Re: Passion Plays and Jewish Music

[Eliezer Kaplan <zelwel...>]

Helen-
    I think the issue of appropriate music to be a background for those times 
was best handled by Martin Scorsese and Peter Gabriel for the soundtrack of 
'Last Temptation of Christ'- using the help of Youssou N'dour, Hossam Ramzy, 
and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan among others in a fairly original attempt to 'mock 
up' the music of those times. You can suggest it, possibly forcing your Passion 
Playing friends to actually watch (and think about) the movie.     
    I agree that using modern Jewish music makes no sense for such a thing at 
all and may even be construed as anti-semitic. 
                                              EK

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Helen Winkler 
  To: World music from a Jewish slant 
  Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002 11:16 PM
  Subject: Passion Plays and Jewish Music


  Every so often I get calls from people mounting Passion Plays, asking for my 
suggestions for which Jewish music and dances they should use in their 
productions.  I've always been uncomfortable and unsure of how to answer.  This 
time I finally told them that I didn't think Jewish music and dances belonged 
in a Passion Play due to the history of Anti-Semitism associated with Passion 
Plays and also because the music they want to use (Israeli and Hasidic) doesn't 
make sense for Biblical times.  Just wondering if any others have had to deal 
with this kind of thing before, and how have you addressed these issues.
  Helen

  Helen Winkler
  Helen's Yiddish Dance Page
  www.angelfire.com/ns/helenwinkler

  Calgary Folkdance Fridays
  www.cadvision.com/winklerj/cff.html