Re: Jewish Music in the synagogue-hazzanim

[Jeff Finger <jfinger...>]

Mike Lowy (lowy (at) jerusalem1(dot)datasrv(dot)co(dot)il) writes:
> On one side of my family are the believers that "Alle Hazzonim zennen
> Naronim" (loose translation: All Hazzans are nerds).

The above points to the fact that the discussion we are having is hardly
a new one. "Hazzonim Zennen Naronim" (Cantors are fools) is a old play
on words from Europe, as the Yiddish sentence forms the acronym of the
Hebrew/Yiddish word "HZN", that is, "Hazan" (cantor).

See also the entry under "chozzen" in the wonderful "Joys of Yiddish" by
Leo Rosten. He relates more of the same, mostly about Hazzantics. I am
not sure how Rosten transliterates the word, though. It might be
"khazzan", "chazen", "chozen",...

-- Itzhak "Jeff" Finger --

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