Street scene in Port Said, Egypt, c.1920. Source: Wikimedia Commons/KITLV.
I’m still sorting through many of the unknown families and individuals buried in the two Progressive Musical Benevolent Society cemetery plots, and I came across several intermarried families who don’t fit the usual profile. Rather than coming directly from the Russian Empire to New York City, as did the majority of P.M.B.S. members, they were European Jews of Austrian/Romanian ancestry who were born or who lived extended periods in Egypt during the colonial era, and came to New York during or after the First World War. These were the families of three New York musicians and P.M.B.S. members, Charles Braun (1887–1947), Charles Isaac Rosenberg (1884–1929) and William Halmesco (1890–1952).
I don’t know enough about early 20th century Egypt to really give much context to their lives there. (Although I did take a memorable course in Modern Egyptian History with Paul Sedra at SFU 15 years ago.) I wouldn’t even know where to go looking for documentation of their lives over there. The French-language Cairo newspaper Israël is searchable on jpress from 1922 onwards, and while I did not find any of these family names in it, searches for “musique” and “musicien” brings up plenty of results. One gets the impression of a bustling cultural life between Europe, the long-resident local Jewish community, traveling musicians, and colonization projects in nearby Palestine.
Limited as my information is on these three families, I thought an examination of their lives would be an interesting demonstration of the different paths musicians took to end up as members of the P.M.B.S. in New York.
The families in Egypt
The parents of the Halm(esco) family, Solomon and Annette, may have been born in Romania or Bucovina in the second half of the 19th century, lived in Vienna for a time, and settled in Egypt by 1890. Their four known children are Sophia (b.1885), William (b.1890), Bertha (b.1891) and Alexander (b.1894). Sophia was born in Austria-Hungary and the three latter children were born in Egypt.
I don’t know if Solomon Halmesco, the father, was a musician. I don’t think he went by that family name later in life so there are no European Halmescos in any of the usual databases (Jewishgen, Gesher Galicia, even Yad Vashem). As for the children, Bertha and Sophia both married musicians, and William became one. Sophia married Charles Isaac (Yitzchok Chaim) Rosenberg, a violinist from Chernivtsi born in 1884, who was living and working in Egypt. Bertha married Charles (Chaim) Braun, a bassist born somewhere in Galicia in around 1887, who was likewise working in Egypt. William married Mathilda Meyer, daughter of a German Jewish family living in Egypt, and became a cornetist or trumpeter. The youngest sibling, who went by Alexander Halm, does not seem to have become a musician.
Life in New York
The earliest among these folks to arrive was Charles Isaac Rosenberg, his wife Sophia (née Halmesco) & family, who left Alexandria and sailed to New York in the spring of 1915. At some point he joined the Progressive Musical Benevolent Society and started to play as a theatre musician. I’m unsure how he got connected with the P.M.B.S.; perhaps he was related to one of the many other Rosenbergs who were members, or met another member on the job. On his WWI registration card he gave his employer as Loew’s Orpheum Theatre on 86th.
WWI registration card for (Charles) Isaac Rosenberg. Source: Ancestry.com.Westchester Avenue at Stebbins Avenue, around the corner from the Rosenbergs’ home in the Bronx, 1930s. Source: NYPL Digital Collections.
Charles and Sophia, along with daughters Bella and Victoria, settled on Hewitt Place in the Bronx for the first decade of their time in New York. By the time of the 1925 census they were living on 111th in Harlem, and brother-in-law Charles Braun had arrived from Egypt and moved in with them. Bella (Blanche) Rosenberg had turned 18 and was now working as a pianist.
Charles Braun’s wife Bertha arrived in October ’25 along with their children Lazare (Lester), Solomon and Leon. Charles joined the musician’s union and the P.M.B.S.; per the union directory, Charles Braun started off as a flautist, but soon switched to playing bass.
Ship manifest showing the arrival of Bertha Braun (Halmesco) and children from Cairo to Providence R.I. in October 1925. They gave their intended address as Bertha’s husband Chaim (Charles) on 111th. Source: Ancestry.com.
Brother William Halmesco was the next to arrive, leaving Cairo with his wife Mathilda and arriving in New York in March 1927. Before long they had settled on Southern Boulevard in the Bronx; William joined the P.M.B.S. and the musician’s union as a cornetist/trumpeter.
Ship manifest showing the Halmescos and some other Egyptian-Jewish musicians sailing from Alexandria in February 1927. Source: Ancestry.com.The Halmescos’ building at 362 Southern Boulevard in the Bronx, in 1940. Source: NYC Department of Records.
Aside from the membership of all three families in the P.M.B.S., William is the only one who left us evidence of specifically klezmer music activity. Dave Levitt, descendant of two generations of P.M.B.S. members, has an old manuscript from Halmesco which somehow ended up in his grandfather Jack’s possession. The book, written up in 1945, contains bulgars and other klezmer materials. Probably some of them were William’s own compositions, as he was described in a 2006 profile of his daughter in the Staten IslandAdvance as a “musician and composer.”
Cover of a handwritten klezmer tunebook by William Halmesco held by Dave Levitt, which he posted on Facebook a few years ago.A sample klezmer dance from the manuscript book in the previous photo. Source: Dave Levitt.
Charles Rosenberg was the first of the musicians to pass away, dying of a burst appendix in 1929. He was buried in the Society’s plot at Mount Hebron Cemetery. His wife Sophie—one of the Halmesco sisters, if you recall—died a few years later, in 1935.
Charles (Isaac) Rosenberg’s gravestone in the Progressive Musical Benevolent Society plot at Mount Hebron Cemetery. Photo by Joel Rubin/Pete Rushefsky.
William Halmesco’s family was also struck with misfortune, as his wife Mathilda died in 1931 giving birth to their first child. This daughter was named Mathilda (Matty) in honour of her mother, and was sent to live in the Jewish Infants Home of Brooklyn until age 5, when she came back to live with her father. According to a profile of her in the Staten IslandAdvance in 2006, her father tried for several years to have her learn the violin, but finally gave up when she did not take to it.
WWII registration card for William Halmesco, listing him as an unemployed cornetist. Source: Ancestry.com.
In this era Charles Braun and his sons continued to work as musicians; mostly as bassists, but occasionally as drummers, in night clubs, and in Lester’s case, for the radio station WNEW for some time in the 1940s. The family moved into this newly built building in Brighton Beach, seen below, where a number of musicians seemed to live, per the 1945 local 802 directory, including the klezmer bandleader and cornetist Max Ellenson (1878–19??).
Entries for three of the Brauns under the bassist section of the AFM local 802 directory, 1945. Brother Leo was listed in the Drummer section of the same volume. Source: NYU.Google Maps street view of 3091 Brighton 5th Street in 2011. The Braun family lived here in the 1940s, along with a number of other Jewish musicians and their families. Source: Google Maps. Bertha Braun (née Halmesco) in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in the 1950s, from a cropped family photo. Source: Ancestry.com.
When Charles Braun died in 1947, Bertha’s brother Alexander, who had moved from Egypt, moved in with them, as did Matty Halmesco, as we can see below in the 1950 census. William Halmesco, meanwhile, continued to live in the Bronx as he had since arriving in New York decades earlier. He died in 1952, and was buried in the P.M.B.S. plot at Mount Hebron cemetery alongside fellow cornetist Samuel Blank.
Braun family residence in the 1950 census at 3091 Brighton 5th Street. Source: Ancestry.com.Grave of William Halmesco in the Mount Hebron Cemetery. Source: Joel Rubin/Pete Rushefsky.
With William gone, Matty got married to her cousin Bernard Halm (1920–1985), Alexander’s son who had arrived from Egypt, in Brooklyn in 1954. Born in Vienna, Bernard doesn’t seem to have ever worked as a musician. According to the 2006 profile of Matty, Bernard spoke nine languages and worked as an interpreter in a Manhattan hotel.
Detail of US Customs ship manifest showing the arrival of Bernard and Mina Halm, children of Alexander Halm, from Port Said in August 1951. Note that they are listed as stateless people. Source: Ancestry.com.
I’m not sure if any of the grandchildren of the three musicians Rosenberg, Halmesco and Braun continued in the music business. If you’re related to them and have more info about these families, please feel free to get in touch.
Some kind of undated mutual aid society concept art from the YIVO collection RG 951 Radziviller-Woliner Benevolent Association Records.
The Progressive Musical Benevolent Society was a mutual aid and burial society for New York City klezmer musicians and their families. It was founded in the early 1910s, hit its peak in the interwar and postwar years, and declined by the 1970s. It was formally dissolved in around 2010, but by then the remaining members hadn’t officially met in decades. While I was doing research at YIVO back in the spring, I took many photographs of the two collections they have about the P.M.B.S. These are RG 2110 Records of Progressive Musical Benevolent Society and RG 2330 Progressive Musical Benevolent Society Records. The first collection dates to the late 1970s and 1980s from the era when the organization was winding down its activities under the leadership of Jack Yablokoff, and was mainly about deaths, burials and payments. The second collection is mostly legal documents about dissolution of the organization in the early 2000s, but also contains a cemetery map.
The organization was founded in around 1911, following the model of the many landsmanshaftn and trades-based mutual aid societies in the immigrant Jewish world of New York’s Lower East Side. (The exact date is inconsistent; some say 1911, 1913 or 1914, or even 1921. I tend to believe 1911.) As with other such organizations, the P.M.B.S.’s function was to offer stability to its members by way of sick pay, burial rights in the organization’s cemetery plots, and other forms of support. And over time it seems to have taken on an important social role for New York’s klezmer musicians, in addition to some kind of professional function as a known source of said musicians.
Given that the YIVO records start in the mid-1970s, it means that there is a six-decade gap in documentation about the activities of the organization. I can’t find it at the moment, but I recall reading a facebook comment that Jack Yablokoff, when he took over as head of the P.M.B.S. in that era, wasn’t given any of the meeting minutes or documentation from before his time. If true, that is quite a loss as we know very little about the inner workings of the organization during its prime years. Bits and pieces of oral history from descendants of members are very helpful, but cannot replace the detailed, contemporaneous procedural information of the type YIVO has collected about many other mutual aid societies.
Portrait of Jack Yablokoff from the late 1960s. Originally appeared in the Forverts, posted to Facebook by Steve Lasky.
