Olympic music

[Fred Jacobowitz <fredj...>]

Just an observation: Has anyone elso watching the Olympics Gymnastics 
noticed that much of the Eastern European/Slavic music has been Jewish? 
In fact, One Romanian girl's music was "Havenu Sholem Aleikhem" (played 
on pan pipes with a traditional Romanian folk ensemble)! 
Just today (Friday), a Ukrainian girl's Rhythmic Gymnastics music was a 
Klezmer recording from, I think, Eyal Sela's recording (I may be mistaken 
about that because I only have a poor dub of it, not being able to order 
it in this country).
         This use of Jewish melodies by Communist countries 
(even tho they have kicked the commies out, it will take time to reverse 
the cultural and educational trends, so I still use this designation) is 
a legacy of the totalitarian state's effort to forcibly assimilate 
minorities by stealing their melodies and re-arranging them in various 
forms (such as with a Romanian band) while providing them with new, 
nationalistic lyrics. In my band's (Machaya Klezmer Band) KLEZMER CLUB we 
often have Russian emmigres come to enjoy themselves and they tell us, "I 
never knew that was a Jewish tune!". They grew up with many patriotic 
songs which were actually Shers, Freilakhs, etc. Now we in the US are 
being treated to a first-hand demonstration of the insidiousness of the 
Communist Totalitarian State's ethnic policies. I.e., if you can't murder 
'em all, take away their heritage.

Fred Jacobowitz
Clarinet/Sax Instructor, Peabody Preparatory and
Machaya Klezmer Band in the Washington, DC/Baltimore area