Re: Germans and Klezmer

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Monika Feil wrote:

> Wolf, I also want to add that I really can understand when survivers of the
> Holocaust and their children and grandchildren don´t want to listen to 
> non-Jewish
>
> German Klezmer bands. There is no need for you to do that.
>
> Monika Feil
>
> Erlangen, Germany

Dear Monika:

I assure you, I rarely have and seldom do (listen to German klezmer).
However, your tidy message does not cut much ice around here.

Many of us who, with our parents, washed up on the shores of
North America --brutalized, bewildered and broken --did not get
to have childhoods replete with cozy parlors filled with  books,
recordings and recitals.  Our creativity was not often nourished
by unaffordable music lessons, theatre outings and the like.
That is why you do not see many second generation people on the
Jewish music scene (in case you ever wondered) today.

It is  not without some degree of pain and bitterness that we
now see the descendants of our tormentors, the beneficiaries
of training in no small part funded by looted Jewish property,
become professional artists selling the Jewish musical legacy,
while many creative second generation folk had to settle for
much less,  due to tragic historical circumstances and a
corresponding lack of opportunity and resources.

The mental illness, suicide and crippled lives of all too many
second generation friends is not all that easy to forget.

And that is why, dear Monika, your note offers precious little
in the way of a final solution to my feelings of anguish at and
revulsion for the phenomenon of German klezmer.
Unfortunately, there is none.

To suggest that I merely not listen to the stuff is facile
and dismissive; all-Gentile German klezmer bands will no doubt
continue to turn up on the stages of Jewish music events in
ever-increasing numbers;  they'll never fully understand
what a drag it can be to see them.

Nothing personal.

With best wishes,

Wolf



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