The Jewish Past as Told by the Records We Have Loved and Lost.”

Roger Bennett and Josh Kun are the authors of "And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Past as Told by the Records We Have Loved and Lost."

Our book is the product of five years of obsessively collecting vinyl from across the country -- a work of passion that took over our lives. Believe it or not, after tracking down thousands of lost albums and chasing down the performers who once recorded them (now mostly in their 80s and 90s), we still can't quit the music. Below are some of our favorites that dominate our iPods. Consider it a Chanukah top 12.

1) Havana Nagila, the Irving Fields Trio

All quests need their ground zero and for us it began with a 1959 Decca LP, "Bagels and Bongos," by the amazing Irving Fields Trio. Fields turned his days playing cruise ships in Puerto Rico and Cuba into a Jewish-Latin musical love affair; when we heard his mambo and merengue versions of Jewish staples, we were convinced there was a lost kingdom of sound waiting to be rediscovered. It was this LP that sent us scurrying to thrift stores and garage sales and that sent us into late night eBay auction battle. I guess you could say our book was born in bagels and bongos.

2) Kol Nidre, Johnny Mathis

Admittedly, we started looking for explicitly "Jewish" albums, which in most cases meant albums by artists we knew (or assumed) to be Jewish. But we quickly learned that the history of American Jews in popular music goes far beyond Jewish communities as such. A whole chapter in our book is devoted to non-Jews taking cracks at Jewish material (Perry Como, Connie Francis, Charleton Heston), and another is devoted to the rich back-and-forth between Jews and African-Americans. The legendary Johnny Mathis plays a role in both stories. On his 1958 album for Columbia, "Good Night Dear Lord," he lends his signature hot-cocoa voice not only to the great Yom Kippur show-stopper "Kol Nidre" but also to the Yiddish theater hit "Eli Eli" and "Where Can I Go?," a song written about the Warsaw Ghetto that became an honorary member of the African-American songbook.

3) Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, the Barry Sisters

Read More