Because of the family backgrounds & professional activities of many of its members, I see my research into the P.M.B.S.’s activities as a window into the social, family & economic world of New York’s historical klezmer musicians outside the limited scope of the recording industry. Among its members were not only famous soloists like Naftule Brandwein and Shlumke Beckerman, but dozens of lesser known and forgotten musicians. Since getting back from NYC in May, I’ve been gradually working through YIVO’s materials on the P.M.B.S. and building up my understanding of the organization’s membership. This month I’ve been trying to sort through some of the fruits of this research in preparation to give a talk about it at KlezKanada’s Yiddish Culture Jam in Montreal at the end of February. Here’s where I’m at with my research at so far.
Membership of the P.M.B.S.
The total list of names I have associated with the P.M.B.S. comes to about 550 people. This is based on the cemetery maps at YIVO, 1970s ledgers and funeral slips at YIVO, names of donors inscribed on the two cemetery gates,* and a list of members from the 1970s held by Henry Sapoznik. Of those 550, I have identified roughly 125 as being members of the musician’s union A.F.M. local 802 during the period of 1922–1945. That number will probably continue to grow as I identify more of the members, but generally the wives of musicians were not union musicians and many of their children were not, either.
40 of the members I have identified as being ‘klezmer musicians’ in other sources, but the real proportion is probably much higher. Being a working musician for the Jewish community is not something that was well documented in memoirs or newspaper coverage, and rarely anyone but the bandleader got mentioned in advertisements! Plenty of others worked in other parts of the music business: vaudeville, restaurants, theatre and classical orchestras, and so on.
Part a map of the P.M.B.S.’s plot at Mount Hebron Cemetery. Source: YIVO, RG 2230 collection.
The oldest members were born in Europe in the 1850s and 1860s, but the majority of the musicians were born in the 1880s and 1890s. That makes sense for an organization of working people founded in 1911. The youngest musicians in my list were born in the 1910s, but many of the grandchildren of the original members were born throughout the 20th century and are still alive—for example, Dave Levitt, who has been very helpful to me in my research. The earliest deaths I could find were of Samuel Klotzman in 1919—the infant son of Łódź-born drummer Abraham Klotzman—and the musician Joseph Machnowetsky, who died in 1920 and about whom I know almost nothing so far.
Even if I eventually work my way through all the names in the cemetery maps and other lists, it’ll still be missing some names. This is because P.M.B.S. was a dues-paying organization which could expel delinquent members, as did all mutual aid societies of the time. Members could also pay dues for a time, but move back to Europe, or to Florida or California or elsewhere in the United States, and drop out of the organization and be buried locally. For example, Abraham Klotzman, who I mentioned above, seems to have left the organization by the 1930s when he died and was buried elsewhere.
Unless by some miracle the meeting minutes and ledgers from earlier eras resurface one day, I’ll have to make do. But the cemetery lists are still invaluable, as the people buried there show the trajectory of klezmer families over the course of the 20th century.
*The names on the two cemetery gates, erected in 1923 and 1939, contain a subset of names who were NY musicians who were not buried in either P.M.B.S. plot, but were definitely buried somewhere else with a landsmanshaft or some other society, such as Klotzman. Hard to say if all of these were members who left later on, or simply well-wishers who wanted to make a financial gesture to their fellow klezmorim.
Cover of the published score for A Brivele dem Taten, 1911. Source: Library of Congress.
The P.M.B.S. didn’t leave much of a public trace
Many Jewish immigrant mutual aid societies founded at around the same time advertised their social events in the Yiddish press and their activities were occasionally covered in short articles. The purpose of this was to invite in landsleit from nearby areas who were also in New York, and to attract new members, etc. They also sought to attract donors for their charitable projects, such as the construction of a hospital, study house or factory back home. But so far I haven’t been able to find any trace of the P.M.B.S. in Yiddish or English press archives, or being mentioned in old memoirs or music history books (except very recent ones). It doesn’t help that the name of the organization is made up of such common words; it’s much easier to do a targeted keyword search for Chotiner or Podolier than it is for Musical or Progressive.
Some of the other historical mutual aid societies didn’t leave much of a trace either. It isn’t unique to the P.M.B.S. While some sought to recruit strangers or to fraternize with their landsleit, others don’t seem to have advertised or left much of a trace beyond their cemetery plots. This is true, for example, of the society Abe Elenkrig, his family, and Meyer Kanewsky were members of, the Zolotonosher Friends. The cemetery section is there, and some paper ephemera were kept and digitized by descendants, but almost nothing has been printed publicly about it.
The dance hall of the Wolkowisker Young Men’s Benevolent Association building on the Lower East Side, from their 1927 anniversary journal. Source: New York Public Library.
Not all NY klezmorim were members
There seems to have been a natural upper limit to the size of immigrant Jewish mutual aid societies in New York. This is why we see a long list of landsmanshaftn for immigrants from large cities or populous regions (such as Warsaw or Bessarabia). The existence of several ‘competing’ mutual aid societies was not always because of ideological or personal schisms, although that also happened. In fact, many of the landsmanshaftn from the same place got along well and would band together for charitable projects or to throw a big party. It’s just that the management of services by an elected board probably became too complicated once it involved hundreds of members. This is why I doubt the P.M.B.S. was trying to expand to gain some kind of monopoly over immigrant Jewish musicians in New York. There were simply far too many of them, and many already belonged to landsmanshaftn or other societies.
