After 40 years in a basement, the New York Public Library recovers a treasure trove of Jewish and Yiddish music

NYPL has acquired a unique collection of sheet music and documents that form part of the history of Jewish and Yiddish music broadcast on radio station WEVD.

The collection of more than 3000 works performed live between 1927 and 1995 is now part of the library’s Dorot Jewish Division, and includes everything from Hasidic music to Yiddish plays and opera.

It was rescued by David Shiff, a singer who, when radio was about to move in the 1980s, decided to take the documents to his home in Yonkers, where they remained for 40 years in his basement.

Lyudmila Sholokhova, a musicologist and curator at NYPL’s Dorot Jewish Division, explained that the “station represents a vital part of the history of music and the Jewish people in America” and added that “the collection demonstrates how WEVD connected different generations and tastes within the community.”