Clara Bagelman was born on October 17, 1920, in the Bronx, New York. With her younger sister Minnie, she would eventually form the famed Yiddish singing duo The Barry Sisters.  

 Clara and Minnie were children of Ester and Herman Bagelman, who had immigrated from Russia and modern-day Ukraine. As a child, Clara listened to the local Jewish Children’s Program on the radio, on which performers sang in Yiddish. Recognizing her daughter’s talent, Ester encouraged Clara to audition. She was accepted, and Minnie eventually joined her when the director expressed his preference for duos.  

 The sisters began to perform singing in Yiddish as The Bagelman Sisters. Their first break was on the Uncle Norman show, a children’s radio program. They cut their first record in the late 1930s. In 1937, The Andrews Sisters performed an English version of “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen,” which became a hit. Inspired by the song’s success, Dick Manning, a Jewish composer and radio host, started a New York radio program called Yiddish Melodies in Swing. Clara and Minnie performed “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” in its original Yiddish, which landed them a spot on Manning’s radio program. Seeing the success of the Andrews Sisters who had Americanized their names, the sisters changed their names to Claire and Merna Barry and became known as The Barry Sisters.  

 On Yiddish Melodies in Swing, The Barry Sisters, accompanied by a jazz backup band, sang traditional Yiddish songs with the liveliness of the contemporary popular sound. Audiences young and old tuned in to hear songs in their mother tongue. From the late 1930s to the 1950s, The Barry Sisters performed on the radio program, as well as for predominantly Jewish audiences in the Catskills and Miami Beach.  

The Barry Sisters soon became internationally known, performing in the Soviet Union with Ed Sullivan during the Cold War, after appearing on his hit variety show.  Their immense popularity sparked an underground movement to smuggle their records into the Soviet Union, which often worked to suppress Yiddish culture and art. They made notable appearances on other programs, such as “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and “The Jack Paar Program” and on tour with Mickey Katz. They also toured in Israel and performed for troops after the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War.   

The Barry Sisters were monumental for Jewish and Yiddish jazz. Their music brought new light to Yiddish classics and brought a piece of Eastern European Jewish immigrants’ homeland to the American jazz scene, translating popular songs into Yiddish. In a time of much transition, The Barry Sisters represented the integration of Jewish immigrants’ culture and pasts into their new lives in America.  

Clara Bagelman passed away in 2014 at 94 years old. 

Sources: 

Smigel, Libby. “The Barry Sisters and ‘Yiddish Swing’: In the Muse.” The Library of Congress, March 5, 2024. https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2024/03/the-barry-sisters-and-yiddish-swing/. 

“Barry Sisters.” Recorded Sound Archives, https://rsa.fau.edu/barry-sisters.