If they (the audience) are Jewish, they can express their identity without going to church or praying. It is not about beliefs, it's about music.

250

All of a sudden, instead of 100 or 200 people in the audience we were playing for 1,000 to 2,000 people. People wanted to re-discover this stuff that was gone for 60 years.

234

We're trying to keep it interesting and keep motivated to new stuff-especially with vocalists. It's good to be doing new things.

136

I was raised to ignore it. It was something my mother's generation saw as an embarrassment. It was corny and archaic and not pushed as something an up-and-coming musician wanted to learn. My mother wanted me to write Broadway shows.

116

When I was 19, I started taking it seriously. I started copying my grandfather's 78s and talking to the older generation who played it, learning their stories and their music and eventually teaching it at the New England Conservatory of Music.

112

People were sort of stopping having the traditional Jewish music in weddings and ceremonies. And I kind of liked that stuff.

110

When I was 19 I started pestering my relatives who were willing to teach me.

90