[HANASHIR:14709] Re: secular music

[rahel <rahel...>]

At 02:05 PM 6/21/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>Hello:

Hi.

>I have spent the past half an hour trying to figure out what to say.  And 
>you know...it doesn't matter.

First, what you have say matters.

>  I didn't miss Sholom's point.


>The point being: too little time for jewish education?


>I just think that it's idealistic, and blind to the reality of the Jewish 
>people.


I think I need to clarify where my viewpoint is coming from. I was born and 
raised an American - having been subjected to a Reform and a Conservative 
Jewish approach. I say "subjected to" because that is how it felt as a 
young child living in America with no apparent Jewish emphasis at home - 
except for participation in the usual High Holiday services and meals. As a 
young adult, I went to Israel for a short stint and stayed for over 20 
years. I "grew up" in Israel - in many ways - but what is relevant to this 
discussion is that I grew up musically - being exposed to so many musical 
cultures all existing within the Jewish State (including the non-Jewish 
ones!) and also, I "grew up" in a Jewish sense. I played music all the 
time. I was a member of duos, trios, theater troupes, old-timey and 
bluegrass bands, contemporary, jazz, blues, and pop groups and, an Orthodox 
Jewish Women's band - playing for women only because of the Jewish halachic 
laws regarding the hearing of a woman's voice (kol isha).

In a Jewish State, one doesn't have to go far, or do much, to know s/he is 
Jewish. It's right there in your face 24/7. Like it or not.

I played and performed secular (not Jewish) music all over Israel - I 
helped grow the Jacob's Ladder Folk Festival. I helped establish folk 
clubs. I helped create and institute music programs for babies and young 
children in day-care facilities. I learned to speak Hebrew. I studied 
Jewish text in different Yeshiva's every now and then. In short, my Jewish 
education came from living as a Jew, amongst Jews from all over the world.

I've met and mingled with Jews from Ethiopia, Iran, India, Yemen, Russia, 
Rumania, Morocco, Kurdistan, England, Australia, New Zealand... you name it 
- we had it - Jews from every corner of the earth - all living our Jewish 
lives together. We shared our Jewish cultures, foods, and music, as well as 
our secular influences. I've heard people's living stories of persecution 
and of the struggle, will and desire to live fully and freely as Jews. I've 
witnessed the importance of securing in any way possible the continuation 
of our Jewish heritage.

When you suggest that someone is thinking in an idealistic manner and may 
be perhaps "blind to the reality of the Jewish people" - I have to jump in 
and disagree. I think that there is a lot of Jewish reality out there that, 
(forgive me for making this blanket generalization and perhaps offending 
anyone in the process) - that perhaps American Jews are unaware of.

I've been back in America since 1998. I was born and raised here, but after 
almost 5 years of trying to re-adjust to my American life, it is still 
difficult for me to live here. I have had to make great efforts in order to 
remember that I am Jewish. I have to go out of my way to find a Jewish 
community I can feel a part of. I have enrolled my children in Sunday 
school much to their dismay. They tell me that I don't have to worry about 
them knowing they are Jewish because they know they were born in Israel and 
know who they are - Jews. I keep my eye on the calendar - I've had to write 
in all the Jewish holidays and if I don't look at my calendar, I will miss 
one when it comes around. I could never miss one in Israel because the 
whole country was observing it in one way or another (sort of like not 
missing Christmas - l'havdeel). As a music teacher in Israel I celebrated 
each and every holiday every year - first by preparing for it for at least 
two weeks in advance and finally celebrating when it came around. I had to 
learn and teach all the songs, dances and come up with creative ideas. I 
wasn't always happy to have to plan and prepare and celebrate all those 
holidays every year, but now that I am here I can feel them inside of me. 
They've become me. I don't feel right when they pass by me/us without a 
word. Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur sit so heavily upon me as a time of 
self-reflection, forgiveness and awe - that I actually REFRAIN from my 
songleading duties in order to immerse myself in deeper prayer and 
reflection at that time. (To everything turn turn turn... - yes - that's 
from a Jewish source!!!).

Time.... we have very little of it here on earth. What Sholom has suggested 
is that we learn to use it wisely.

"You can only use the time for one thing or another, and then the time 
passes. Most Jews spend a very limited time involved with anything Jewish 
-- and so we ought to make the most of our time."

As Jews teaching in a Jewish setting,I feel that we ought to be putting our 
energies into things Jewish. THIS is our reality. It's not idealistic. It's 
the reality of how and why we have survived for so many generations - in 
spite of all the efforts to have us done away with. Will the Arabs succeed 
in pushing us out to the sea? They will if we forget who we are.

To quote Sholom again:

The more we play secular music, the more we give the message that our 
Jewish tradition has nothing to say on the matter.

And again:

In case we haven't noticed -- our American Jewish population is 
hemorrhaging. While America's population has grown over 40% in the last 
generation, the Jewish population has shrunk 10-15%. We, as educators, are 
on the front line to educate our people, lest they find that Judaism is 
irrelevant to their lives and they leave.

I didn't know this fact about American Jewish life before Sholom stated it.

>I have a wonderful job, at a Jewish camp this summer.  I am looking 
>forward to singing a mix of music, because that is how I see it.  We have 
>never had an attendance problem at camp, and have been playing secular 
>music for decades.
>~smile always~
>-Joy Newman

Camp is camp. Jewish camp ought to be about Judaism.

Rahel