I will preface this list with a caveat that I’m only guessing these people were not members, because they weren’t buried in the P.M.B.S.’s plot and didn’t show up on any lists. Maybe they were at some point during its history.
Dave Tarras, the celebrity clarinetist, was the most famous NY klezmer to have not been a member. Many other recording artists of klezmer’s golden age weren’t either: Abe Schwartz, Max Yankowitz, Max Leibowitz, and Joseph Moskowitz, Israel J. Hochman, Abe Katzman, Beresh Katz, Joseph Frankel, Abe Elenkrig, Jacob Gegna, and so on. Same goes for many of the bandleaders I’ve been researching who were playing for the Jewish community back then: Joe Magaziner (1886–1971), Max Ausfresser (1880–1941), Max Ellenson (1878–19??), Aaron Greenspan (1881–1938), etc. The big Yiddish Theatre bandleaders and arrangers, who sometimes had one foot in the klezmer world, weren’t either: Abe Ellstein, Joseph Cherniavsky, Alexander Olshanetsky, Joseph Rumshinsky, and so on. With some large musician families like the Brandweins, Radermans, Beckermans and Fiedels, some of them were members and others weren’t.
Photo of Max Leibowitz’s band from a Pathé Records Jewish market catalogue, 1920. Source: New York Public Library.
As I said above, its most famous member to klezmer fans was surely Naftule Brandwein, as was his contemporary Shlumke Beckerman. Abraham Constantine (1891–1953), a cornetist who played on some classic recordings, was a member, as was trombonist Isidor Drutin (1884–1954). Probably all of the Epstein Brothers were, as were several of the Fiedel family, although I’m not sure about cornetist Alex Fiedel (1886–1957) who we know from old recordings. Some of the Rapfogel brothers, Galician-born musicians who seem to have worked with Israel J. Hochman, were members, as well as Jack and Marty Levitt. Harry Raderman (1897–1947), a drummer and not the famous jazz trombone player, was a member, as was Hyman Millrad (1882–1971), a composer and bassist who appears on many old recordings. Several members of the Grupp family, who were related to Alter Chudnover back home, were members as well. And from there we can add a long list of other musicians and their families, musicians who were small-time klezmer bandleaders, or sidemen, or played in all kinds of other parts of the music industry over time.
I’ve found it interesting to explore; in filling out the family tree of P.M.B.S. members, I realize that someone is related to a non-member I know from my klezmer research. For example, bandleaders & klezmers Leopold Zimbler (1853–1939), Sigmund Goldring (1888–1947) and Samuel Frankfort (1870–1956) all had children who were buried in P.M.B.S. cemetery sections, even if the fathers were buried elsewhere. Frankfort’s daughter Dora married into the aforementioned Fiedel family, so that both sides were connected to the P.M.B.S./klezmer circles.
Romanians were poorly represented in the P.M.B.S.
Romanian Jewish immigrants to New York City were far fewer in number than those from the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires. But they were over-represented among golden age klezmer recording artists: Joseph Moskowitz, Max Leibowitz, Abe Schwartz and Max Yankowitz were all Romanians, as were some notable klezmer bandleaders who didn’t record, such as Jacob Manishor (1865–1950). None of those musicians were members of the P.M.B.S., as far as I know. While I will probably find some eventually, I have yet to identify any Romanian-born musician members of the Society! Although there are some Bessarabians, who in cultural terms are of course closely connected to Romania.
Application for membership of musician Jacob Manishor to a Bucharester landsmanshaft, c.1905. Source: YIVO, RG 826 Independent Bukarester Sick Aid Association Records collection.
So far, I would say two thirds of the musicians were from all parts of the Pale of Settlement (that is, the western Russian Empire), one sixth from Austria-Hungary, and one sixth American-born. Maybe the proportions will shift as I continue to investigate members on the list, but probably not by much.
Links between the P.M.B.S. and musicians’ unions are interesting
Finally, there are some interesting and notable connections between the P.M.B.S. and the music unions operating in New York. The earliest Jewish music union was founded in 1889 as part of an expansion of the United Hebrew Trades-affiliated locals; the Rusishe Progresiv Muzikal Yunyon No.1 fun Amerike, which James Loeffler wrote about in the linked article. It mainly represented Yiddish-speaking klezmer musicians. Loeffler suggests that the remnants of that union were incorporated into the P.M.B.S. in 1921 after A.F.M. local 802 to gained a monopoly over union musicians in New York. I’m unclear on the relationship between the functions and memberships of the Russian Progressive Musical Union and the P.M.B.S., but hopefully I will sort some of that out in my future research.
Ad for the aforementioned union from the Folksadvocat, 15 March 1889. Source: Jpress.
In the first decades of the 20th century, the A.F.M. affiliated union local 310 gained members and tried to pressure the U.H.T. affiliated music union to cease operating. I’m also unclear on the exact nature of that dispute, but it shows up in some A.F.M. conference discussions. Over the course of the 1910s, plenty of P.M.B.S. members joined local 310, whether after leaving the U.H.T. union or from being non-union. Each newly joined member was announced in International Musician magazine, so it’s easy enough to track.
