Re: What is Jewish Music redux?

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Responding to the message of 
<4(dot)2(dot)0(dot)58(dot)20010612153109(dot)00a1ff00 (at) jtsa(dot)edu>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> 
> >
> > > _________________________________________________________________
> >In my younger days, I accepted a few commssions from churches on the 
> condition 
> >that I approve the texts, which had to be 'Old Testament' and in a 
> translation I
> >found acceptable.  I had much better luck getting these commissions, from 
> >churches where people thought that having something 'Jewish-sounding' would 
> >connect them with their 'roots.'
> >
> >I won't do it now.  I've seen too much misappropriation of Jewish culture 
> and I 
> >simply refuse to advance Christian worship through my work.  (On the other 
> hand,
> >as much as I reject all Christian teachings, I wouldn't call something many 
> of 
> >my friends believe in wholeheartedly 'narishkeyt,' out of the same respect 
> for 
> >their believe that I wish they would have for mine.)
> 
> Alex:
> 
> It's unfortunate that you have had so many bad experiences related to 
> "misappropriation of Jewish culture." In my five years of conducting 
> Methodist church choirs and sometimes even performing my music with them, I 
> found nothing from my singers and congregants but the most extreme curiosity 
> and respect for our traditions. That would also include the Passover Seders I 
> officiated at in their churches.
> 
> While I admit I do not care to perform Christian liturgical music 
> anymore--because I believe I have a much better handle on Jewish liturgical 
> music and could do a far better job with it--I am always glad to speak and 
> share ideas with any church group who asks me to. 
> 
> I can't speak about the Penetcostal churches of which you refer, and I am 
> well aware that there may certainly be antisemitism in the more 
> fundamentalist Christian churches, but I have never experienced anything but 
> profound respect for Jewish people and Jewish learning in the Liberal 
> Protestant and Catholic churches that I have visited.
> 
> Could these people say the same things about our synagogues? Could they say 
> the same things about this List?
> 
I only wrote pieces for mainstream Protestant and Catholic worship and, yes, 
they were all wonderful.  My shul is deeply involved in interfaith activities 
with such houses of worship as well as some evangelical denominations in the 
African-American community (which, unlike their white counterparts, do not, in 
my experience, evangelize Jews).  The problems have indeed been with 
evangelicals and pentecostals and (in one case) an individual from a mainstream 
church who was probably not representative of his denomination.  

Nonetheless, I believe it's best, at least for me, to steer clear of faith 
traditions that use texts that implicate Jews and who, in worse times not so 
long ago, interpreted them with a good deal more hostility towards us.  We had a
Congregational minister on our bima this year who emphatically denounced all 
Christian triumphalism and called for a halt to all missionary activity until an
interpretation of the Gospels could be found that was safely free of any 
anti-Semitic implications, but that high standard is, in my experience, rare.

Are we free of anti-Christian sentiment in our shuls?  We hear criticism and 
suspicion fairly often, to be sure, but somthing analogous to anti-Semitism in 
its historical ramifications?  I don't think so, nor do I think it possible 
given the imbalance of power.  Do we deride Christians on this list?  I think 
the answer is the same.  We address historical and current grievances as a 
minority that continues to endure prejudice (if not discrimination) and 
sometimes we do this humorously, but as a minority we are inherently, 
logistically incapable of exercising the applied forms of hate that are 
sometimes perpretrated by members of the Christian majority.  

Please recall that I disagreed with the writer who called Christianity 
narishkeyt.  However I may regard someone else's faith tradition, I regard 
religious pluralism more highly.



  

Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)


Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)

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