RE: why Jews became fiddlers

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

Kev,

Well, then, in this case, your attesting that the assumption that Jews chose 
instruments on the basis of their portability is true.   Whether he was or 
wasn't sane, I can easily understand your father's practical attitude about 
what allows one to make a living in a new location.   You know, even in the 
case of schizophrenics, the disease does not reduce their intelligence and deep 
perceptiveness.   I think your father was smart, but forbidding you to play is 
a bit much.

I have a similar problem on hot summer nights with my husband's piano, because 
when his klezmer friends come to jam, we have to stay in the living room and 
can't take the instruments out in the cool garden.   What a bummer.  


Reyzl 


----------
From:  cohenk2 (at) gatesmcdonald(dot)com[SMTP:cohenk2 (at) 
gatesmcdonald(dot)com]
Sent:  Friday, September 25, 1998 8:23 AM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant.
Subject:  Re: why Jews became fiddlers

My father---who is NOT a holocaust survivor---forbid me, as a child, to
study piano on the grounds that if the nazis come, you can't pick up a
piano and take it with you.

now, it's certainly true that my father's sanity is quite suspect.  to be
polite about it.

kev






Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl (at) flash(dot)net> on 09/24/98 06:09:57 PM

Please respond to jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org

Sent by:  Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl (at) flash(dot)net>

To:   "World music from a Jewish slant." <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
cc:   (bcc: Kevin B Cohen/Gates/NWIE)
Subject:  why Jews became fiddlers





>> Our parents, I think , live in a constant
>>  "paranoid" state, which really is justified due to the circumstances
they
>>  experienced.    Anybody else have thoughts about this?      LINDA
>>
>A friend, Dr. John Krug, once interpreted it this way:
>Why were Jews Fidlers (as in Fidler on the Roof)?  Because it is portable!
>That was the emphasis on education (? And medicine)- because it can be
taken
>with you- just in case....


Sorry I have so little time to write on here or even respond to posts
addressed to me, but I thought I would send this off.


Just found this comment on a mailing of children of Holocaust survivors.
Do others here think that this is why Jews chose to become fiddlers?    I
don't think so, but am curious about other people's opinions.


Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky