RE: Klezmer in corporate hands?

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

Elliot, 

I don't know what you mean by "many" since I live 10 long blocks from 770 
Eastern Parkway.   Here we have "many" Lubavitchers.   New Orleans probably has 
as many shlikhim as are necessary.

I commented about the Lubavitcher Rebbe because I thought that that was an 
unfair statement, despite the fact that I will never forgive him for telling 
all his followers to keep a picture of him in every room, hence this 
deification of him in the last 20 years.   I also don't think that there are 
"many" Kach members in Israel.   They just make a lot of noise, now that they 
have learned mass media tactics.   As far as I know, most of the Kach people 
are out in the West Bank.  There are all types in Mea Shearim, including Kach 
supporters and those that feel Arafat is their friend (a curse sits on my lips 
for them, but I won't say it), but that still says nothing about Lubavitch.   
As you yourself attest what I have been writing here, many of them fought 
against Duke when he ran.   Well, the bad news is that we are soon all going to 
have to fight him all over again, now that he is thinking of running for 
Livingston's empty seat.    A glik hot undz getrofn!   As far as I am 
concerned, it's fierce war against all Republicans in the year 2,000.   I 
expect all of you to join us in this fight.  No joke.

I wrote this early this morning Ari and am just sending it off now, since my 
mail just came in naturally.   Promise to get off the bandstand.  


Reyzl





----------
From:  Elliott[SMTP:enr01 (at) gnofn(dot)org]
Sent:  Thursday, December 31, 1998 8:49 PM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant.
Subject:  Re: Klezmer in corporate hands?

Note from elliott--
Please don't be taken a back. Many Lubuvitchers live here in the New Orleans 
area in David Duke territory. I know many who worked against him last time he 
ran. And I'll bet there are Many Jews in Israel,especially in Mea Shearim,  who 
would vote for a David Duke type if he opposed the State of Israel.
        elllllll

Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky wrote:

> >I was quite taken aback by this statement, particularly since
> >this would leave Lubavitchers the option to vote for any candidate of the
> >American Nazi Party or the Ku Klux Klan.
>
> But Jeff, he didn't have to mention this issue because the chance of a 
> candidate of the American Nazi Party or the Ku Klux Klan running in Crown 
> Heights would be virtually nil, so why are you holding this against him?  
> That the Lubavitcher rebbe would have been against the Klan and Nazi party 
> are all givens.  I even remember when he spoke out against them in the 70's 
> and early 80's.  I guess only the Lubavitchers in David Duke, Trent Lott, and 
> Jesse Helmes country needed to ask about the Klan and Nazi Party - a very 
> small percentage.
>
> Reyzl
>
> ----------
> From:  JeffSchan (at) aol(dot)com[SMTP:JeffSchan (at) aol(dot)com]
> Sent:  Thursday, December 31, 1998 3:52 AM
> To:  World music from a Jewish slant.
> Subject:  Klezmer in corporate hands?
>
> Ingemar Johansson wrote:
>
> > Dear list-members,
> >
> > An American friend of mine sent me this, apalled, angered and distressed by
> > recent developments in the US. The reason why I forward this bitter
> > statement to the list is that he included some words about Jewish Music.
> >
> > > US remains the country with more people held in jail than any police
> > > state in the world. The criminalization of Black and Latino youth
> > > continues unabated. The death penalty has become an acceptable
> > > "liberal" position. There is an escalating war on immigrants, with raids,
> > > concentration camps, and militarized borders. The actual ability of women
> > > to obtain abortion is methodically stripped away through gangster action,
> > > parental consent, waiting periods, and the denial of government funding.
> > There
> > > is no foreign military venture of the Bush-Reagan years to which Clinton
> > has
> > > not wholeheartedly subscribed. The openly racist, misogynist, homophobic
> > > and murderous Christian-fundamentalist demands for "family values" and
> > > preparation for Armageddon continue to fester in growing organized
> > > networks. The censorship of music and culture has passed directly into
> > > corporate hands. This goes for rebel culture and odd music, too - like
> > Jazz
> > > and Klezmer, both of which you're very fond, I know.
> >
> > Any comments?
> >
> > Ingemar J.
>
> Ingemar:
>
> Of course this depends on your political point of view.  In general, I agree
> whole-heartedly (more about "censorship" below), except for the hyperbole
> about concentration camps (as far as I know there haven't been any of those in
> the US since the Japanese-American internment camps in WWII).  I have been
> involved in the struggle to free death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal
> for over a decade now (long before the liberals got on the bandwagon), and
> views on the death penalty keep moving to the right.  And it's not just the
> fundamentalist Christians.  For example, New York's Cardinal John O'Connor
> threatened to excommunicate former New York governor Mario Cuomo because he
> supported the right to abortion.  The Catholic Church is opposed to capital
> punishment too, but you never hear the good Cardinal threaten to excommunicate
> any of his flock who support the death penalty.  And to continue, it's not
> just the Christians.  A number of years ago, the late Lubavitcher rebbe was
> asked by his followers for guidance on which political candidates to vote for.
> He answered that Lubavitchers were free to vote for any candidate who met 3
> criteria:  1) opposing abortion rights, 2) opposing gay rights, 3) opposing
> pornography.  I was quite taken aback by this statement, particularly since
> this would leave Lubavitchers the option to vote for any candidate of the
> American Nazi Party or the Ku Klux Klan.
>
> As for "censorship," this is a tricky question in the US, for cultural control
> of the arts is more economic than legal, which is what I understand the term
> "censorship" to be.  Many of the more alternative forms of music in the US
> relied upon government support through the 60's and 70's.  That support has
> almost entirely dried up.  Those types of music which are commercially viable
> outside that support have continued.  Example:  New York's World Music
> Institute began as part of the new music/world music series at The Alternative
> Museum.  It grew and flourished with funding from the National Endowment for
> the Arts (NEA), state agencies, etc.  It grew to be too big for the
> Alternative Museum, and they created the World Music Institute, which now has
> a multi-million dollar budget and is much less dependent on government funding
> (which it still does receive).  The Alternative Museum continued with a
> primarily new music series, one which I ran for a season, and my wife for 2.
> There used to be dozens of similar artist-run and artist programmed series
> like that, ones in which to a greater or lesser extent musicians were
> guaranteed a decent fee.  However, in the 80's, with the furor over
> Mapplethorpe and other controversial artists, the NEA cut off funding to many
> of the more cutting edge institutions, and other government agencies followed
> suit.  Today, the Alternative Museum no longer has a music program, and there
> are only a handful of artist-run alternative music spaces left in New York
> City.  So the scene has become much more driven by "cut of the door" type club
> gigs, especially ones where you have to deal with scummy club owners like the
> folks at the Knitting Factory.  Luckily for klezmer, it now seems to have
> reached a critical mass where it is supported by enough of an audience to be
> commercially viable.  And the straight-laced jazz of the Wynton Marsalis
> school certainly has plenty of corporate backing these days.  So is this
> censorship?  Perhaps not.  But when my friend and mentor Leroy Jenkins, one of
> the greatest living composers in the US (IMHO), someone who has played in most
> of the main jazz clubs in the world, and has also had an opera performed at
> the New York City Opera, calls me up and complains about how tough things are
> these days, I figure if it's not censorship, it might as well be.
>
> Jeffrey Schanzer