Eleanor Chana Mlotek (née Gordon; April 9, 1922 – November 4, 2013) was a musicologist, specializing in Yiddish folklore. Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Yiddish writer and Nobel laureate, once called Mlotek and her husband, Joseph, “the Sherlock Holmeses of Yiddish folk songs.”[1] She was also inducted in Hunter College's Hall of Fame.[2]
WorldCat lists her as author of 70 works in 112 editions, in 6 languages.[3] They include both collections of music and exhibition catalogs of Yiddish authors. She held the position of Music Archivist at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and was also a columnist at the Yiddish Forward for over forty years.[4][5]
She was born in Brooklyn and is the mother of Zalmen Mlotek, the artistic director of the National Yiddish Theatre - Folksbiene, and Mark Mlotek, an attorney and current treasurer of The Forward.[6]
She died November 4, 2013, at home in the Bronx at the age of 91.[7][1]
Publications
Books
Mlotek, Eleanor G. S. Ansky: (Shloyme-Zanvl Rappoport) 1863-1920 : His Life and Works : Catalog of an Exhibition. [New York]: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 1980.[8]
Mlotek, Eleanor G., Malke Gottlieb, and Roslyn Bresnick-Perry. מיר זיינען דא : לידער פון די געטאס און לאגערן / Mir Zaynen Do: Lider Fun Di Geṭos Un Lagern. (We are here: songs of the Holocaust) New York, N.Y.: Aroysgegebn fun Bildungs ḳomiṭeṭ fun Arbeṭer-ring, 1983.[9]
Mlotek, Eleanor and Joseph Mlotek. Songs of Generations: New Pearls of Yiddish Song. New York, NY: Workmen's Circle.
Mlotek, Eleanor and Joseph Mlotek. Pearls of Yiddish Song: Favorite Folk, Art and Theater Songs. New York, NY: Workmen's Circle, 1988.
Mlotek, Eleanor G. Mir Trogn A Gezang: Favorite Yiddish Songs. 4th Edition. New York, NY: Workmen's Circle, 2000.
Rubin, Ruth, Eleanor G. Mlotek, and Mark Slobin. Yiddish folksongs from the Ruth Rubin Archive. Detroit, Mich: Wayne State University Press, 2007.
Mlotek, Eleanor and Joseph Mlotek. Pearls of Yiddish Poetry. New York, NY: KTAV Publishing Press, 2010.
Journal articles
Molotek, Eleanor Gordon. "International motifs in the Yiddish ballad" studies in Jewish Language and Literature 209-281 (1964)
Molotek, Eleanor Gordon. "America in East European folksong" The Field of Yiddish 1: 178-198 (1954)
^Mlotek, Eleanor G (May 13, 1980). S. Ansky: (Shloyme-Zanvl Rappoport) 1863-1920 : his life and works : catalog of an exhibition. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. OCLC10304171.
^"Music of the Holocaust: Highlights from the Collection" United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Music of the Holocaust". Archived from the original on 2012-03-30. Retrieved 2012-04-09.