Davidow on Romancing the Shtetl

[Steven and Marci Fischbach <fischri...>]

I think it's great that we can all comment on Ari's piece on the 
Shtetl.  Perhaps we can produce a collective work here.  These are my thoughts.

Ari's article is directed at (or at least speaks to) Jews, not gentiles who 
are into Klezmer.  That's fine, but we should realize that the "Klezmer 
community,"  i.e., that group of people who have a common love/interest in 
Klezmer music, is not exclusively Jewish.  Since Ari's piece talks a lot 
about community, I think it is necessary to point out this obvious fact.

Ari correctly (I think) criticizes Yiddishist-Romanticists who hold out the 
Shtetl as an idyllic community that present day Yiddishists should pine 
for.  For one thing, many Jews in Ashkenazic lands never lived in Shtetl's, 
as that term is used today.  With the exception of the Nazi era, walled in 
Ghettos for Jews fell out of use by the 17th century; and as Jewish 
emancipation proceeded throughout Europe, Jews lived more and more in 
integrated communities.

I believe that many Yiddishists return to the Shtetl because they believe 
that was their past and is a part of their heritage.  For them, the Shtetl 
becomes something to build a Jewish identity around.  Instead of romancing 
the Shtetl, Yiddishists should discover their heritage by first tracing 
their own personal family's history, and then reading as much history and 
commentary about Jewish communities from those places.  The web based 
JewishGen <www.jewishgen.org> is a perfect place to start your 
research.  (Talk about a viable Jewish virtual community Ari!)  Those 
Klezmer musicians/scholars who are collecting Jewish music in Hungary, 
Romania, Moldavia, and other places are doing the equivalent when it comes 
to music.  Through their work, Jews who seek to establish their Jewish 
identity outside of the synagogue, outside the state of Israel, and beyond 
the holocaust (like myself), have something else to connect them with their 
Jewishness.  Not that Jews who have other sources to hang their identity on 
do not appreciate these efforts, as these musicians/scholars are also 
elevating Jewish music to a new level of excellence.  Many of the musicians 
associated with these efforts are not Jewish.  Their contributions to 
elevating our music should also be recognized and appreciated.

That Jewish Klezmorim would turn to liturgical music styles for inspiration 
and exploration is both a logical and positive development.   Having spent 
way too many hours of my youth in synagogue services, I must admit that I 
am drawn to CD's like B'nai Jeshurun's Shabbat CD, Pharoah's Daughter's Out 
of the Reeds, and especially, Frank London's Invocations.  Whether I will 
return to the synagogue is another question; but, these albums bring me 
closer to a Jewish community by speaking to me in a contemporary but 
traditional musical vocabulary that I can relate to and appreciate.  I 
cannot say the same for Debbie Freidman's work, but that is a matter of 
personal taste.

To conclude, I think Ari correctly suggests that Jewish communities can 
move forward in development by drawing upon "what was, based on 
roots."  But first, those in the community need to learn "what was" 
was.  Present day Hebrew schools (and the Hebrew schools I attended) do 
(did) a poor job of educating kids about "what was."  To the extent 
Klezmorim can inform us of "what was," and reinterpret the "was" in a 
contemporary way, I think Jewish community builders would be greatly 
assisted.  But it behoves all of us to go back and learn about the "was" in 
any way we can.



Steven Fischbach
Providence, RI  USA
fischri (at) gis(dot)net

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