Re: wisse vs. sapoznik in new republic (was "klezmer in the news")

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

I absolutely, without excuses, need to read Henry's book soon, myself,
so that I can respond, but I suspect that I'll have little to add to
what you just said, Bert. (As if the glancing through I did when the
book came out wasn't sufficiently compelling--but for lack of sleep
and too many other commitments!)

Professor Wisse has been beating this particular horse and its bones
for many years. It is unattractive, to say the least, that rather than
evaluate Henry's book on its own merits, she chooses to use it as a 
platform from which she can deliver her usual sermon.

As one of the people very much at odds with the Jewish community as it
was when the revival was happening (not that I'm such a pillar of the
establishment, now), I can say with some confidence that if Professor
Wisse's thesis is as you have repeated it, she has not only failed in
her purpose as a reviewer, but the sermon doesn't even address the
issues we were grappling with at the time. If there was no choice of
Judaism, there would have been no need to find "alternative" cultural
choices within Jewish culture. 

ari

At 05:23 PM 4/27/00 -0400, you wrote:
>In the latest New Republic, May 1, 2000, there's a book review by Ruth
>Wisse of Henry Sapoznik's "Klezmer!".  
>
>Ms. Wisse also reviews Jacob Adler's "A Life on the Stage: A Memoir."
>That's Jacob Adler's auto bio, written in 1917 in Yiddish.  The English
>translation came out last year.  All kinds of interesting stuff about
>Russia, circa 1880, from a modern-guy's point of view.  Adler, a
>boulevardier, with cane and top hat, roams amongst the yokels, who often
>look like fiddlers on roofs.  
>
>Back to "Klezmer!" . . . Ms. Wisse concludes the author isn't religious
>enough; she says, "(Sapoznik) does not see that the true Jewish
>counterculture in America has always been Judaism itself."
>
>Ms. Wisse describes the author as "still hopelessly stuck with the idea of
>klezmer as a countercultural show of resistance."
>
>Ms. Wisse's fight card: Judaism vs. klezmer.  What a mismatch! The fact
>"Klezmer!" is the first history of klez -- and well-written too --  she
>doesn't mention that. 
>
>Bert Stratton
>http://www.yiddishecup.com    
>
>

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