Very early Jewish records

[eighteenbelow]

In a large lot of 78's (several hundred) I picked up recently I discovered five of the oldest Jewish records I have ever seen; I'm guessing 1903-1905, though please correct me if I'm mistaken. (Interestingly, they were the only Jewish records in the whole lot.) I'm curious if anyone here is familiar with the artists or any of their other work, and if anyone knows of any earlier Jewish-themed recordings (excepting Vaudeville caricature sketches), either on disc or cylinder. One thing I find interesting is that two of the records that are characterized as "Hebrew" are actually Yiddish. Was "Hebrew" used as a synonym for "Jewish" rather than a description of the language?

Thanks!

[Viva-voce]

H, eighteenbelow,

Thank you for these interesting posts.
Yes, there were recordings produced for the ethnic market very early in the commercial recording era. These early Jewish discs are definitely rarer than the ones produced in the teens and later. There were other genres of Jewish music recorded in the early 1900’s such as art music and Cantorial religious music. The first such recordings of the great cantors were taken of Gershon Sirota in Warsaw and Vilna for G&T starting late 1902. His records were popular enough that Victor imported many of them beginning in 1904 as part of the 61000 catalogue number import series. His voice was a powerful dramatic tenor and very highly developed, and flexible in trills and coloratura. What an impressive voice. If you encounter any of his Victor imports, make sure to play them slower than 78 rpm as they were originally recorded anywhere from 68-72 rpm. There were a few of his on pink Favourite label from 1908 that were issued on green US Columbia later on. They are even more impressive but as I recall may play slower also.

There were other early cantors that appeared on disc shortly after, such as Selmar Cerini and Zawel Kwartin, and then the first recordings by the great Yossele Rosenblatt, but his early European discs were not imported to the US, AFAIK.
The ethnic craze reached a peak during the 1920’s with thousands in the catalogues of many ethnicities.
Yiddish was more often called “Jewish” at that time. Hebrew was usually noted as such on labels.

I know in the USA, Victor, Columbia and Zonophone sold records for the Jewish ethnic market early on, both foreign and domestic. I’m not sure if Edison or Columbia produced Jewish music on cylinders—maybe someone can chime in.

Anyhow, these early examples you show are very interesting and appear to be in nice condition.

Cheers!
Steven