Mrs. Rivkah Neuman: We were both Pre-1A teachers …

Mrs. Cheryle Knobel: Next door to each other. I always liked teaching through songs and rhymes and children love learning that way.

RN: We worked on parshah songs together and sent them home with our students. We got beautiful notes from the parents …

CK: ... how it enhanced their Shabbos table …

RN: … and we said let’s record it!

CK: We knew we needed narration to pull it together so that’s when we created Chaim and “613 Torah Ave.”!

MJ: Amazing! How did the music become a part of it all?

RN: Yisroel Lamm came on board and really helped us with the tunes and the musical arrangements for all the songs. As the number of tapes grew more people helped with the lyrics narration and tunes.

MJ: It’s so much fun to listen to all the different voices and accents like the British mailbox (in Bereishis) and the summer tree with the Texas drawl (in Seasons/Yamim Tovim).

How did you find so many different voices?

RN: On Bereishis and Shemos all the different voices are actually just one person — Rabbi Shmuel Kunda. After that we had different people doing voices for different parts.

CK: Yerachmiel Begun was helpful in suggesting singers.

Some singers you may recognize today — like Shloime Dachs Mendy Wald and Srully Wulliger — they all got their start on 613 Torah Avenue!

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