OK, explain it to me like I’m a three-year old
It’s really quite simple – We are collecting our people’s stories in audio recordings.
We’d like you to go out to your bubbies, your sabas, your uncles, aunts, & cousins and ask them to tell you “their Jewish story.” Record it and submit it to us with appropriate background, tagging, etc.
And of course – this isn’t just about your relatives – it’s about you too. It’s about anyone who is Jewish, an ally, or has a Jewish story.
And in case they’re iffy about what to talk about or need starter topics – we’ve got a document to help you with that.
Lots to unpack there – what do you mean “appropriate background, tagging, etc.”
We don’t just want an online folder of thousands of MP3 files. That won’t serve anyone’s interest. They’ll need to be sorted (tagged, categorized) by topic, location (as relevant), time period/year, etc.
If your uncle served in the Golani Brigade in the 60’s, wouldn’t he be interested in hearing other stories from peers who served? How about current Golanim? Would you like to have his stories shared with the family of other service-people? Heck – maybe we can reestablish some long-lost connections (assuming Facebook hasn’t done that already).
So, specifically then, whose stories do you want?
If you’ve got a Jewish story, we want it. That can include:
- Jews, with a relevant Jewish story (I’m sure the story of your baseball victory at a public high school is great, but likely not relevant here (unless it is)).
- Allies – if President Biden wants to submit a story of his meeting with Golda (or any of the subsequent PMs), I’m game. Same goes for your wife if you have a mixed marriage, your father-in-law, the Shabbat Goy locally, etc.
- Historians – if you have a particular expertise in Jewish (or related) history – would love to have discussions around that included. Since those aren’t first-hand / family stories though we’ll need to make sure things are referenced appropriately, etc.
What else should I know?
- Format is completely flexible. Monologue, dialogue, interview, etc. – it all works.
Put another way – You can ask the person (or yourself) to tell the story as if they’re just telling the story, you can do it interview format if you feel it’s probably best to draw out the story appropriately, you can have group storytelling if you’ve got a number of people who were there, can offer input, etc. - Ideally the person telling the story is the person in the best position to tell the story from a first-person perspective. If your bubbie is alive, get her to to tell her own story – or that of her parents (if they aren’t with us). You shouldn’t tell someone else’s story (if they’re still with us). If they aren’t around at this point (or unable to share their story for other reasons) – then of course – share their story (but be sure to indicate it’s their story).
- While recording / collecting the story – avoid hyperbole, exaggeration, or anything else that adds that extra layer of icing on a great story (even if there’s plenty of it while retelling the story after the third glass of wine at Seder – because that never happens).
- Again – you can certainly submit a story you’ve heard first-hand from someone who is no longer with us (or unable to), but let’s be sure to indicate it didn’t happen to you. Truth matters.
Hasn’t this been done before (goes to Google)?
Yes – kind of. There have been prior (some recent) Jewish “oral histories.” From what I’ve found though they have all been limited in one way or another – to a specific region, a specific period (e.g. post-war), a specific type of person (Celebrity/entertainment types in a certain era). Not a global, anyone can submit and keep their family’s memories alive and online for as long as the project goes on type setup.
We’re aiming to be the Svalbard Global Seed Vault of Jewish stories.
I’m on-board, now what?
Assuming you’re technologically advanced enough (i.e, you have a smartphone) it’s pretty simple. Just ask your relatives (or yourself) for their Jewish stories (we’ll have sample starter questions soon if you need help to get the conversation moving). Start collecting now – there’s no telling when you’ll run out of time.
If you’re using an iPhone – the preinstalled Voice Memos app is fine. If you’re on Android and don’t have something preinstalled we’re fans of Smart Voice Recorder, but anything that records in an open format (mp3, mp4, wav, etc.) should be fine.
While recording, also consider the listener: 5 short stories is better than 1 rambling one if there are multiple storylines in there; if the action takes place in a small town that no longer exists – maybe tell us that and where it used to be, etc.
In the meanwhile – we’ll build a site/database with a method of submission, search ability, etc.
What about rights issues?
We’ll have a formal Terms & Conditions when the site is built, but in broad strokes:
- You keep all your own copyrights, grant us a non-revokable license to “publish” (i.e. put it on the site), cleanup, and reuse it for other content we’ll develop (As you might imagine – we’ll have social media accounts as well as our own content platforms and may want to create content to promote the project and share all of our collected stories).
- We may cleanup the audio, get rid of verbal ticks (e.g. umms, ahhs) but otherwise won’t be editing the audio – no reordering, etc.
- Please don’t name names in a negative manner (defmation, libel, etc. isn’t fun), outside what would be expected (e.g. if someone has a Holocaust event they’d like to share and there are names to be named, that’s fine). That doesn’t mean you need to skip a story, just leave names out that could get you (or us!!) in trouble.
- If at any point you want us to take down a story you’ve submitted, just let us know (ideally once the site is built out you’ll be able to do this yourself from a user profile). That said – if we’ve used it in other materials, obviously that will be harder – maybe impossible – to undo.
I want to help beyond collecting stories, what else do you need?
Baruch Hashem! We’ll need plenty. At first blush we’ll need techies to help build out the site and backend, audio editors/listeners, assistance with outreach to get the ball rolling on collecting stories, professional assistance (lawyers, accounting, etc.), content curators/creators, etc. etc. Please drop us a line to let us know what you might be interested in.
Are you a nonprofit?
Best way to answer this is…not yet. Once we get headed in the right direction and have established a cadence, voice, system, critical mass of involved people – then yes, my goal is to establish this as a non-profit. Until then, it’s a side project of mine. If you would like to assist (expertise, time, connections, financially, etc. – let me know).
So where does the name come from / mean?
Oooh, I’m so glad you asked (ok, I asked, but now I get to tell you). It’s a bit of a pun. Literally translated “B’Alpeh” means “by mouth” – like how we hear and share our stories to our family.
The dynamic translation (translating the meaning rather than the words) would be “by heart” (like to memorize something) – also the way in which we share our stories and our ancestor’s stories.