Re: Hirsh, Braitman & Harris are right

[Susan Lerner <meydele...>]

Sorry, Ari, I have to disagree with you on this one. This situation, which 
deals with responses to Yiddish material and Jewish music, its marketability 
and the audience it will or will not have, is at least as relevant to this list 
as the long, long discussion we had several years back (and which every now and 
then threatens to come back) on kol isha. 

 Who listens to Jewish music of any kind?  Can and will it get exposure on 
mainstream media?  To the extent that the negative mail NPR is getting means 
that an important potential outlet for Jewish music of all kinds, which reaches 
a significant portion of a desirable target audience,will be leery of 
programming  more Yiddish or Jewish music is of great relevance.  What does 
this kind of response to mainstream media exposure mean to those of us who are 
performers? promoters?  Is it a unique situation or does it have greater 
applicability for other Yiddish productions? Or for other Jewish material?    
I'm in the midst of planning a Yiddishkayt festival to take place in October.  
Will this negative feedback impact the kind of coverage we're likely to get? 
Should we give up on trying to market to a broader non-Jewish audience until - 
when?  All things I think we should be able to discuss on this list.  For if 
not here, where?   Other lists are consumed with the politics of the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not the types of questions I've posed here.

And besides, I have been struggling for a day to find a better analogy than 
Henry's quoted Delta blues comment, which isn't really right and Elliott Kahn 
provided the perfect one in referencing Celtic music and the Northern Irish 
"troubles."   Can't think of another place where that kind of clear thinking 
about music goes on.

Shira Lerner