Skip to main content

Nativity: Sholem Asch's Story of the Birth of Jesus

Pete Seeger
Nativity: Sholem Asch's Story of the Birth of Jesus

Sholem Asch (1880–1957), a prominent Yiddish author and the father of Folkways founder Moses (Moe) Asch, wrote a long novel, The Nazarene, about the life of Jesus, in Yiddish, in 1939. A few years later, at Moe’s urging, Asch wrote a shorter work on the Nativity in English that would be of appropriate length for a phonograph record. The story remained unpublished and unrecorded until this Folkways release in 1963.

Moe Asch was of the belief that the story should be recorded by “someone with an affinity for art and the folk idiom, and with a deep sense of social understanding as well.” He decided on Pete Seeger (1919–2014), the legendary folksinger and activist.

The recording also includes Seeger singing six Christmas songs. The liner notes provide background about the recording and Sholem Asch, and the text of the story.

Track Listing

icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
101
Pete Seeger
06:58
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
102
Pete Seeger
01:56
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
103
Pete Seeger
03:00
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
104
Pete Seeger
02:36
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
105
Pete Seeger
03:01
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
201
Pete Seeger
05:22
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
202
Pete Seeger
09:03
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
301
Pete Seeger
07:29
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
302
Pete Seeger
10:34
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
401
Pete Seeger
05:39
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
402
Pete Seeger
02:43
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
403
Pete Seeger
02:34
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
404
Pete Seeger
02:18
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
405
Pete Seeger
01:38
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
406
Pete Seeger
01:55