Re: Birobidzhan

[R.A.S. <richards...>]

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 17/10/2002 at 12:43 Jonathan Walton wrote:

>Dear list members,
>
>I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on the (non)existence ofa  
>Jewish music tradition in the ex-Soviet Jewish Autonomous Republic of 
>Birobidzhan. I know that the Jewish population there was only active for 

The BBC World Service (radio) (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice) recently
(within the last six weeks or so) broadcast a report from there. It would
appear that the Jewish community there is once again thriving and indeed
being enlarged quite considerably by immigration from other parts of the
Russian Federation as well as returnees from Israel, and a full scale
revival of Yiddish culture and language seems to be flourishing. It might
be worthwhile contacting worldservice (at) bbc(dot)co(dot)uk for a transcript, 
if this
should be of interest.

>What Im interested in is the possibility of archive recordings in the
state 
>radio archives... does anyone know of someone who might be working in this

>area? I met a lady from Siberia who is involved in digitising and raising 
>money for the preservation of state archives across the ex-USSR, many of 
>which are turning into piles of magnetic dust as we speak. I'm considering

>getting involved in this, and before I do I'd be interested to find out if

>anyone knows what research (if any) has been done.

Judging from the above BBC report, I would assume that local efforts must
be under way. (Then again.... never assume...)

Richard


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