On Tuesday, May 16 at 5 pm Eastern Time, Thayer Professor Emeritus Alexander Hartov will join us for a Casual Conversation sponsored by the Jewish Culture Group. Professor Hartov is the co-founder the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive.
Bruce Alpert, chair of the Jewish Culture Group found out about the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive when he received the Dartmouth News email on April 7:
https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2023/04/dartmouth-jewish-sound-archive-mark-150000-tracks
Bruce immediately contacted Professor Hartov and the Archive’s co-founder, Professor Louis Glinert to urge them to join us for a Casual Conversation, and magic happened with Professor Hartov being free to tell us about the extraordinary achievement described in the News and at the Archive’s website website:
https://djsa.dartmouth.edu/ .
The Class of 1969 has a connection with the website through the story recounted in the News: when we we students at the College, Theodore Bikel performed at Leverone Field House as the opening act for a Judy Collins concert. Bikel ended his set with a fiery speech about a house burning.
Here is Professor Hartov’s Dartmouth link:
https://engineering.dartmouth.edu/community/faculty/alexander-hartov .
And this is the summary he provided Bruce:
Joined the Thayer School faculty in 1996.
Research centered on biomedical engineering, with two primary interests: Image Guided Surgery, and Electrical Impedance Tomography.
Initiated the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive in 2002.
Taught ENGS 129 electronics for biomedical engineers, ENGS 111 digital image processing, ENGS 14 the science and engineering of music Now retired, Professor Emeritus, still working on the DJSA.
The archive currently has 148,148 tracks of audio material.
We do not solicit donations, folks find us and send us their records.
Currently working with former research colleagues for a startup in Fluorescence Guided Surgery and Image Guided Surgery.
Professor Hartov also provided these links to a NYTs feature about the Archive: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/30/nyregion/religion-journal-reclaiming-sounds-of-a-discarded-yiddish-culture.html?searchResultPosition=8 and https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/2002/11/30/159930.html?pageNumber=26 .
Join us for an exciting time to discover a unique (in the world!) Jewish resource at the College.
Usual rules apply: If you want to attend, please email me by Sunday, May 14, at arthur.fergenson@ansalaw.com .
Thank you, Bruce, for arranging this.
Arthur
P.S. Unless you are a budding Cantor, don’t expect to sing; and, even if you are and do, I doubt that your contribution will join the Archive. Probably best to save it for shul.