Article from Jewish Journal of Greater LA

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To the List:

Our good friend, Simon Rutberg and his music store, Hatikvah were
recently profiled in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles.  <Yasher
koyekh>, Simon!

For those residing outside the Greater Los Angeles area:

As sure as the scent from Cantor's deli beckons passers-by, so does the
buoyant wailing of klezmer clarinet and violin coming from Hatikvah (436
N. Fairfax Ave.).  It's hard to pin down exactly what makes this place,
founded in 1948, such a treasure:  the fact that songwriters Jerry
Lieber and Mike Stoller worked here when it was called Norty's Music
Center (also a hangout for a young Herb Alpert and Phil Spector), or
that it's part Library of Congress and part historical landmark.  Owner
Simon Rutberg is more of an ethnomusicology professor than some guy who
runs a store.  Although he'll admit that his real love is R & B (hence
the Jackie Wilson poster), Rutberg could turn the entire world onto
Jewish music.   There are Hasidic standards, baroque Jewish music,
cantorial (for religious services), "Holocausr music" (European WWII
recordings), Ladino (the music of Castilian Jews) and, of course,
klezmer -- the jovial and sometimes bittersweet folk music primarily
from Eastern Europe -- are represented as far back as the 1700's and up
to current bands like the Klezmatics and Yid Vicious.  Want Connie
Francis singing Yiddish?  No Problem.  From rap-parody group 2 live Jews
(remember As Kosher As They Wanna Be?) to the big-band/swing of the
legendary Barry Sisters, Rutberg can whip out any recording without
missing a beat.

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