If you get at least 13 questions correct, you can endorse yourself as a true music aficionado

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t’s that time of year again, and in the best of our annual tradition, with Chanukah coming up, we have another trivia quiz for you. Okay, it’s not a high-stakes dreidel game or a latke-eating contest, but it’s one way to test your skill as a music maven and your knowledge of the industry kings over the last half century. Can you recognize your favorite performers? (Hey, don’t be embarrassed — we’re all getting older.) We’ll give you a hint by telling you where the picture was taken (although granted, that might be an even bigger trivia question). So grab a doughnut, preferably caramel, and start. If you get at least 13 questions correct, you can endorse yourself as a true music aficionado — and treat yourself to another doughnut. And as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so consider this my longest article ever.

Who Are They?

1. Siyum HaShas, January 2020. This picture was actually taken on December 31, 2019, one day before the 13th Siyum HaShas.
2. La Vista Hotel in South Fallsburg, Motzaei Shabbos in the summer of 1986. After the summer, the concert, which had been recorded, was released as a cassette.
3. Backstage at Lincoln Center after a benefit Journeys concert for Russian youth in America, 1995.
4. A tribute to composers at HASC VI. Right before the finale, all the performers came out wearing black coats and white scarves.
5. Chol Hamoed family show at Shulamit High School (a few years before the building was sold in 2010).
6. The Rabbis’ Sons concert at the Salute to Israel-Rheingold Music Festival in Central Park on July 2nd, 1967, right after the Six Day War.
7. Concert for Yeshiva Ketana of Manhattan at the Merkin Concert Hall.
8. HASC XXVII. Toward the end of the concert, all the performers (some of them from the vintage Diaspora Band) got onto the stage and, in an impromptu performance, sang “Ivdu Es Hashem B’Simchah.”
9. New Jersey Turnpike. On the way to visit a child in Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, the group stopped at a rest stop to fill up their tanks and get some drinks.
10. Mayor Rudy Giuliani invited this group to Gracie Mansion to celebrate Jewish Heritage week in 1998.
11. Freilach Orchestra (what a typical orchestra looked like in the day: no singer, no guitar, just good ol’ Jewish music).
12. London winter, 1970 (what a great idea for an album cover).
13. A special day at Camp HASC. Not only did all these people come up to sing, they also ended up joining some of the campers in a fun game of basketball.
14. Backstage at Lincoln Center after the Haazinu concert, to benefit children with hearing disabilities. The concert had eight acts, with each artist performing two songs. This was the second of 15 consecutive annual concerts for Haazinu.
15. Backstage at the Tillis Center in Long Island for the Mekor concert, February, 2022.

Answers:

1. L to R: Shloimy Gertner, Shloime Daskal, Baruch Levine, Abish Brodt
2. L to R: Yossi Piamenta a”h, Sandy Shmueli, Shmuel Klaver, Yoel Sharabi, Dov Levine, Ron Eliron, Avi Piamenta, Captain Dan, Moshe Antellis
3. L to R: (Back row) Ding, Moshe Yess, Dov Levine, Rivie Schwebel; (Middle row) Yisroel Lamm, Mutty Grunberg, Eli Kranzler, Harold Fruchter, Shloime Dachs, Shlomo Simcha, Nachum Segal; (Bottom row) Abie Rotenberg, Gershon Veroba
4. L to R: Moshe Mona Rosenblum, MBD, Rabbi Baruch Chait
5. L to R: Nachas, one of the Twins from France, Bello, the other Twin
6. L to R: Rabbi Baruch Chait, Rabbi Label Sharfman, Itzy Weinberger, Michael Zheutlin a”h
7. L to R: Rivie Schwebel, Eli Schwebel, Yitzchak Rosenthal, Abie Rotenberg, and (front) Avromi Schwebel
8. L to R: (Front row) Bentzy Marcus, Avraham Rosenblum, Avraham Fried, Menachem Herman, Shmuel Marcus, Benny Friedman; (Back row) Yisroel Lamm, Simcha Abramson, Shmuel Ramraz
9. L to R: Yossi Rosenberg, Shloime Dachs, Sruly Wulliger, MBD, Michoel Shnitzler a”h, Gershi Moskowitz
10. L to R: Aaron Teitelbaum, Rav Yisrael Meir Lau, Murray Huberfeld, Dedi Graucher a”h, Mystery Man, Ding
11. L to R: Paul Pincus, Mike Sojcher, Yehudah Spinner, Kenny Gross, Suki Berry
12. Sir Yigal Calek and his London Pirchim Choir
13. L to R: Yehuda Green, Dovid Gabbay, Baruch Levine, Yaakov Shwekey, and HASC campers
14. L to R: (Back row) Yitzchak Rosenthal, Yaakov Shwekey, Aaron Teitelbaum, Chaim Block, Ding; (Middle row) Hilly Gross, Shlomo Simcha, Avraham Fried, Abie Rotenberg, Moshe Yaroslowitz, Baruch Aryeh; (Bottom row) Dedi, Jo Amar
15. L to R: Suki Berry, Yossi Toiv (Country Yossi), Heshy Walfish

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 988)