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THEME: THE ETERNAL LIGHT The first major use of broadcasting by an American Jewish religious movement began in 1944, when the Jewish Theological Seminary — the intellectual center of Conservative Judaism — inaugurated The Eternal Light, a half-hour radio series produced in conjunction with NBC. The series later debuted on NBC television in 1952 and lasted through the 1980s on both media. |
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The longest-running regular presence of Jews as a religious community on American airwaves, The Eternal Light broadcast hundreds of dramas, concerts, documentaries, panel discussions, and interviews. In its heyday, during the 1940s and 1950s, the radio series was heard by some six million listeners across North America. Aired on Sundays on a rotating basis with Protestant and Catholic programming, The Eternal Light epitomized postwar American ecumenism, which emphasized the common ground among the nation's mainstream religions. In fact, The Eternal Light had a double agenda: the promotion of understanding and tolerance of Jews among Gentiles, and outreach to Jews, especially the unaffiliated or geographically isolated. For many Jews, listening to the broadcasts was an important rite of civil religion. The program's stentorian performers spoke in lofty prose, offering a striking alternative to the portrayal of Jews otherwise heard on American radio, typically as comic characters who often spoke in Yiddish-inflected dialect. On The Eternal Light, Jews appeared regularly and forthrightly as a dignified religious community in the public forum of American broadcasting. |
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Copyright © 2003 The Jewish Museum
