Re: Schindler's List and Jerusalem of Gold

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>During the production of"Schindler's List", I was contacted by Amblin 
>Productions for music that might be the basis for a soundtrack for the film.
>When the movie came out, I was shocked that "Jerusalem of Gold" had been used 
>in the film. That song has a very specific meaning in the Israeli experience 
>and I felt it was totally out of place.

Indeed, Spielberg seemed unaware at the time of the movie that there was a 
difference between modern Israeli music, and what might have been appropriate 
to the time and place of the movie--or how out of place it might feel. Worse, 
many Palestinians hear "Jerusalem of Gold" as a song with serious racist 
overtones (the lines about "empty markets" seem to imply that the teeming 
Palestinian population of that place didn't, or shouldn't exist--that only Jews 
counted. Naomi Shemer has long disclaimed any such intent, but it is chilling 
to hear a song with that connotation in such a movie.), so it was an especially 
unfortunate anachronism.

There was also a scene in the ghetto where my memory insists that a family was 
sitting around talking in Hebrew--surely the wrong language (assuming I heard 
correctly) to create that sense of time and place. 

But the movie also seemed to have a good impact on people's awareness of the 
Holocaust, and it seems to have sparked much good, so I especially don't want 
to be in the position of picking at nits.

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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