Re: Yiddishkayt & Israelis

[Mark H. David <mhd...>]

As if to answer, the Yiddish program today on Kol Israel (1p.m. EST)
featured a special segment on Israeli _Hebrew_ songs about the mother.

We heard:

  Hert-zhe vi unzere sabras zingen "Ema Yekara", "Tayere Mame"....

and then children singing in Hebrew.

Also, we were treated to songs like "Ema, Ema", et al, by various
Israeli singers.

-- Mark David
http://www.yiddishvoice.com

----- Original Message -----
From: <SamWeiss (at) bellatlantic(dot)net>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2001 5:47 PM
Subject: RE: Yiddishkayt & Israelis


> The theme of Klezkamp1998 was "Yiddish in Israel".  It included an
> Alberstein/Klezmatics concert of the then newly-released "Well" CD, as
well
> as classes by Dov Noy, eminent Yiddish folklorist at the Hebrew University
> of Jerusalem.  In one these classes I learned of another wrinkle in the
> tapestry of anti-Yiddishism in Israel -- post-WWII and earlier.  This was
> the function of Yiddish as "mame-loshn."  Motherhood for early settlers
was
> not among the things they glorified.  Women were Chalutzot first and
> foremost, even to their own children, who were encouraged to address their
> mothers by their first name.  The worldwide stereotype of "Di Yidishe
Mame"
> was absent in that society, the term "Polish Mother" being the closest
> equivalent.  Israeli Ethnomusicologist Gila Flam reported discovering only
> 4 or 5 Hebrew songs from that period with "mother" as the subject.
> Early anti-Yiddishism in Israel was not just a grass-roots phenomenon, but
> was translated into a lack of government funding for Yiddish cultural
> undertakings.  Such activities had to compete with performances in other
> "non-Jewish languages" for survival.  Only recently (I think 2-3 years
ago)
> were Yiddish and Ladino officially classified as Jewish languages for
> purposes of receiving annual government grants.  And only =very= recently
> was Yiddish able to benefit from this money by finally overcoming
> organizational squabbling and forming a unified Yiddish language authority
> to utilize this funding.
>
> _____________________________________________________________
> Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ
>
>

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