MEDIA CONTACT: Terri Berns
561-297-1164, tberns@fau.edu

FAU Libraries Judaica Sound Archives
Receives Gift of 3,000 Classic Records

BOCA RATON, FL (May 11, 2005) - Over 3,000 mint condition 78-rpm Judaica phonograph records, packed away in boxes for over a generation, have been donated to the Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University Libraries. The donation was made possible by Save the Music, a San Diego-based non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of cultural music through its digitization and placement on the Internet. The recordings were acquired from a company in New York City, which had been accumulating them. The recordings were produced in the early 20th century by various record companies that have since gone out of business and from major record companies, such as RCA Victor and Columbia.

"This is a wonderful addition to the archives. So many vintage records have been worn with age and from use, but here we have recordings that have never been touched by a phonograph needle," said Nathan Tinanoff, founder of FAU's Judaica Music Rescue Project and the driving force to bring these records to the Judaica Sound Archives at FAU Libraries. His dedicated team of volunteers will digitize, index and store the phonograph records. "Our volunteers are mostly retirees, and they love this music. For them, this is the music of their youth," said Tinanoff. "These are cultural treasures which come to us from the Yiddish-speaking immigrant neighborhoods of the past."

In all, over 35 different record labels are included in the gift. Some have label names such as "Menorah," "Tikva," "Okeh" and "Besa," which represent companies that have become buried in the sands of time. "It's wonderful to receive recordings that are in such great condition," said Dr. William Miller, director of FAU Libraries. "It will make the job of digitizing much easier."

The Judaica Sound Archives at FAU Libraries is one of the largest and fastest growing collections of its kind in the world with over 40,000 indexed songs. For additional information regarding the archives, e-mail tinanoff@fau.edu, call 561-297-2207 or visit http://www.fau.edu/jsa.

-FAU-