RE: Julio Inglesias Jewish?

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

Robert,

Just because someone on the Internet said that he is Jewish doesn't make it 
so.   No one has given the slightest bit of evidence of that except for 
Simon telling us that his brother is a kosher caterer (where?).   If that 
is so, and since we know that a non-Jew would not be given a hekhsher, we 
can safely surmise that Inglesias is Jewish.   Second, based on the info we 
have about names of Spanish Jews, there is a very great likelihood that if 
a Spaniard has a name high with Christian references, that that person is 
Jewish.

Assuming that he is really Jewish (as opposed to having a little Jewish 
blood in him), what is interesting to me in all of this is that here we 
have another Jew who aims for the best of the popular music of his country, 
a la Striesand in America, Yves Montand in France, Emil Gorovitz in Russia 
before emigrating to Israel (then America), I forget the name of the singer 
in Egypt, and a whole slew of other Jews too numerous to mention who worked 
very hard to become the chief exponents of their country's music.  This 
goes for performers, composers, record producers, etc.   It also goes 
beyond just having talent.  It has to do with deep ambition and hard labor 
to reach the highest success in the host country.  The Jewishness is not 
accident but rather an important factor that propels the career and 
success.   I have never been interested in Ingelsias' music or his romantic 
image, but now that I think he is Jewish, I would be curious about how and 
why he selects the kind of music he sings, the career moves he has made, 
the image he has tried to project, how the Spaniards react to him and his 
Jewishness, etc. etc. and to test out various theories I have.

I have heard that Mariah Carrey is Jewish and I have also heard that she is 
part Black.  I have no idea if either are true.   Mariah Carrey does 
nothing for me and I find a white singer trying to sound like a Black 
singer quite annoying.   It also says a lot about the state of American 
music.  But, if I know that she is Jewish, I want to study why she picks 
the music she picks and why she wants to sound that way.  Part of the 
answer to the question would be the same if she were a non-Jewish white 
woman, but another part goes beyond it.   I am annoyed at the fact that 
most Jews have lost connection to their own music, except for things like 
Fiddler on the Roof, and what they choose to sing when they want to sing is 
Black music.   I think they make these choices because that is what is 
considered the "cool"est and that's what's on the radio.    This is also 
what Jews from Reform to Conservative to modern Orthodox choose to play at 
their rites of passage celebration.   I find all this a cultural Jewish 
poverty, but I am sorry that I don't have time to write this idea up now on 
the list.  It will have to wait for another time.


Reyzl





----------
From:  Robert Cohen[SMTP:rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com]
Sent:  Tuesday, July 06, 1999 2:53 PM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant
Subject:  RE: Julio Inglesias Jewish?

Ahem, I believe this is called begging the question--or, in idiomatic 
terms,
circular reasoning.  If you can identify someone as a "Spanish Jew," then
you don't need proof of their Jewishness!


>From: Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl (at) flash(dot)net>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: RE: Julio Inglesias Jewish?
>Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 12:58:09 -0400
>
> >Though Julio Iglesias may not be Jewish, it was very common that Spanish 
>Jews
> >changed their names to 'overtly' Christian names so as not to be suspect 
>when
> >in fact they were secretly practicing Jewdaism.  "Iglesia" means church
>in
> >Spanish.
>
>
>That's right Simon.   A Spanish Jew having such a name is almost enough
>proof by itself of Jewishness.
>
>
>Reyzl
>
>
>
>


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