Re: Village Voice on Jews and Holiday Music

[bart j mendelson <mendelson...>]

Maybe the  secularization you mention is the best Jews could do to end 
Christianity. In The Netherlands it seems to have worked, we have White 
Christmas, Santa and the lot but over 60 % of the population never goes to 
church anymore. More songs on reindeer, bells, pagan trees! 

In time it will help

Bart

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bob Wiener 
  To: World music from a Jewish slant 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 1:02 PM
  Subject: Village Voice on Jews and Holiday Music


  Weatherbird
                  by Gary Giddins
                  Christmas Gilt
                  A Bounty of Chestnuts and Gift Boxes
                  December 2nd, 2002 4:30 PM

                     he annual profusion of Christmas albums suggests a 
bottomless appetite for the same dozen or 15 songs
                  done in every conceivable fashion, and a hapless record 
industry is eager to oblige. When in doubt, shake up
                  the backlist, develop a seasonal pun, and leave the rest to 
nostalgia. It is frequently noted that most of the
                  good American Christmas songs, beginning with Berlin's "White 
Christmas" (1942, not so very long ago), are by
                  Jewish composers. They have secularized the revelry to the 
point where even unlapsed Catholics must at times
                  struggle to recall that all the fuss commemorates their 
savior's birth and not merely ASCAP and BMI annuities
                  involving sleigh bells, drummer boys, chipmunks, reindeer, 
chestnuts, Santa, Frosty, and, most crucially,
                  snow-of which there was a dearth in Galilee. Why those 
songwriters could not bestir themselves to write a
                  single decent Hanukkah song is a mystery for the ages. Hath 
not a Jew snow, snowmen, bells, singing animals,
                  Buddy Rich?