Draft:Sholom Rubinstein
 | Review waiting, please be patient.
This may take 4 months or more, since drafts are reviewed in no specific order. There are 4,571 pending submissions waiting for review.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
Reviewer tools
|
Sholom Rubinstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sheldon Joseph Rubinstein November 2, 1918 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | March 5, 2008 (aged 89) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | c. 1935–1967 |
| Spouse | Bess Rubinstein |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives |
|
Sheldon Joseph "Sholom" Rubinstein (also spelled Rubenstein[1]; November 2, 1918 – March 5, 2008) was an American producer, and at times a director and writer, who spent much of his career making Yiddish and Jewish-American radio and television programs in New York.
He was a son of Z. H. Rubinstein, city editor of the Yiddish daily newspaper Der Tog. In 1935 he became a founder of Advertisers' Broadcasting Company which produced Yiddish programming to stations such as WEVD and produced the variety show American Jewish Caravan of Stars.[1][2]
Later in his career he was the director and co-producer of Pete Seeger's folk-music television series Rainbow Quest.[2][3]
Early life and family
[edit]Rubinstein was born in New York City on November 2, 1918.[4]
His father, Zvi Hirsch ("Z. H.") Rubinstein, was a journalist who served for more than twenty years as city editor of the New York Yiddish daily Der Tog. His mother was Sarah Rubinstein.[5][6][7] His family lived in the Bronx and later in Brooklyn.[7] His brother, Bernard Rubinstein, also produced Jewish radio programming and founded Cue Recordings.[6]
Yiddish radio
[edit]Newspapers in that era sponsored radio programs. Rubinstein began working for his father at Der Tog's sponsored program on WMCA. It was the first Jewish newspaper-sponsored radio series.[2]
In 1935 the two of them, together with Meyer Kielson, founded the Advertisers' Broadcasting Company as one of the first advertising agencies built around Yiddish radio. Over the next quarter-century the firm produced hundreds of hours of Yiddish and Jewish-oriented broadcasting for New York stations.[1][2]
Much of Rubinstein's own work went out over WEVD since the sponsored Yiddish programs his company supplied there helped pay for the rest of the station's schedule. He appeared on air himself on the Maxwell House Radio Program on WHN.[1]
He created and produced American Jewish Caravan of Stars, a Sunday-afternoon variety program that stayed on the air for roughly a decade.[2]
Television
[edit]Rubinstein moved into television for the first time in 1953. He was involved in writing, producing, or directing about half a dozen Yiddish and Jewish-American programs for WATV (Channel 13) in Newark, with performers including Seymour Rechtzeit, Miriam Kressyn, and Abe Ellstein.[2]
For the same station he and Kielson produced and directed Great Jewish Stories, a series of dramatizations that were also sponsored by Maxwell House Coffee.[1] He also turned out holiday specials, among them The Drama of the Seder, broadcast on WPIX in 1953.[2]
In the mid-1960s a former WATV colleague, Edwin Cooperstein, who had become president of the new UHF station WNJU (Channel 47) in Newark, brought Rubinstein over to produce Jewish programming there.[2]
Rainbow Quest
[edit]Rubinstein worked on Pete Seeger's folk-music series Rainbow Quest at WNJU. He was credited as director and co-producer. Seeger was the program's host and principal investor while Rubinstein's Advertisers' Broadcasting Company produced it.[2][3][8] The production was taped at WNJU's Newark studios and ran to thirty-nine roughly hour-long episodes with Pete Seeger performing with folk and traditional performers.[2][3]
Later life and writing
[edit]Rubinstein and the actor Mickey Freeman wrote Bilko: Behind the Lines with Phil Silvers, a history and episode guide of The Phil Silvers Show.[9] Rubinstein later settled in Atlanta, where he died on March 5, 2008, at the age of 89.[10]
Works
[edit]Recordings
[edit]- Document of a Dream: A Re-enactment of the Diaries of Theodor Herzl (Folkways Records FG 3591, 1960) — written and directed by Rubinstein; produced by the Theodor Herzl Institute, with Gilbert Mack as Herzl.[11]
- A Nation Is Born (Banner Records) — a documentary recording of the 1947 United Nations partition vote, narrated by Miriam Kressyn and directed by Rubinstein.[12][13]
Book
[edit]- Freeman, Mickey; Rubinstein, Sholom (2000). Bilko: Behind the Lines with Phil Silvers. Virgin. ISBN 978-1-85227-807-6.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Kelman, Ari Y. (2009). Station Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio in the United States. University of California Press. pp. 98–99, 135–139, 164–166, 214. ISBN 978-0-520-25573-9.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sapoznik, Henry (August 2, 2022). "The Yiddish radio pioneer behind Pete Seeger's 'Rainbow Quest'". The Forward. Retrieved May 25, 2026.
- ^ a b c Buck, Simon (2019). "Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest: televisual old age, intergenerationalism, and US folk music". The Sixties. 12 (1): 69–94. doi:10.1080/17541328.2019.1603937.
- ^ "Sheldon Joseph Rubinstein, "New York, New York City, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940–1947"". FamilySearch. Registration October 16, 1940; birth November 2, 1918, New York City; employer Advertisers Broadcasting Co. Retrieved May 25, 2026.
- ^ "Zvi Hirsch Rubinstein, Jewish Journalist, Dies at 54; Funeral Today". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. November 30, 1943. Retrieved May 25, 2026.
- ^ a b "Bernard Rubinstein (obituary)". Dignity Memorial. December 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2026.
- ^ a b "Sheldon Rubinstein (Rubenstein) in the United States Census, 1920 (Bronx) and 1930 (Brooklyn), and New York State Census, 1925; parents Henry/"Z Henry" and Sarah Rubinstein". FamilySearch. Retrieved May 25, 2026.
- ^ "Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger (Advertisers' Broadcasting Co.; produced and directed by Sholom Rubinstein)". University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries. Retrieved May 25, 2026.
- ^ a b Freeman, Mickey; Rubinstein, Sholom (2000). Bilko: Behind the Lines with Phil Silvers. Virgin. ISBN 978-1-85227-807-6.
- ^ "Sholom Rubinstein (obituary)". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. March 6, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2026 – via Legacy.com.
- ^ "Gilbert Mack: Document of a Dream: A Reenactment of the Diaries of Theodor Herzl". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved May 25, 2026.
- ^ Shapiro, Cy (February 26, 1948). "DISC-ussion: Records in Review". The Jewish Advocate. Boston. p. 15.
- ^ A Nation Is Born (sound recording). Banner Records. Digital record A2PTQNNX7BXWWA87, Mayrent Collection of Yiddish Recordings, Mills Music Library, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Category:1918 births
Category:2008 deaths
Category:American radio producers
Category:American television producers
Category:American television directors
Category:Mass media people from New York City