Here’s a nostalgic blast from the past with a glimpse of some toe-tapping, sing-along Yiddish melodies – old favorites as well as Broadway hits translated into mame loshn (Yiddish).

This year’s IAJGS Conference awards banquet (Thursday, July 15) will feature Canadian singer Mitch Smolkin, accompanied by Russian concert pianist Nina Shapilsky. Smolkin will present  "Rexite on the Radio. " 

Crooner Seymour Rexite, known as the "Yiddish Frank Sinatra," was the darling of the golden age of Yiddish radio. For the genealogists among us, his original surname was RECHTZEIT.

Get  just a taste of what dinner attendees will be enjoying live as you listen to Rexite’s Yiddish versions of "Surrey with a Fringe on Top/Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," 1948; "Tea for Two," (with Miriam Kressyn), c1950; "Love and Marriage," (with Miriam Kressyn) c1950; and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," 1954.  He also recorded such ad jingles as the Barbasol jingle, 1948; and the Ajax jingle, 1952.

Did you know that the most popular Yiddish song ever -  "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" – has been recorded by nearly every musical artist and translated into many languages?

It was even popular in Hitler’s Germany until the Nazi Party learned it had been composed by a Jew – Sholom Secunda – and that the title was in Yiddish, not some south German dialect!

The Yiddish Music Project offers a  musical montage of various recordings of "Bei Mir" featuring Guy Lombardo, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Lee Marjane, Zarah Leander, Felix & His Crazy Cats, the Lennon Sisters, Jimmy Rushing, Louis Prima and Judy Garland.

If this makes you hungry for more, here’s a 16-minute NPR documentary on the Yiddish Music Project as it spotlights the Yiddish Melodies in Swing program. Sponsored by the Manischewitz Company, the show ran for almost two decades, beginning in 1938, when it featured a large orchestra and a live studio audience of 1,000.

Don’t forget to register for the IAJGS Conference awards banquet!