Making Judaism Cool

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

There is an interesting take on new Jewish music from the March edition
of Tikkun magazine that I just discovered:

http://www.tikkun.org/0003/0003schorsh.html

I think there's some meat there worth discussing, if anyone else is interested. 
Certainly the "cool" issue as regards new Jewish music, as used by the author, 
rings a bell. The author also peripherally touches on an issue raised obliquely 
by Ruth Wisse in her review of Henry's book--klezmer, or 
cool new Jewish music, on their own, do not carry a Jewish life. 

That doesn't matter, if one is appreciating the music because it is 
exciting, wonderful, Jewish soul music (to the extent that the best
new Jewish music is those things), and it has nothing to do with how
one live's one's life or one's identity as a person. 

It is absolutely irrelevant for those people already immersed in 
Jewish life, for whom a variety of new Jewish music (not necessarily 
klezmer or "cool") is a living part of that life.

But for many of us, this new Jewish music is something more than the
soundtrack to struggles with defining who we are as Jews. As people
living Jewishly outside the mainstream of Jewish life, or trying to
influence the Jewish mainstream to our own political or cultural
visions, the music carries additional weight and relevance.

And, yet, I suspect that for many of the people about whom the author
of this article is writing, this "cool" is enough, or is substituting
for something deeper. Roseanne leading kabala study, indeed! 

Anyway, as I said, if the article strikes any of these chords, let's
do discuss it.

http://www.tikkun.org/0003/0003schorsh.html

ari


Ari Davidow
ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
list owner, jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
the klezmer shack: http://www.klezmershack.com/

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