Voices from The Past

Shmuel Kunda a”h was a master of characters. He started off doing all the voices on 613 Torah Avenue and then went on to create his own albums, including When Zayde was Young and Baruch Learns his Brachos. (It was pretty funny when he was teaching his son how to lein — mahapach pashta — and the Italian neighbor was sure he was speaking about pasta.)

Rabbi Yitzy Erps, also a favorite storyteller, did all his own voices, including fan favorites like Yanky and the Pesach Seder. Sometimes he did up to a dozen voices within one narration.

One unforgettable character, who made a cameo appearance on Journeys 2’s “The Wedding Song,” was Mr. Hershkovitz (Hoishkovitz), who called up Katz’s Wedding Consultant Agency. Mr. Katz was played by Abie Rotenberg, and Mr. Hershkovitz (“I’ll tell you de truth, I never made a chasuneh before, and I need some advice vat I should do…”) was played by Sheya Mendlowitz a”h. While Katz tries his best to sell Hershkovitz a real showstopper (“The neighbors on your block don’t have to know you’re in hock”), Hershkovitz wants to bring down the glitz a bit, telling Katz, “It’s meshugeh in gantzen, this is not vat I had in mind — I vas looking for something a little more…  modest,” to which Katz replies, “Oh, no problem, so on the invitation write, in a way that’s real polite, that the women should dress tzniyus… ‘cuz we’re dealing with a crowd that is so very proud of how we keep the laws of modesty!”

Then there was the Rechnitzer Rejects “A Meshulach in Town,” where a meshulach calls a doctor’s office for a solicitation, but Dr. Cohen is out playing golf. The cross-transaction between the soft-spoken secretary and the meshulach’s almost non-existent English is funny in its own right, but what makes it even goofier is that both the secretary and the meshulach were played by one and the same Martin Davidson.