Re: Klezmer on Fish Street

[Alex Lubet <lubet001...>]

The 'Jewish' place I ate at served food that bore no resemblance to any 
Jewish food I ever ate, although the appetizer was a tiny piece of matza 
which, given its staleness and that it was right before Pesach, was 
apparently about to celebrate a birthday.  I recall there being three such 
places, maybe the food was better elsewhere.

There was also a 'Jewish' restaurant in Lublin, where I lived.  It had a 
wildly eclectic menu, including kim chee.  There was a reputedly 'Jewish' 
band on the weekends which I didn't here.  The smoke was so thick I could 
barely breathe, common in Poland.

It's still a country worth visiting for sure.



At 04:06 PM 12/15/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>Yesterday at Kerem Shalom in Concord, MA, I attended the preview of the 
>movie "Klezmer on Fish Street", Yale Strom's documentary of the 
>Klezmaniac's trip to Poland in the summer of 2000. According to Cantor Ken 
>Richmond, leader of the Klezmaniacs, the movie will be released in the 
>next few months.
>
>The movie was wonderful, beautifully done, yet full of paradoxes. There is 
>a square in the old Jewish quarter of Krackow where Jewish cultural events 
>are held, where there are Jewish restaurants serving Jewish food with 
>signs in, among other laguages, Yiddish, yet there are at the most 10,000 
>Jews in all of Poland. As the movie said "who's doing the cooking?".
>
>Our European list members are probably a lot more familiar witht the 
>concept of "Jewish Culture without Jews" and the various opinions of that 
>phenomenon, but here in the states we (or at least I) has been very 
>insulated from it, and it is a major theme of the movie.
>
>Another theme was the presence of Alta Frohman, grandmother of Shira 
>Shazeer, vocalist of the Klezmaniacs. Alta was born in Bedzin, Poland and 
>was there until she got out at age 19. She was a constant and inspiring 
>presence in the movie, negotiating with Polish gemdarmes who were trying 
>to quiet the spontaneous rejoicing that broke out in the square in Krackow 
>by the many Jewish young people who were there, visiting Bedzin and 
>discovering her childhood home was still intact, and visitng Auschwitz.
>
>This is a powerful movie and should be seen and enjoyed by everyone who 
>shares out interest in Jewish music. Further infomation can be found at 
>www.klezmaniacs.org.
>
>Dick Rosenberg
>

Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
100 Ferguson Hall
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 (o)
612 699-1097 (h)
612 624-8001  ATTN:  Alex Lubet (FAX)

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+