Re:Kristallnacht and insensitivity to Jews in the American folk music context

[apikoyros <apikoyros...>]

Robert,
Re Kristallnacht:
I still respect that folksinger a lot. I deliberately passed
up opportunities at, at least, two intimate folk festivals
in the last few years to have conversations with him,
since I would have had to bring up his old song before
long. This folksinger's biblically-flavored  "911" song (I'll call it that), 
which was selected from his repertoire in response to the events of "911," was 
a great 
choice, in my opinion. 

On the other hand, I heard "I ain't afraid ... (I'm afraid of 
what you do in the name of  your god)" at the Workmens
Circle seder. (Are they back to being anti-religious? Did 
they know it was going to be performed and select it as
appropriate for a seder?)  It scared me much more than 
the Kristallnacht song because there were Jews singing it,  
and because, while trashing religious fanatics,  it lacked the
line "I ain't afraid of your herd-mentality self-righteous bull-
shit" such as we're seeing all over the world right now in anti-
Israel and antisemitic expression. 

I don't know about Holly Near, but her "hero" Ronnie Gilbert,
bless her heart, is a "bleeding heart" member of "Women in Black"
(a knee-jerk anti-Israel group). On a web site I saw, Ronnie 
claims she can't be antisemitic since one of the first big "hits"
of the Weavers was "Tzena, tzena" (but I'll bet some of her new 
best friends are).

The Kristallnacht song is old news now and I hope that folksinger
learned his lesson. Many others have greater and more difficult 
lessons to learn about championing the rights of all people (except,
of course, the Jews).

I brought the Kristallnacht song up in November, right after a concert 
by the folksinger and in time for the anniversary. It was also the time
when I was irate about an attempt at Middle East apocalypse on this list
(how unprophetic!) that injected the name of the Palestinians (in German,
not Yiddish [for which audiences?]) into a traditional, tightly-structured 
Yiddish song about messianic times, where for esthetic reasons, (if not for 
others, and to avoid turning the song into "tutti fruti" nonsense) it simply 
did not belong.

Lee
 

________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.

----------------------- 2g-legacy (at) shamash(dot)org ----------------------+