The Mayrent Collection of Yiddish Recordings is unique in its comprehensive scale and scope. The over 9,000 78rpm discs include Yiddish theater, popular and traditional music, cantorial songs, klezmer music, poetry, drama, and event ballads. They come from locations as diverse as the United States, Eastern Europe, Latin America, South Africa, and Israel. The contents offer an unparalleled audio entrée into the vibrant, fascinating cultural practices of early to mid-twentieth-century Yiddish life.
Once completed, the Mayrent Collection will comprise the world’s largest online repository of Yiddish music. You can visit the Collection at the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections website.
Sherry Mayrent, collector and musician, gives an engaging account of the collection’s origin and its educational and cultural potential in this video interview: