Pickled Tongue: Jewish Cultural Preservation

Growing up, my grandma had a special set of white terry cloth dish towels, printed with the black and white photograph of John LeMarche. His scowl kept watch of the drawer handles and oven. He was Jewish, from France, which he left to avoid serving in the French Army, only to be drafted into the American military.

 

I want to learn about the kind of life John LeMarche led, and other Jews that shared his circumstances. I have recently moved to Lille, France with my long-term girlfriend Nina, and will be here until August 2022. During this time, I am interested in interviewing, filming, and recording Jews throughout France telling their stories of the music and food. I chose food and music because they are traditions that are passed down orally and are in danger of being lost and I am trained musician and baker. I have been planning this project since 2018 and I have begun the interview process.

 

The interviews will be put onto my website pickledtongue  as audio/video, written transcripts, recipes, and as transcribed sheet music. My goal is to make my project as widely available as possible by putting the information online, so that other people who have an interest in their cultural heritage can easily access the artifacts I collect. 

 

I am trying to raise 30,000 dollars for:

 

• $20,000 - Cost of living: This part of the funding will cover this that are needed to function within the country of France and allow me to eat, rent an apartment, pay for utilities, and pay for any of life’s necessities.

 

• $5,000 - Travel: This will cover the cost of the extensive amount of travel that the project will require. Because I will be interviewing Jews throughout the country of France I will need to be able to easily move through the system of rails, metros, taxis, and any overnight lodging that will be part of the trips.

 

• $5,000 - Equipment: Recording, editing, transcribing, and storing all of the interview material requires equipment. This will include; microphones, a video camera and lenses, lighting, digital interfaces, software for recording audio, software for recording video, webhosting, and digital storage devices.

 

Thank you for considering my project.