Re: Identity in Klezmer

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>At 10:59 AM 6/4/98 +0300, Berlin Moshe wrote:
>>I think that in Israel there was no revival to klezmer, because there
>>was no
>>need for it as the whole life was full with Jewish culture and
>>tradition.
>
>To put it mildly, I disagree.  How can you be "filled with Jewish culture
>and tradition" without the Yiddish language and culture (including Klezmer
>music)?

Well, wait a minute, Mark. Yiddish culture is one facet of the
many cultures that make up the totality of Jewish life. Are you 
implying that, for instance, Israeli Jews who don't know Yiddish 
cannot be filled with Jewish culture? (Whether they are, or not,
is its own question--but it's not because they honor or don't
honor Yiddish. Imho.) What about Moroccan Jews? Beta Yisrael? 
Other non-Yiddish-speaking Jewish communities (including that
part of American Jewish community that knows not Yiddish, may
or may not love klezmer, and is certainly immersed in Jewish
culture in many degrees.)

As someone who loves Yiddish, and has never explored Judesmo or
other Sephardic- or Arabic-Jewish languages, I nonetheless have to
acknowledge their existence, and to protest the idea that Jewish
culture is exclusively Yiddish.

(There is some linguistic weirdness, of course, given that the word
"Yiddish" is the Yiddish term for "Jewish", but I don't think that's
what we're discussing at the moment.)

Oops, I see that Jack Falk has given his own, and more coherent
answer to the question.

ari

Ari Davidow
The klezmer shack: http://www.well.com/user/ari/klez/
owner: jewish-music mailing list
e-mail: ari (at) ivritype(dot)com