Spoiler : The program was the first major use of broadcasting by an American Jewish religious movement which 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 until 1989 on both media. This program is 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. It featured most of the actors of radio in the cast, including Alexander Scourby, Adelaide Klein, and Roger DeKoven. Directors: Frank Papp and Anton M. Leader. Writers include Morton Wishengrad, Virginia Mazer, Joe Mindel, and many others. Sound effects were provided by Arthur Cooper. The program, which was broadcast 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. Among the notables appearing on the series were Alan Arkin, Joseph Cotten, Joan Crawford, Mel Ferrer, E. G. Marshall, Raymond Massey, Alexander Scourby, Maureen Stapleton, Elie Wiesel, and Gene Wilder. Milton E. Krents (1912–2000) was executive producer of The Eternal Light radio program for 44 years. NBC television's director for The Eternal Light, along with its other Sunday morning televised religious programs, was Martin Hoade (1916–2006). The program's editor was Moshe Davis of the Jewish Theological Seminary, who explained its purpose to a New York Times interviewer: "The common man is always the hero in our show. We try to put a contemporary subject in a concept of eternity." NBC donated the air time and the Jewish Theological Seminary budgeted the show's production expenses. Spurning potential sponsorship offers, Davis told one persistent business executive, "My good man, God needs no sponsor". The program won numerous awards, including two Emmy Awards and many Emmy nominations and Peabody Awards in 1962, 1967, and 1973. Krents received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for his production of The Eternal Light. In 2007, a documentary about the series, The Eternal Light — A Historical Retrospective, won a New York Emmy Award.