Archives West Finding Aid

Susie Michael (1898-1990) was a music teacher and pianist in Seattle when she met Maurice Friedman who sang baritone in the Seattle Bikur Cholim choir. Maurice immigrated to Seattle from Vilna, Poland when he was six years old, and his father, Sam Friedman, was Seattle's first cantor at Bikur Cholim. Susie Michael married Maurice Friedman in 1930 and they spent many years thereafter performing together. After participating in a lecture series arranged by Rabbi Philip Langh (Herzl) in 1935 on Jewish music, they became concerned with the importance of sharing Jewish folk music with others. Together they created "The Cavalcade of Jewish Music," and other Jewish music programs infused with humor, using Hebrew, Yiddish, and English liturgical and secular music. Maurice sang and pantomimed while Susie narrated and played piano. They moved to New York in 1939 and toured their Jewish musical programs throughout the United States and Canada for nearly two decades. They returned to Seattle in the 1950s and became actively involved in the Jewish Music Festival sponsored by the Seattle Jewish Community Center. Following Maurice's death in 1962, Susie Michael Friedman started a business selling dolls to earn extra income. She died in 1990.