RUBIN, RUTH

RUBIN, RUTH (1906–2000), singer, folk-music collector, and author. Born in Khotin, Bessarabia, she was taken to Canada at the age of four, and was educated in English, French, and Yiddish. At an early age she showed a deep love for music and studied Yiddish folksong. She recorded Yiddish songs in Montreal and Toronto, Canada, and New York City between 1947 and 1964, as well as in London, Tel Aviv, and elsewhere. She published the songs she collected and learned, performed, and recorded them. Her research was published in A Treasury of Jewish Folksong (1950), Voices of a People (1963), and Jewish Folk Songs (1965); in these collections, the songs are discussed in their historical settings. She also recorded herself singing these songs and her records were published. A selection of her recordings was donated to the Haifa Music Museum and Library (approx. 20 hrs); the majority of her recordings were donated to the Archive of Folk Cultures of the Library of Congress in Washington (approx. 66 hrs.). Some of her papers and recordings were donated to YIVO archives for Yiddish research and culture in New York. (Gila Flam (2nd ed.)