Re: Making Judaism Cool

[Trudi Goodman <goobietheg...>]

  Hey why shouldn't Roseanne be leading kabbalah studies...does the fact 
that she is a performer mean that she doesn't care about being Jewish? 
No...as a matter of fact she has given long-standing support to the Jewish 
Community, particularly through Jewish Charities, such as the charitable 
wing of the B'nai Brith.  So?
   Are we be back to yet another discussion of who is REALLY a Jew and who 
has the right to be?  I'll have to check with my Irish Jewish great 
Grandfather on that one!
   As for Judaism and Jewish culture being "cool" we could do worse.  I find 
that people who are actually interested in Jews stick around long past the 
fads.  These coolniks actually come to Jewish Music concerts...ya know?
      Zei Gezunt
      Trudi the G, LR (Lepracohen in Residence)

>From: Ari Davidow <ari (at) ivritype(dot)com>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Making Judaism Cool
>Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 21:07:59 -0400
>
>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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