Daily Podcasts Video Research

My grandmother was a ‘Sherlock Holmes of Yiddish song,’ but she couldn’t solve the mystery of antisemitism

JL;DR SUMMARY Avram Mlotek reflects on his grandmother Chana Mlotek's legacy as a prominent Yiddish music archivist, who along with his grandfather, collected hundreds of Yiddish folk songs. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish HistoryYiddish MusicLeo FrankYivo InstituteChana MlotekCultural LegacyParade MusicalNeo Nazi ProtestsMusic Preservation

Places mentioned

Bronx, New York, United States
"We would gather by the piano in my grandparents living room in the Bronx, with the piano being helmed by my Bubby, sometimes my great-aunt Malke Gottlieb."
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
"The Ballad of Leo Frank was about the Jewish factory manager from Atlanta."
New York City, New York, United States
"But just a couple weeks ago, antisemitic mobs werent just part of a songbook. They were here, right in the heart of New York City."
Russian Federation
"Jews who grew up learning (or singing) about blood libels in Russia have always slept with one eye open."
Manhattan, New York, United States
"Just last week as I entered the subway in midtown Manhattan, I was verbally accosted by a man who lowered his shirt collar to show me his swastika tattoo."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 65420
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-10-29 05:31:45 UTC
Curated 2025-10-29 08:31:15 UTC