Monday, November 15, 1999
'Nightline' to air historic tapes from Clifton Jewish archives
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
They look like silver LP albums, the kind that decorated radio station walls in the 1970s and '80s. But these 12-inch aluminum recording discs, made in the 1930s, hold the speeches of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, a prominent New York Jewish leader and one of the first to warn of the dangers of Hitler.
Soon the voice of Rabbi Wise, who died 50 years ago, will be heard on ABC's Nightline. The late-night news program plans to broadcast excerpts later this month from the rare recordings stored at the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Clifton.
“He was considered one of the greatest orators in the first half of this century,” says Rabbi Gary P. Zola, Marcus Center executive director and a professor of American Jewish history at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion here.
“He was a towering figure. Stephen Wise was the most important rabbi involved in political and social affairs in the first half of this century,” he says.
Back in Carnegie Hall
When Rabbi Zola was appointed Marcus Center director in July 1998, he didn't give much thought to the 174 aluminum and glass records made in New York's Carnegie Hall by Rabbi Wise, who died in 1949.
Then he saw a Nightline last December about interviews with former slaves in the 1930s made on similar antique aluminum discs.
The next morning he called Nightline and got the name of the Maryland company that had the equipment (special turntables with a bamboo needle) to transfer the audio from aluminum discs to CD-ROM digital audio. He paid $1,269 for conversion of one 40-minute sermon (on four two-sided discs) about “Jews in the Warring World” made on Nov. 23, 1941, two weeks before Pearl Harbor.
“When I heard it, I knew I had something. It's like suddenly you're back in Carnegie Hall, experiencing him speaking,” Rabbi Zola says.
So he again contacted Nightline, which immediately expressed an interest in the story. Nightline paid for six more speeches to be transferred from discs to digital audio for an ABC broadcast, tentatively scheduled for late this week or early next week.
Nightline also is asking viewers for still photographs or film of Rabbi Wise through its Internet site (www.abcnews.go.com). ABC also wants to interview people who attended Rabbi Wise's services in the 1930s or '40s in Carnegie Hall, before his Free Synagogue was built.
“Wise came out of an era in the United States when the clergy exercised enormous influence over public opinion,” the Nightline Web site posting says. “Wise's Sunday sermons at New York's Carnegie Hall drew thousands each week.”
Rabbi Zola says he's flattered that Nightline plans to devote an entire half-hour to the recordings during November ratings sweeps, when networks air their blockbuster programs.
“I would be just happy for it to be on any time,” Rabbi Zola says.
167 left
Rabbi Zola says he hopes national TV exposure helps the Marcus Center find money to transfer the remaining 167 sermons by Rabbi Wise, plus another 30 recordings of his guest speakers. The list includes Eleanor Roosevelt, historian Will Durant, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and German-born novelist Ludwig Lewisohn.
The Rabbi Wise's recordings cover a wide range of topics: “Motion Pictures and Morals: Is Censorship or Boycott the Solution?” (1934); “The Roosevelt Revolution” (1935); “How Near Is War?” (1936); “And Now, Mussolini” (1938); “My Response to Father Coughlin” (1939) and “Mass Murder in Nazi Occupied Countries — America Protest!” (1941).
“My prayer is that there will be interest enough by people to find the funding I'd like to have to finish the job,” Rabbi Zola says.
He wants to have all the speeches available for scholars and the public to hear or read at the Marcus Center, the world's largest cataloged archives documenting North American Jewish history. The Marcus Center has the entire collection (1,360 boxes) of records from the World Jewish Congress, founded by Rabbi Wise in 1936. Rabbi Wise also founded the Jewish Institute of Religion in 1924, which later merged with Hebrew Union College.
Rabbi Zola also envisions an online site where people could hear snippets of the historic audio.
“Will these (recordings) force us to rewrite history? I don't think so,” Dr. Zola says.
“But certainly we can all appreciate how it is to sit in the year 2000 and imagine being there in Carnegie Hall back then, and to hear that voice so clearly. This is a way to bring history to life in an exciting way.”
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. His column appears Monday and Wednesday. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330.