Learning Yiddish at 96::Max Talks
Posted by Madeline Slovenz Brownstone on March 26th, 2007
Max Matt December 25th 1910-March 23, 2007
A celebration of his life.
In this podcast Max talks to the piano player about his army days at Camp Shelby, Mississippi in February 1941 and his favorite tune, “Blue Moon”. After a brief cut of the tune, Max continues to talk about learning Yiddish at ninety-six and muses about answering an ad in the Yiddish Forward for a mohel in Uganda. This was recorded at a family gathering for Eli Debs’ 70th birthday in 2006. (It is a bit difficult to hear Max over all the sounds of dinner and music, but if you turn up the volume on your computer, you will be fine.)
Max touched many lives in his long journey from the Ukraine to Romania to Montreal to Conneticut. Family and friends are urged to leave comments, memories, and stories in the comment section below.
Max, we’ll miss you.
Listen to podcast by clicking the icon below. (N.B. it is not necessary to have an iPod for listening to podcasts.)
technorati tags:Matt, montreal, Camp Shelby, Yiddish, circumcision, mohel, Jewish, Yiddish Forward, Mississippi
March 26th, 2007 at 5:24 am
The house on Miamis road-visits to connecticut with the family. I remember the smells of hot baked cherry and blueberry pie that Wanda stored in the freezer and hauled out for the visits.Sking on Mohawk mouintain with max when i was ten or eleven. The old style skie boots and long wooden skies that were hard to get around on. I loved hearing max talk about the war experiences-yeh the big number two. We all took such pride in Max’s physiccal prowess- hiking the
appalachian trail- hiking up mountains when everyone else was taking the tows. His love of soccer-going to World Cup games and draggging Wanda with him. Max was “low key”, but he made a big statement-I loved him for it.
March 27th, 2007 at 8:07 am
I have the fondest memories of Max at my Grandma’s home on Arden Street. He was such a big tease. He would just do little things to make my sisters and I smile. I remember going to his house one summer. I had never hiked in life. He took me hiking one afternoon. It was the best and worst experience of my life. I hated every minute of it but I was so glad I got to spend time with him. Max was wonderful man and will be truly missed from the Chicago clan.
March 28th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Max was always challenging us Chicagoans to push ourselves in subtle and unsubtle ways. Sometimes by example like when we learned that he was taking aerobics when he became too old to ski; and then there were times when he just plain called us lazy. I’m taking liberties here, but I remember when he took Pete and I skiing. The pain the next day was excruciating, but we went out and bought boots! He had a zest that I will always enjoy recalling. Love to all, Judy
April 8th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Yesterday was the celebration of Max’s life. Everyone gathered at the house in Conneticut and shared stories. I certainly hope that some of those stories will make their way to this comments section. Note: there is now an opportunity to leave an audio comment. Click the icon below to listen.
Includes the following Audio Comment