Thursday, December 19, 2013

Chazan Yossele Rosenblatt in Eretz Yisroel 1930's movie, Dream Of My People, Online!

Shortly before Chazan Yossele Rosenblatt (notice the great difference between the Hebrew Wikipedia entry on Yossele, which I just linked to, and the English one here, which is so much shorter) was niftar, he was in Eretz Yisroel working on a film. The moving picture was to feature scenes of the rebuilding of The Holy Land, along with Yossele singing relevant songs at mekomos hakedoshim.

In the past I have seen small portions of it, but it was edited, and I felt like something was missing.

I just found a more complete and authentic older version online, which is worth watching (although I am not sure if it is 100% complete, and it seems that there was a Yiddish version as well).

You can see it here, free of charge.

It is a great movie, as it gives you a real picture of the land of Israel eighty some odd years ago, as well as giving a living picture of the legendary Yossele Rosenblatt.

Thanks to poster יעקב גרוס and others who made it available to us.

P.S. NCJF seems to have a much longer, sixty six minute, English version, for sale (take a look at their page for it, which shows a quaint poster advertising the film as well), while the one featured here is in Hebrew, and only around twelve and a half minutes. Nevertheless it is definitely worth watching, and the price is definitely not to complain about.