Re: FW: [2ND-GEN:7773] Re: Perry Como

[Marvin Margoshes <physchem...>]

-----Original Message-----
From: elkahn (at) JTSA(dot)EDU <elkahn (at) JTSA(dot)EDU>
To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Monday, December 14, 1998 11:02 AM
Subject: Re: FW: [2ND-GEN:7773] Re: Perry Como


>Great art transcends all religious and ethnic boundaries. I hear the
>fervent prayers to the same God in Bach's B minor Mass and St. Matthew
>Passion as in Jossele Rosenblatt's Sh'ma Koleynu.

The music of the Bach mass is magnificent, especially as I heard it done by
the Boston Symphony this Fall.  However, the words are anti-Semitic.

>I've conducted choirs in both synagogues and churches and have to say
>people pray to the same God -- the One that will give them healthy
>children and a modicum of dignity and security in their own lives.
>
>As Jacob said: Surely God is in this place and I did not know it.
>
>Happy Hannukah to all,
>
>Eliott Kahn
>
>
>On Mon, 14 Dec 1998, Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> This letter was posted on a mailing list of children of Holocaust
>> survivors.   I thought it would be interesting for this mailing list.
>> I have removed all identifying markers of personal names so that we
>> can respond only to the content therein.  Just to orient people: the
>> person writing the letter beginning with "a propos Perry Como" is
>> an Orthodox Dutch Jew married to an American and now living in Israel.
>> I thought you would enjoy the incongruity of these scenes.
>>
>> As for me I have had for the last five years or so made sure not
>> to miss Luciano Pavarotti's annually telecast PBS Christmas show
>> (including the annual multiple re-telecasting on every PBS cable
>> channel) because I love how he sings every single Christmas song,
>> including "Silent Night".  I have never been able to bear hearing
>> this song from anyone else [I went to the frumest girls Yeshiva
>> girl in Brooklyn and I basically deaden myself to the December
>> theme], but the die-hard Luciano fan that I am, listening to
>> Luciano sing it, sing actually just about anything, raises me
>> several feet off the ground every year.  It plays in my ears for
>> months after the December season which brings ethereal joy to my
>> heart, but it of course has nothing to do the meaning or symbol of
>> any of the songs.   I guess this Montreal concert had to have been
>> extraordinary since they repeat the show every year for so many years.
>> The fact that he sings the Latin version of "Silent Night" whose
>> words are opaque to me I guess helps me block out all content in the
>> song.   Didn't see it this year though but I have been too busy to
>> watch any TV.   Anyone else feel this way about any rendition of
>> Christmas or Christian music?   Or is this something that only
>> opera lovers can feel?   I don't think that the fact that my husband,
>> Josh Waletzky, directed a film with Luciano in the late 1980's for
>> PBS (called "Luciano Pavarotti and the Tradition of the Italian
>> Tenor"), is a factor in any of this (I was already a die-hard fan
>> by then), but have others here had the same reaction to this singer
>> or that Christmas show?
>>
>> BTW, the thread below started with the discussion of Jewish
>> superstitious beliefs, such as licking a child's eyelids of kids
>> who awoke from a nightmare.
>>
>> Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --------------------------FORWARD---------------------------
>> >
>> > And speaking of Perry Como...
>> >
>> > In my house growing up, somehow my mother never saw anything
>> incongruous in
>> > the fact that she could lick our eyelids when we kids had terrible
>> nightmares
>> > (see previous post on this subject) and chant a Yiddish ditty that
>> all our bad
>> > thoughts and ills should be transferred to the "goyem's kep" AND
>> the fact that
>> > we never, ever missed a Perry Como Christmas or Easter special.
>> Come to think
>> > of it, year after year we religiously (pardon the pun) watched Bob
>> Hope's
>> > Christmas specials, Bing Crosby's Christmas specials (who one year
>> had David
>> > Bowie as a special guest and they dueted on "Little Drummer Boy" --
>> imagine
>> > that!),  and Andy Williams' Xmas specials.  In fact, my mother
>> would make it a
>> > point to finish up the dinner dishes and be done with general
>> household duties
>> > so she could free up her evening for viewing these holiday specials
>> -- my dad,
>> > too.  When I look back at it now, it does seem bizarre, given their
>> staunch
>> > stances against assimilation.
>> >
>> > But Perry Como was a particular favorite in our house --him and
>> Dean Martin --
>> > OY, did my mother love their singing!  To this day she maintains
>> she has yet
>> > to hear anyone, Jewish or Gentile, sing a more soulful rendition of
>> "Kol
>> > Nidre" than Perry Como.  Since I never heard this, EVER, I have
>> always been
>> > more than a bit incredulous about this -- could it be true?  But my
>> mother
>> > remained adamant -- yes, it was true and she could still "hear" his
>> voice in
>> > her ears!  Well, to tell you the truth I stopped making an issue
>> over it.  And
>> > then just this past summer, I ran into an acquaintance (parents
>> also
>> > survivors) who swore that yes, it was indeed true!  His mother
>> practically
>> > wore out an album on which Perry Como sang "Kol Nidre," so he could
>> verify
>> > this for me.  Alas, he has no idea whatever became of the album and
>> we both
>> > had no doubt it must be long out of print.  I would love to get my
>> hands on a
>> > copy of this, if only to hear it once for myself.....and then to
>> give to my
>> > mother.
>> >
>> > Anyone else out there familiar with Perry Como singing Jewish
>> songs, and
>> > (bonus question) whether any recordings of this still exist?
>> >
>> > [name]
>>
>>
>> =====================================================
>>
>> ---------------------------
>>
>>
>> a propos Perry Como
>> when people in Holland asked my husband's name, i would say- you know
>> Perry- like in Perry Como and then everyone knew.
>> A propos songs. We are an observant family. When our first child got
>> married he asked whether we wanted any special songs played during
>> the reception. Perry - not Como- [very Jewish sounding last name]-
>> gave him his favorite Bing Crosby golden oldies tape. And there we were
>> in our new finery on the reception line saying thank you thank you- me
>> showing off a new wig and Perry in a new suit and all and suddenly- the
>> dulcet tones of old Bingo "I am dreaming of a white Xmas"
>> I am not sure that we have lived this down yet.
>> He has been married almost 10 years.
>> Happy Hanuka
>> [name]
>> Haifa
>>
>>
>>
>
>