Others probably worked as non-union musicians for very niche landsleit gigs; in his oral history with Henry Sapoznik, P.M.B.S. member Louis Grupp said that it sometimes took a few years of performing for weddings and simchas among their landsleit before musicians even joined a union. By the time local 310 was refounded as local 802 in around 1922, most of the P.M.B.S. members who were out regularly working in public should probably have been members of it. There were exceptions here and there, but it was frowned upon and would probably get someone in trouble eventually.
A few P.M.B.S. members were elected to notable roles in local 802 as well. (See The History of Local 802 on the union’s own website.) The best known among these was Max L. Arons (1904–1984). After rising through the ranks of elected roles starting in the 1930s, he became president of the union in 1965, a title he held until 1982. During the same time period, P.M.B.S. member Al Knopf also rose as high as Vice President of the union. Others worked in more humble roles; vaudeville drummer Jack Zimbler (1891–1965) and his sister, the cellist Mathilda Zimbler (1897–1990), children of Leopold Zimbler who I mentioned above, worked as clerks for local 802 in the 1940s–50s.
Conclusion
I’m still working through the materials I have about the Progressive Musical Benevolent Society, and hoping to find new angles into the history of this organization in 2026. Perhaps some printed materials about it are sitting somewhere in a box of a family member. But if I can’t find anything else, seeing the family and professional connections between the members of this fascinating organization has been leading me down all kinds of interesting research paths. Most likely, my talk in February will focus on the basic function of the organization and a who’s-who of some interesting members and what they got up to.
Orchard Street near Delancey, c. 1928. Close to the office of the First Independent Brichaner Society at 133 Orchard. Source: P. L. Sperr / New York Public Library.
This summer, I’ve been continuing to research the small-time immigrant Jewish bandleaders who played for landsmanshaftn in New York City in the early 20th century. This is a topic which I was researching at YIVO this past spring, and I photographed a lot of names in archival documents which I still haven’t done a deep dive into. Many of these bandleaders only appear one or two landsmanshaft anniversary journals, in an advertisement or musical programme; if I’m lucky enough to have a full name and home address, it’s enough to go and find out more about their lives in old directories and newspapers. In those documents I often notice family or professional ties to other old musicians.
It’s through this process that I was looking into the Greenspans, who showed up a few times in the papers of Joseph Kessler (1891-1979), a businessman and notable in the Britshaner diaspora, who led the Britshaner Bessarabian Relief Association in New York for years. Through the Greenspans, I got interested in other music events for this community and decided to write a post about it. Be forewarned, this is a long post with a lot of old newspaper advertisements in Yiddish!
Portrait of Joseph Kessler from the Britshan memorial book published in Tel Aviv in 1963. I believe his family name is misprinted. Source: Yiddish Book Center.
Briceni and the Greenspans
Briceni, or בריטשאַן (Britshan) in Yiddish, is today in the northern tip of Moldova, on the Ukrainian border. 125 years ago, it was in the Bessarabia governorate of the Russian Empire and had under 8000 Jewish residents. Although it was small, it was right in the middle of the Ukraine-Moldova border region where many of our favourite New York klezmers came from. After the First World War, like the rest of Bessarabia, it became part of Greater Romania.
Dave Tarras, who lived in the area for a time before emigrating to the United States, released a track in 1941 called Britshaner Bulgar, which you can stream here on the Mayrent Collection, or here on YouTube. Although it was probably his own composition dedicated to the place, rather than one he heard there.
An undated street scene from Briceni from the 1963 Yizkor book. Source: Yiddish Book Center.
As more and more Jewish immigrants from Bricani arrived in New York City, they established mutual aid societies to support one another. The KehilaLinks page for Brichany lists a healthy number of these Britshaner landsmanshaftn in New York which were founded before World War 1. Among these are the First Britschaner Benevolent Association (1898), the First Independent Brichaner Society (1900), the Erster Independent Brichaner Unterstutzungs Verein (1901), and the Independent Britchoner Bessarabian Benevolent Association (1911). To this we can add relief associations founded to help refugees from the First and Second World Wars, various ladies’ auxiliaries, political and cultural clubs, and so on. A prominent later addition was the Bessarabier Britshaner Branch no. 608 of the Arbeter Ring (1917).
An anniversary journal from YIVO’s archive, in this case from the Britchaner Bessarabier Relief Association, January 1939. Source: RG 1001 Joseph Kessler papers, YIVO.
In going through the handful of Britshaner anniversary journals I could find at YIVO, I found two advertisements which I initially thought were for the same musician. This first one is from 1937:
Ad for Greenspan’s Royal Jazz Band in Britchaner Bessarabier Relief Association jubilee journal, 1937. Source: RG 1001 Joseph Kessler papers, YIVO.
The second is in the 1941 version of the same journal, complete with pencil marks from Mr. Kessler, who was presumably collecting the money for the ads:
Ad for Jack R. Greenspan and Orchestra in Britchaner Bessarabier Relief Association Jubelium Journal, February 1941. Source: RG 1001 Joseph Kessler papers, YIVO.
It was only after I looked up their addresses in the local 802 directory that I realized these two ads were probably not for the same guy, but for father and son: Aaron Greenspan (born Briceni c. 1881, died Bronx 1938) and Jack Ramon Greenspan (born Briceni c. 1903, died Jefferson, Kentucky 1988). My guess is that Jack, who does not seem to have been a full-time musician, took over his father’s “duties” in the years after his death.
Portrait of Jack R. Greenspan from his 1936 naturalization application. Source: FamilySearch.
A look back at earlier Britshaner music events in NYC
Before I get to the Greenspans, who were prominent in a later era of Britshaner music in New York City, I’ll rewind to the earliest evidence I could find.
If you’ve read some of my recent posts, or know about landsmanshaftn, you probably know about the rich culture of social events they created in New York City in the early 20th century. Per Daniel Soyer in his excellent Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880-1939:
Landslayt of all ages enjoyed themselves at the hometown association balls. These functions gave married and older immigrants a chance to indulge in the era’s passion for dancing even after they had outgrown New York’s many commercial dance halls. The affairs had something for everyone, mixing contemporary European and American dance styles with old-fashioned Jewish steps. […] the presence of several generations and the close acquaintance of many of the revelers made the society affairs settings at which young women in particular could safely enjoy themselves and meet other people their age.
[…] The functions helped boost each society’s sense of organizational elan and also attracted new members. The affairs usually featured an imposing members’ or “couples’ march,” which demonstrated ceremoniously the sponsoring group’s strength and unity. Landslayt who were not already members might attend and find inspiration to join. The balls of the Satanover Society barely covered expenses, but the “results” as reported by the arrangement committee included the number of candidates nominated, as many as twenty-two in 1913.
p.105–6.
It is in this context that you should think of these ads, which became more plentiful during periods of abundance and growth in membership. This ad from 1907 was the earliest for a Britshaner ball I found on jpress. Put on by the Britshaner Young Ladies’ Progressive Club, it cost 15 cents for ladies, 25 cents for men, featured an unnamed union orchestra, and was held in New Stanton Hall on the site of what is now the Stanton Street Synagogue.
Advertisement for a Concert and Ball put on by the Britchaner Young Ladies’ Progressive Club, printined in Di Varhayt, 3 May 1907. Source: jpress.
Since the earliest Britshaner associations in New York were founded in the 1890s, I assume they held informal musical events which were not advertised or described anywhere. Perhaps after a decade of developing their organizations, and as their members became more numerous and established in America, they were able to stage larger events which advertised tickets to non-members.
A number of other ads from around 1907–8 are similar to the one above. Here’s a longer one advertising an event put on by the Britshaner Young Men’s Benevolent Association in October 1908 at the New Clinton Hall, at Clinton and Grand in the Lower East Side. It boasts that one will be sure to meet Britshaner young men and ladies, in addition to Bessarabier, Chotiner, and Yedinetser young men and ladies—Khotyn and Edineț being neighboring towns back in Bessarabia—and to reconnect with friends one hasn’t seen in some time.
Advertisement for a ball put on by the Britshaner Y.M.B.A. in Di Varhayt, 10 Oct 1908. Source: jpress.
The first ad I found with a named musician was this one for the Full Dress and Civic Ball put on by the same Ladies’ Progressive Club mentioned above. Again taking place at New Clinton Hall in December 1908, it promises “music by Prof. Fiedlman’s Union Orchestra.” (Fidelman was such a common name among musicians that I can’t say who he was.)
Advertisement for Britshaner Young Ladies’ Progressive Club Full Dress and Civic Ball with prof. Fidelman’s orchestra. In the Forverts, 25 December 1908. Source: jpress.
Here is presumably the same Fidelman playing for the club’s May Flower Ball in 1909 at the Lennox Assembly Rooms on East 2nd Street:
Advertisement for a Britshaner May Flower Ball with prof. Fidelman’s Orchestra in Di Vahrhayt, 15 May 1909. Source: jpress.1940 tax photo of the Lennox Assembly building at 252–56 East 2nd Street. I believe this was the same building which existed in 1908, a former German Methodist church. In the 1980s it became a hip nightclub called The World and was demolished in 2002. Source: New York City Municipal Archives.
From 1910 to 1915 there were still regular notices in the NY Yiddish press for Britshaner events, but far fewer ads for balls, and none that were particularly interesting. Here are two that showed up in 1916 with new bandleaders, the Fiedler Brothers. This Full Dress and Civic Ball was put on in September by the Independent Britshaner Besarabier Benevolent Association. It took place at Beethoven Hall on East 5th Street, a common venue for Jewish events in that era. The other Fiedler Brothers civic ball two months later was put on by the Britshaner Bessarabier Progressive Young Folks, apparently a lesser-known landsmanshaft or cultural club, at the Progress Casino on Avenue A.
Advertisement for the Full Dress and Civic Ball of the Independent Britshaner Bessarabier Benevolent Association, Fiedler Brothers Union Orchestra. From the Forverts, 16 Sept 1916. Source: jpress. Ad for the Full Dress and Civic Ball put on by the Britshaner Bessarabier Progressive Young Folks with Fiedler Brothers Union Orchestra. In the Forverts, 4 Nov 1916. Source: jpress.
