Re: More on Jews in R/B and Jerry Ragovoy

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

If you're old like me, you'll remember a Certs commercial where  identical 
twins (female) were arguing about whether it was a candy mint or a breath mint. 
 The authoritative voiceover (male, of course) said, 'Stop!  You're both right!'

My point is not that the commercial was scripted by a Jew (likely), but that 
there's no reason we can't both be right.  I once heard speculation that one of 
the reasons so many Jews in the old countries played violin was because it was 
portable and we often needed to make quick escapes.  Genius and a quotient of 
joy seems to have arisen from the necessity of escape, the latter of course the 
(Jewish) mother of invention (although Frank Zappa, the Mother of Invention, 
was not Jewish).

I'm a composer myself and would hardly deny that my roots are tangled up in my 
creative life.  I'd also quickly note the large number of stageworks I've done 
with themes of alienation, including one about a failed Jewish rock star.



Eliott Kahn wrote:

> At 01:34 PM 12/2/2003 -0600, you wrote:
> >But one must ask, I think, if there is an almost exclusively behind the 
> >scenes role throughout popular culture for Jews, when exceptions are all 
> >either forthrightly assimilationist or strangely filtered/marginalized, 
> >what's truly going on?  Could it be that so few Jews really wanted to be 
> >media stars?  Seems to me that's what most American kids want to be at least 
> >at some point in their maturing years.  There is a cloak of ineffable 
> >otherness on the Jewish role in pop performance that doesn't seem to be 
> >going away.
>
> Alex:
>
> These are some important points you're making. I would posit that there is a 
> "cloak of ineffable otherness" in being a Jew in a predominantly Christian 
> society. Therefore it would make sense that the Jews who were the most 
> successful in our popular culture would be the most assimilated.
>
> Or perhaps Jews make great songwriters, movie directors and playwrights 
> because we're fascinated by ideas....
>
> Eliott
>

--
Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music and Jewish Studies
Adjunct Professor of American Studies
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)


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