Oy Gevalt! (Part Two)

[Francesco Spagnolo <yuval.italia...>]

(PART TWO -- CONTINUED FROM "OY GEVALT!" -- PART ONE)


How does the current political situation in Italy affect the Jews 
(and Jewish music)?

First of all, given the present situation in the Middle East, Italy's 
political parties are very clearly taking sides. Thus, the Government 
coalition is generally taking Israel's side, while at the same time 
acting for "peace" (whatever that means in the context of the 
European Union's views). The center-left-wing is leaning more towards 
the Palestinian cause, as is customary in Europe's left. What is more 
relevant, though, is that the debate over Israel/Palestine has given 
room to a series of anti-Semitic episodes that suggest a clear 
connection between traditionally left-wing anti-Zionist ideas (whose 
bottom line is: Israel's original sin in respect to the Palestinian 
cause) with the more rooted Catholic anti-Semitic beliefs. Thus, even 
in the national and politically moderate press, the old accusation of 
murdering Jesus has surfaced (see a NYT editorial of April 20, 2002). 
Such accusations and mythologies are also being adopted by the 
extreme left papers. The mixture is a true molotov cocktail...

Jews are of course caught in the middle -- especially the liberal 
ones. The same old story?

The surfacing of an anti-Semitic rhetoric in the public arena began 
with a (signed) editorial by Mrs. Barbara Spinelli, in the national 
paper "La stampa" (the same "liberal Italian daily" that "depicted a 
baby Jesus looking up from the manger at an Israeli tank, saying, 
'Don't tell me they want to kill me again'", as quoted by the NYT) on 
October 28, 2001. The article, written by a leading cultural 
commentator who had always been very sensitive about "Jewish" issues, 
called upon the Jews in the Diaspora to utter a "mea culpa", 
apologizing to Islam for all that Israel has done to the Palestinian 
people. What the writer suggested was that the Diaspora could atone 
for the Israelis, since they were not going to do it themselves. The 
model suggested for the apology was the Pope's own apologies to 
Judaism, as he had pronounced them, clear and loud, during the 2000 
Jubilee.

More recently, upon deciding how to proceed in nominating the new 
managers of Italy's national TV (RAI), it was reported how the 
general committee of RAI had a discussion over the fact that no more 
than one of the new managers could be Jewish...

And so on, and on, and on.

What is happening, though, is that most of the reaction to this 
situation comes only from Jewish intellectual circles and 
organizations. There has not been a strong response by Italy's 
intellectuals. My general impression is that in Italy, in 2002, an 
attack against "the Jews" is seen as a "Jewish problem", and not as 
an issue that the entire society should be concerned with.

Over the past ten years, Italy has witnessed an incredible success of 
Jewish culture -- especially music, but also literature, theatre, 
film. Jewish culture has been one of the major cultural themes, as 
Ruth Ellen Gruber brilliantly reports in her new book "Virtually 
Jewish. Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe" (California Univ. 
Press, 2001). Klezmer music has played a key role. I have been quite 
active in this scene, especially in helping bring some of the leading 
figures in the klezmer revival over here: Brave Old World, Khevrisa, 
Di Naye Kapelye, to name a few. Also, both as a radio broadcaster and 
as a scholar, I have been extremely active in publicizing this music 
-- but always with a (openly stated) concern: Italy is a country with 
relevant, albeit small, local Jewish traditions, which should not be 
completely overlooked in favour of a "foreign" interest for Ashkenazi 
culture and music.

The fascination with Ashkenazi culture has been seen -- by others 
(especially Ruth Gruber, although to my knowledge the first to raise 
this issue was Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett) well before than myself 
-- as connected with the Holocaust, with a general sense of atonement 
for it seeked by the European people. My own specific argument is 
that, at least to Italians, it is easier (forgive me for my 
brutality) to cope with dead Ashkenazi Jews revived on a stage than 
with undistinguishable Italian Jews who are alive and reside in the 
same country (let alone with "aggressive" Israelis)...

Thus, I have been operating in three directions -- which I enumerate 
here in order to offer some materials to a discussion that I hope 
will begin within our list:

a) Offering a more "realistic" image of Ashkenazi music to the 
public: concerts, presentations, lectures, radio shows with experts 
such as Michael Alpert, Zev Feldman, Josh Waletzky, Beyle 
Schaechter-Gottesman, Musa Berlin...

b) Exposing the modes and the content of Italy's own klezmer revival, 
and especially its ties with specifically Italian culture, far away 
from and debate originating within Jewish culture. Interesting 
information and ideas about this issue can be found in the above 
mentioned essay by Ruth Gruber, as well as in Mark Slobin's "Fiddler 
on the Move". A forthcoming article, that I wrote for the "Rivista 
Italiana di Musicologia" (Italian Journal of Musicology) with the 
title "If the Fiddler Falls Off the Roof... Italy in the revival of 
klezmer music" (in Italian), is accompanied by the following abstract:

Over the past decade, a new genre - "klezmer music" - has surfaced in 
the music world. Rooted in eastern European Jewish instrumental music 
and Yiddish song, klezmer has become popular throughout the world, 
even in countries where Jews are not (or are no longer) present, and 
where this form of music originally did not exist. Italy - where the 
extreme popularity this music enjoys has overshadowed local Jewish 
traditions - presents an interesting study case. "Klezmer" has become 
a synonym for "Jewish", and denotes a (musical) culture that is 
believed to live in a transnational and multicultural world outside 
history. This article reviews recent scholarship on the definition 
and history of traditional klezmer repertoires, explores general 
trends in the klezmer revival, and shows how the Italian "klezmer 
scene" tends to present a repertoire devoid of traditional and Jewish 
content, while at the same time shaping a "usable tradition" and a 
new "aesthetic of the old".

The topic has been absorbing a lot of my energies, and besides this 
article (which is a rather long one -- about 45 pages), I have been 
discussing it at conferences, in lectures and radio programs, as well 
as in music presentations (like last year at the Klezmer musica 
festival in Ancona, Italy), with some of the leading pioneers of the 
Italian revival, among whom I would like to mention Mara Cantoni and 
Enrico Fink.

c) Exploring Italy's own Jewish musical tradition. The list already 
knows about the recently issued CD "Italian Jewish Musical 
Traditions", published by the Hebrew University, which allows all of 
us to listen for the first time to an anthology of Italian Jewish 
songs as they were recorded 50 years ago throughout the country.

So, this is -- in its outline -- the story. And my questions are: 
what are we doing? Are we considering the aftereffects of our work? 
What happens within the general fascination for Jewish culture? Can 
this exist next to a true misunderstanding of Jewish life, or even 
with public manifestations of anti-Jewish feelings?

Finally -- as my dear friend Michael Alpert said to me, thus opening 
my eyes a few months ago -- for the good or the bad, Italy has been 
setting trends in world culture at least since the Romans (and 
Italy's attitudes towards the Jews have been exemplary as well). 
Perhaps, even nowadays, keeping an eye on what happens in this small, 
beautiful, rich country can prove to be relevant for all of us.

Sincerely,
Francesco Spagnolo



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the  Italian Center for the Study of Jewish Music

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