Working our way through the whole range of violinist family names, the next events I found in 1917 was played by the Fiedel Brothers Union Double Brass Band. I believe this was probably the family of Isaac Fiedel (clarinet, born c.1858) whose sons were all active in New York at the time: Morris (saxophone, b.1879) Max (trumpet, b.1884), Alex (cornet, b.1886), and Frank (violin, b.1898). The family moved around between southern Ukraine and northern Moldova, but several of the sons were born in Edineţ, close to Briceni, where Isaac lived until he emigrated to New York in 1912. Alex recorded a cornet solo piece for Columbia Records in 1917; you can listen to it on the Mayrent Collection. He shows up on some other klezmer albums and on some Pawlo Humeniuk Ukrainian discs decades later.
This full Dress and Civic Ball also took place at Beethoven Hall, and promised that a portion of the profits from tickets sold would go to the People’s Council, an anti-war movement at the time.
Advertisement for the Britchaner Bessarabier Y.M.&Y.L.B.A. ball with Fidel brothers orchestra in the Forverts, 22 Sept 1917. Source: jpress.
Another ball put on by the Independent Britshaner Bessarabier Benevolent Association the following year featured the music of S. Brownstein. It’s just a guess, but it could have been Sam Braunstein (clarinet/saxophone, b.1891 in Dunayivtsi, Podolia), who was active in New York at that time.
Advertisement for the Independent Britshaner Bessarabier Benevolent Association Full Dress and Civic Ball, with music by prof. S. Brownstein. In the Forverts, 25 August 1918. Source: jpress.
The Greenspan era
During the years after the First World War, and during the Russian Civil War, new waves of Jewish immigrants and refugees arrived in New York. A number of notable klezmer musicians, composers and Yiddish theatre bandleaders arrived during the years 1919–22, including Hirsch Gross, Dave Tarras, Joseph Cherniavsky, Morris Drutin, and Al Glaser. Aaron Greenspan also arrived from Briceni in 1920, possibly fleeing the poor conditions of early period of Romanian rule in Bessarabia. His wife Dinah and five children, including Janchel (Jack Ramon, then a teenager) followed in November and they settled in the Lower East Side.
It seems to me from the advertisements that Greenspan mostly took over the business of playing for Britshaner events for the following decades. I found a good number of them on jpress, and not all for the one he was a member of (the Independent Britshaner Bessarabian Benevolent Association). Here’s the earliest one I could find, a May Flower Ball which was put on at Beethoven Hall by the Britshaner Bessarabier Y.M.&Y.L.B.A.
Advertisement for the Britchaner Bessarabier May Flower Ball, with prof. Greenspan’s Union Double Brass Band. In the Forverts, 24 April 1920. Source: jpress.
He continued to play many of these May Flower Balls, as in this one put on in 1922 by the Britshaner Bessarabier branch 608 of the Arbeter Ring.
Advertisement for Britchaner Bessarabier May Flower Ball with prof. Greenspans Union Orchestra in Forverts, 29 april 1922. Source: jpress.Advertisement for Britchaner Bessarabier May Flower Ball with Aharon Greenspan’s Union Orchestra. In Morgn Frayhayt, 28 April 1923. Source: jpress.
This one for the 1924 iteration of the same May ball doesn’t mention him, but I like the bowtie design. Maybe he played for it too.
Advertisement for a Bessarabier Britshaner ball in Der Tog, 10 May 1924. Source: jpress.
This next advertisement is one of my favourites. It was the Britshaner-Bessarabier Colour-Light Ball put on by branch 608. (Per Daniel Soyer’s book, colour-light balls were pretty much what they sound like: a ball with the extra novelty of coloured lanterns.) The advertisements lists all types of dances old and new, which is rare in a newspaper ad:
Today! Today!
In the evening all the Bessarabiers will meet for the long-awaited Britshaner Bessararabian Colour Light Ball
Given by the Britshaner Branch 608, Workers Circle in the large Beethoven Hall, 210 East 5th Street.
Waltz, polka, foxtrot, tango, hora [hoyra!], krakowiak, fatapapa [?], Romanian sirbas, bulgars, shers, kozatskes, mazurkas, quadrilles, everything your heart desires. Don’t forget tonight, Shabbos, October 2.
Advertisement for the Britchaner Besarabier Colour Light Ball in Morgn Frayhayt, 2 October 1926. Source: jpress.
Greenspan also played for the 10th anniversary banquet of Branch 608, the following march at Astoria Mansion on East 4th.
Ad for the 10th anniversary Britchaner Branch 608 Dinner and Ball with music by Greenspan. In Morgn Frayhayt, 19 March 1927. Source: jpress.The Astoria Hall in 1940, at 62 East 4th Street. Source: NYC Department of Records.
A blurb printed in the Morgn Frayhayt in April of the following year gives some more contexts for Branch 608’s politics:
Britshaner Ball for the coming year will take place Shabbos, April 21
The annual ball of the Britshaner Bessarabier Branch 608 Arbeter Ring will take place Shabbos, 21 April, in Beethoven Hall, 210 East 5th Street. It is to be expected that everyone Yedinetser, Chotiner, Rishkaner, Lipkaner, Noviselitser and Britshaner will come enjoy a jolly evening. The left-inclined public, which supports all left-wing and progressive organizations, will also not forget to come to the colour-light ball, which the branch has arranged, as Branch 608 of the Workers’ Circle is one of the most active branches in the country. A good Russian music band will play Russian and American dances.
