Re: ATTENTION - The German thing...

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>1) In light of the WWII atrocities, should Jews go to Germany at all?
>2) Should Jews who go to Germany play music there, as if nothing happened? 
>3) Should Jews who go there play JEWISH music there?
>     a) for money?
>     b) to let the Germans "atone"?
>     c) to play out complexes?

Life goes on. No Jew should ever forget, but neither should
the Holocaust have a veto on who we are or how we live today.

In some ways this is no longer a philosophical questions. Jews
=are= still in Germany, and Jewish music, like all Jewish arts,
are alive and well there. In fact, there is a vogue, possibly
sparked in part by Giora Feidman, for that style of emotional
klezmer, often done badly, by bands of youth who haven't a 
drop of Jewish blood between them. But for the fact that it
is often just bad music, I think it is good that they play
it. It is sweet revenge in its way. And the music's popularity
may well be related to the memory (or ignorance) of Jewish
youth of the Holocaust.

Musician Joel Rubin, who has created some wonderful recent
klezmer recordings, seems to be based in Berlin, as is Alan
Bern of Brave Old World. Josh Horowitz, of Budowitz (and
also a former partner of Joel's) is based in Graz, Austria.

In Hamburg when i was there last fall, there were posters
for bands such as Brave Old World and Feidman on the subway
station walls along with other entertainment posters.

Moral judgement? What is the moral here, except that life
goes on, we must never forget, and that the sweetest vengeance
is survival and thriving.

Maybe some musicians based in Germany and Austria can add
their thoughts.

ari


Ari Davidow
ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
http://www.ivritype.com/