guela Gill sings 'Folk Dances Of Israel'. By the way, the other mentionee on the album front cover, Dov Seltzer, was Guela's husband at the time and his hand in production is recognized and acknowledged in several of her albums. Guela was one of several female Israeli singers who received much attention in the United States at the time of the release of this and the following albums. Many of them showed up on American TV including the Ed Sullivan show. Sullivan, shown here, had grown up in New York city and as a entertainment columnist for one of the New York papers, was very avant garde at the time in dealing with Jewish interests and celebrities. It is said that Sullivan made a journey into Israel in 1958 to seek out such talent that could appear on his TV show. Gula, Seltzer and the Oranim Zabar band this couple was a part of at the time could have been what Sullivan was looking for although we cannot find any reference to their appearance on Sullivan's TV show. Also notice the label:Here we see the Folkraft label. Folkraft is mentioned several times in the sister script to this, A little history on vinyl 45's (for the most part).

Here'a a second album by Geula Gill. This is 'The Whole World Dances'. The second individual associated with this album is Dov Seltzer, Guela's husband at the time. The music selected for this album is not really Israeli but mostly music of Europe. We are sure that multiple countries of Europe were part of Guela's and Dov's singing tour itinerary and these selections probably were among those performed in live performances. This website's research on Dov allows us to conclude that he is kind of a Israeli John Barry (Barry being the Jazz leader who morphed into the music master of the James Bond films). Seltzer, shown here in a later photo, created the Oranim Zabar group during the 50's and this group created and fostered Israeli folk dancing. Besides the leader, Seltzer was one of the instrument players and the group initially had Gill as another musician/singer. During the late 50's, early 60's these albums featuring her as a lead singer were produced and the group toured worldwide. A some point there was a split, both musically and maritally, and similar to Barry (although Barry was resident in England), Seltzer returned to Israel and began specializing in movie soundtracks and even more importantly musical theater to the point where he is considered the father of the Israeli musical. At least one of his musicials was able to cross the ocean and be staged on Broadway. This web site has looked at several bios (in English) of Seltzer and we can note an interesting aspect: nowhere is a wife or children indicated. There is no mention of Guela and we think one could conclude that the return to Israel and change in musical asperations probably coincided with the breakup of the marriage and given that there is no mention, one assumes the divorse was less than amicable. We should note that the last musical creditation of Seltzer that can be found on the internet is in 2008.

As mentioned previously the Oranim Zabar Israeli troupe was a group of performers featuring the aforementioned Geula Gill and organized by Dov Seltzer. One of their albums is 'On the road to Elath' subtitled 'Songs of the Negev'. (Note: Elath is almost assuredly Eilat - as indicated today - at the mouth of the Red Sea. Above we've discussed Dov Seltzer, now let's deal with Geula. Since we mentioned Ed Sullivan above, we should indicate that Geula is mentioned as a performer in the Sullivan 6/30/63 show. She and the Oranim Zabar group - including Dov - were probably continually on tour in the US and Europe. Sometime in the 70's Gueda and Dov separated and probably divorced, we assume. By tthat time Geula started to tour with other musicians - The Geula Gill Trio - and in fact created some albums in that configuration. One of the internet bio's on her indicates that she began to make Los Angeles home. While we present this album about songs in the Negev, you might want to look at the 6 part Music Of the Newport Jazz festival, 1960 (we have included a picture of the 2nd albom in this series which contains Guela singing something called a Russian spoof) where she played (and sang) as an integral part of the festivities.

This album is designated as "Hava Nagila" attributed to the International Folk Singers with Orchestra. Most sources on the internet date this album as of 1960.

Klezmer is a music genre associated with Eastern Europe. It is not just Jewish music that is part of this, but there are Romanian and Russian influences. Periodically there are revivals in the US. In the 1970's, at the time of another revival, a Klezmer band, Klezmorim, was formed out of the efforts of several street musicians in the Berkeley, Ca. area. Ultimately joined by other musicians, by 1980 this was a full fledged Klezmer band. It is their album, Metropolis, that we next feature which was cut in 1981. The adjoining picture is the band in 1985.

This album is entitled 'Chassidic and Shabat songs'. Most of the tracks are done by the Effi Netzer Singers whom we believe are backup singers to Effi Netzer, the musician pictured here. We assume that when first put out this was going to be a one volume release. Over the years at least 3 more albums of this type of music under the name "Chassidic and Shabat songs" were released. We should also note that several of Netzer's songs are part of the Israeli dance repertoire. In 2014 Ira Weisburd was on a world tour that emphasized his own choreography. One of his choreographied works is "Av Harachaman" by the Netzer group and you can see a tutorial on this song and dance by Weisburd by clicking here

Rivka Sturman, pictured here, is credited with the choreography of 103 Israeli dances. This album, "Dance With Rivka" is supposedly some of those dances. It is designated as 'Dance With Rivka'. Rivka arrived in what was then Palestine in 1929 with her husband. One gets trhe impression that she already had taught dance in Europe because she is hired to teach folk dance at a kibbutz. She decides to teach dance with a twist. Having observed that teaching German dance was favored in her new homeland, she begins the teaching of what was then known as Palestinian songs and Palestinian folk dance. Duiring World War II it is said that she created - composed the music and lyrics and the dance steps - at least 80 new dances. After the war she was a frequent traveller to Europe and this country spreading the art of Israeli folk dance.