Britshaner branch 608 ball description in the Morgn Frayhayt, 13 April 1928. Source: jpress.
Another blurb the next week explains that Greenspan’s is the Russian band which will be playing the event:
Britshaner Ball
This Shabbos evening, April 21 will be the 11th annual Color Light Ball at Beethoven Hall, 210 East 5th Street. It is to be expected that all chaverim, friends and landslayt from Bessarabia will come have a nice, jolly evening. You’ll also receive greetings from those who have come not long ago from Britshan. Music by Professor Aharon Greenspan. Tickets 75 cents, to be obtained by members of Branch 608, A.R.
Blurb mentioning the Branch 608 Colour Light Ball with music by prof. Aaron Greenspan in Morgn Frayhayt, 18 april 1928. Source: jpress.
This Ladies’ Auxiliary of the 1st Britshaner Farayn Grand Annual Reception and Ball at Stuyvesant Casino a few months later doesn’t specify which musician is playing:
Advertisement for the 1st Britshaner Ladies Auxiliary ball in the Morgn Zhurnal, 28 Oct 1928. Source: jpress.
With the start of the Great Depression, Britshaner ball advertisements largely disappeared from the Yiddish press once again. We know that they continued their activities during that era, and that musicians continued to play, but landsmanshaftn in general struggled to maintain many of the services and programming they had at the height of the 1920s. I know from anniversary journals at YIVO and NYPL that landsmanshaftn continued to celebrate each 5-year anniversary during the Great Depression with a banquet, but they did noticeably decline in the Yiddish press.
Joseph Kessler, the businessman I mentioned above, contributed a chapter to the Britshaner Yizkor (memorial) book, published in Tel Aviv in 1963. The book has been translated to English, and his chapter is available here. He notes that the Britshaner Relief organization in New York was founded in 1931 and at that time had a hard time getting donations from Britshaners in New York to send charitable support back home.
It doesn’t relate to music, but here is a blurb about one of the landsmanshaftn from December 1933 which describes how it was doing during the depression:
First Britshaner Association
The “First Britshaner Aid Association” has existed for 29 years and has a membership of 290 families. It provides 10 weeks of sick benefits and not much support for needy members. It provides annual contributions to various institutions such as: Moyshev Zkeynim Bnei and Benat Moyshe, Jewish National Orphanage, and others. Participates in “Britshaner Relief.” Contributed to the American Jewish Congress. The association also has a women’s auxiliary.
Blurb about Ershter Britshaner Farayn in Der Tog, 22 December 1933. Source: jpress.
In general the ads for balls during this period tended to be fairly basic and to emphasize charity rather than partying and extravagance. This Britshaner Ball at Webster Hall on March 10 1934 says: “Come en masse and help to make the ball a success, as Peysach is very near and our poor and needy in the old home—Britshan—need our help. -The Arrangement Committee.”
Ad for a Britshaner Ball in Forverts, 10 March 1934. Source: jpress.
This annual ball held at Irving Plaza in May 1936, put on by Britshaner Relief of New York, similarly begs one to think of the poor and needy in the old home:
Ad for a Britshaner charity ball in Morgn Frayhayt, 9 May 1936. Source: jpress.
This last ad I could find for a Ball for Britshaner Relief in February 1937 promises music by an unnamed large double-band:
Advertisement for a Britshaner Relief Ball in the Forverts, 5 February 1937. Source: jpress.
That last ad corresponds to a journal from YIVO’s collection, the one with the single advertisement I found for Greenspan’s Orchestra.
Cover of Jubilee Journal of the Britshaner Bessarabier Relief Association, February 1937. Source: RG 1001 Joseph Kessler papers, YIVO.
After the war, I couldn’t find any advertisements for Britshaner balls, concerts, etc. on jpress. I wouldn’t be surprised if the landsmanshaftn continued to hire bands for their events, but they probably became more modest productions. This follows the general trend I saw in countless landsmanshaftn documents at YIVO. In a few cases I found advertisements for Britshaner musical events where one or two Yiddish singers were performing. The Britshaner Relief organization in New York continued to be very active in raising funds; per Kessler, their annual banquets in the late 1940s usually raised about 4 or 5 thousand dollars, which after the destruction of Britshan’s Jewish population during the war, often went to displaced Britshaners in Israel, or to a monument erected for the memory of those who died in New York.
Cover of Britshaner Relief event from 1946 dedicated to Isaac Malester. Source: RG 1001 Joseph Kessler papers, YIVO.
From the 1950s onwards, Britshaner notices in the Yiddish press turned more and more to death notices for prominent members from an earlier era. In the Yizkor book published in ’63, Kessler noted that there were only three Britshaner landsmanshaftn left in New York: the First Britshaner Society, the Britshaner Women’s Society and the Independent Britshaner Society, which Kessler judged to be the largest of the three. Although they probably carried on for some years as benefit and burial societies, their glory days of holding extravagant balls were behind them.
