[Fwd: Re: Der yidisher tam]

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Am I the only Jew that finds it shameful that the
> > standards of all our melukhes (crafts) are declining so rapidly? It's the
> > same thing as with the music.
> > Itzik-Leyb

In their quest for upward mobility, American  Jews  traded in their
culture for the Cadillac and the  matching drapes and carpeting.  If a
young  Jewish man or woman were to approach their parents today  and
say, "I want to be a baker",  Mom and Dad would, likely as not, begin
sitting  <shiva> or arrange an emergency appointment with a 
therapist.   The young person in question would be suspected of having 
low self-esteem or lacking  intelligence for not aspiring to a
highly-paid elitist profession.  

If a Jewish person  brings a (Jewish) plumber or a carpenter  (if you
can still find one) home to meet the folks,  they would feel they have
failed as parents.   
 Jewish life in America has become decidedly bourgeois, where <es past
nisht>
("it is not suitable") and <nisht fin inzere> ("not one of us")  are the
dominant philosophies in many families --  if they can still speak
Yiddish, that is.   
This has produced a population of squeamish, snobbish and sedentary
Jews, who not only cannot work with their hands, but sneer at and
devalue those that do, and those that  do not otherwise  conform to
conventional Jewish middle-class stereotypes.

It is worth remembering that while traditionally, the tailor and
shoemaker were considerd amongst the lowest in <shtetl> hierarchy  (and
<klezmer> was used as an epithet)  poets Itzik  Manger and Morris
Rosenfeld were tailors and  the beloved folk poet and songwriter,
Mordkhe Gebirtig  was a carpenter-joiner  (Yiddish: <stolyer>).
The Baal Shem Tov dug  clay to make  a
living.                                                                         
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                

During the Shoah, people who could produce with their hands, often
managed to survive whereas thousands of middle-class intellectuals were
considered useless and dispatched with haste.  The ability to fashion a
pair of boots was considered infinitely more valuable than a hundred
learned papers on Kant or Hegel.  In flight and in exile, the  soft
middle-class people perished early in the War,  not having basic
survival skills or the ability to cope with change, hardship and loss.

In Jewish  music,  it has (almost) gotten to the point where you have to
be a conservatory graduate to play a folk genre.  Weird.  A musical
talent untrammeled by formal training, but honed through experience,  is
often misunderstood and suspect.    Until, of course, it is championed
by the Gentiles and exposed in mainstream media which will cause many 
Jews to embrace it and claim it with pride as their own.

The "gatekeepers"of Jewish culture -- the arts directors, critics  and
shopkeepers  want to see their own agendas reflected in the music they
promote.
They are also big on trying to sell product that resembles that which is
already selling.     They tend to push their own particular  brand of
Jewishness as they see it,  and actually feel a sense of moral
justification in doing so.  At times, this can be quite ludicrous; when
klezmer bands composed of Gentiles or, some Broadway darling  of the
blue-rinse crowd (phonetically  mouthing Yiddish?)-- are marketed as
Jewish culture to the giddy delight of easy-listening (and
unfortunately  under-educated) consumers.

Itzik-Leyb:  Should you want a bagel worthy of the name, I reccomend
Fairmount Bagel Bakery in Montreal (open 24 Hours) or for fine,
world-class, Ashkenazi baked goods,  Konditorei Russak in Ra'anana,
Israel--a family business founded 1948.  Say "hi" to Esther, Doron and
Franye for me. 

In gerangl,
Wolf Krakowski
Kame'a Media
http://www.kamea.com