"Davka"--redefining jewish music?

[Alex Jacobowitz <Alex_Jacobowitz...>]

B"H Luzern

Dear Ari,

I love it when you get all philosophical.

Yes, of course it resonates - but to what end. David Ewens, writing about
the difficulties of categorizing
Jewish music, kept it the most limited - - music written by Jews for Jews,
with Jewish content. Nobody
would accept that definition nowadays.

Yes, of course Israel has become for many Jews a replacement for Judaism.
But which mashgiach
said that was a kosher thing to do? Certainly not the Guardian of Israel,
who neither slumbers nor sleeps.
And it has echoes in the entire Jewish world, not only in music. The
simplest view in my opinion is
to refine who we are as JEWS before we define what Jewish music means for
us or for others. 
Ultimately, Jewish music is music of a PEOPLE, not a BAND; therefore no
group can "redefine klezmer
music", any more than any other group of 'radicals' (the Yahweh, Black
Hebrews, self-hating Jews)
can redefine Judaism.

The problem is, and remains, assimilation after the Holocaust. The pendulum
swings from the first
extreme to the next, and our battered people follow the State of Israel as
if it were Shabbetai Zvi. Who
knows what will be in the end? (I live in Kiryat Arba, by the way)
The same with Jewish music. We sleep with non-Jewish girls, eat treif, mix
with the multitudes --
will our music not express the same? How many of us even have the strength
to decline a gig
on Shabbos ("what? Are you CRAZY!?")

Just as we set aside a holy place (the Bais HaMikdash) to atone for our
sins, we should set aside
a holy place in our musical heart of hearts -- where the REAL music lives -
that remains a true language
between us and our Creator. Chassidism teaches that the highest level of
prayer is reserved for song --
yet how many levels must we struggle though to achieve this most exalted
level? Who teaches this
in music school, anyway?

So make your decision, every day if possible. Will I, I, I, I be more
Jewish, and therefore allow my
"Jewish" music to be a reflection of who I am and what I believe? Or will I
just learn a niggun here,
play a 'mishebayrach" scale there, and say to myself and my audiences that:

"my music and I are "Jewish" enough"?

Shalom u'vracha,

Alex Jacobowitz