I found our class about Jewish music very interesting. I was unaware that there was such a wide variety of sounds and genres that qualified as “Jewish” music. I had never really considered that music other than that played in temple or at other Jewish ceremonies could be classified as Jewish music. I really enjoyed the array of samples we heard. Some of the prayers we heard at the beginning of the class were familiar to me. To me, this is what I picture as Jewish music. I think of prayers and hymns that I hear in temple as Jewish music. I was, however, very interested to hear that many of the tunes the prayers were set to were developed recently (most within the last century).

The most interesting part of the class was when we began to listen to the more contemporary music. As I said before, my perception of Jewish music has always been prayers and music played in synagogue. Listening to some of the modern-day Jewish music, such as the reggae styling of Matisyahu, really got me thinking differently about what defines music as Jewish. Instead of keeping with my original thoughts that Jewish music had to be religious in nature to be considered “Jewish”. Matisyahu is just one example of secular Jewish music. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to his song Jerusalem. The lyrics coupled with the reggae music was new, but very pleasurable. This may be a strange comment to make but while I was listening to Matisyahu, I couldn’t help but think Jerusalem was just as much a Jewish song as religious prayers and hymns you hear in temple.

Lowenstein also talked about the origins of Jewish music and how many of the tunes and other aspects of the music came from different cultures and groups of people. I spent a good deal of time talking about the fluid boundaries of Judaism (and in particular Jewish music) in my midterm essay. Lowenstein says on page 177, “We know that much Jewish folk music, whether secular or religious, is borrowed from, or at least influenced by, the musical traditions of the people among whom the Jews lived.” I was very unaware prior to taking this class that so much of Jewish music comes from other cultures. This class period as well as the corresponding readings completely changed my perspective of Jewish music.

The whole concept of Jewish identity and what it means to be a Jew is a new concept for me, and I have a difficult time understanding it. The other day when I was walking home from Jewish Experience I was trying to find some aspect in my life that could correlate to this concept but came up empty handed. I was baptized. I celebrated my first communion and was confirmed a member of my church, but none of these, in my eyes, were life changing moments. Yes, I did have to go to six classes to prepare for my confirmation, but the week prior to the service, when the seniors of the congregation came to class to “test” us students of our knowledge, we mostly talked about where we see God in our lives. At the time, I felt extremely fortunate to have a very talkative member in my class because I did not have to utter a single word. How different this is from the classes my Jewish friends had to take to prepare for their bar and bat mitzvahs. Not only did they have to go to Hebrew school, they had to learn a whole new language! (Note: I realize the proper phrase is to “become” bar mitzvah, but since Americans have made their own twist by incorporating a large ceremony and party, I thought it would be appropriate to say “prepare” for this rite of passage)

The concept became even more difficult to conceive this past Monday when we were talking about “What makes Jewish things Jewish?” I thought I had a pretty good idea, but as the conversation progressed, I felt as if my ideas were placed in the interrogation room and crumpled under the pressure. What I had thought when I first walked into the room at 1:30 was completely different from when I left at 2:45.

What does make a Jewish thing Jewish? Is it the object’s creator that makes it Jewish? Is it the object’s purpose? Is it determined by who owns it? These questions are further complicated in recent years with the expansion of the Internet. With the Internet, information can be shared with one another within seconds rather than days no matter the time and place. I can be in Carlisle, PA, but can have a full conversation “face to face” with one of my friends studying abroad via Skype. If I have a question about anything, I can go online and find out the answer with one click of the mouse. With this ability, the boundaries between cultures become more obscure than ever before. For example, we just discussed the Judaizing of the hamsas, an amulet to ward off evil in the Islamic culture. This past weekend my friend’s mom brought her daughter and me a present – a bracelet with the evil eye, the hamsas, and a peace symbol. When we put these bracelets on, her mother said, “These are so in right now girls!” With recent peace efforts and the need to feel a sense of security in a world where there are so many things we don’t know the answers to, I understand the reasoning for these objects to be “in,” but if I wear this bracelet is the hamsas still Jewish? As the hamsas becomes more popular and adopted into the American culture, will it still be considered Jewish or will the same thing that happened when the Jews Judaizing the Islamic amulet?

The same question can be asked about music as Leo wrote in his blog. It’s funny he mentioned the Beastie Boys because as soon as my roommate and I began our discussion of this question outside the classroom, she used them as her example – “The Beastie Boys are Jewish. Does that make their music Jewish? Not in my eyes!” What makes Jewish music Jewish? The same thing can be said with food. How come hot dogs can be considered American, but bratwurst is associated with Germany? How can bagels and lox be considered Jewish when bagels are not consumed everywhere in the world? How did one thing become associated with one culture? Who decides this? What decides this? What makes anything anything?

I think most people can say that when they think of Jewish music, “Hava Nagila” immediately comes to mind, but Jewish music is obviously much more diverse than that. However, identifying Jewish music in the first place is complicated. Lowenstein asks “Is any music written by a Jew Jewish music? Is only synagogue music Jewish? What makes Jewish music distinctive?”  In class we established that it is nearly impossible to name any music universally Jewish since it contains influences from the period, region, culture, and aesthetic tastes of the time. Lowenstein points out that some scholars believe that there is a common root to all Jewish music but he himself seems very critical of this idea. Although he never directly answers the questions posed in the beginning of the chapter, he demonstrates that Jewish music has formed from both “borrowed” influences and original influences, that because there is such a huge range of Jewish music that consists of both religious uses and secular uses, written in Hebrew and Jewish dialects, there can be no distinctive or definitive characteristic of Jewish music but it instead depends on the individual and community perspective and how they choose to associate the music. I think that is another example of the great tradition versus the little tradition. That although Jewish music can share characteristics like theme, use, and language, it is generally greatly influenced by the folk culture surrounding it. I think studying any aspect of Judaism is this complicated because this transfusion of influences seems to always be the case.

            It was really great that in class we were able to hear specific examples of religious and secular Jewish music; it really helped to understand exactly how diverse Jewish music is. Listening to synagogue music that sounded very professional and operatic to watching a music video of a side locked kippa-wearing gangster rapper was extremely interesting. One thing I was especially intrigued about was cantillation. I actually have never heard of it before and I found it amazing that the motifs or tropes can encompass so many concepts. Lowenstein describes them as “motifs that have both grammatical and musical functions. Each motif contains a number of notes. In some ways, the cantillation signs act like the commas, colons, and periods of our writing system” (Lowenstein 179). While I still do not necessarily understand how they work because I am so used to the western style of documenting music, I find it to be one of the most interesting aspects of Jewish music.

One of the major themes of our class is the question of “what makes something Jewish?”  It is unfortunate that there is no real answer to this question in so far as it is not something you can learn and have a definitive answer, like math.  It is good that there is no answer though because it gets people thinking about the question and sparks debate.  In many ways this question is similar to philosophical debate, where people can have very strong opinions on the matter and will not change them no matter how reasonable the opposing side’s argument is.  I have a fairly strong opinion on the question at hand but I am going to focus on music as the example, even though I think it can almost be universally applied.

Essentially, I believe that what makes Jewish music Jewish is the context, in this case the lyrics.  The Jews have been around for so long and integrated into too many different cultures to have a standard, sweeping definition that applies to Jews in America, Yemen or wherever else a person is that considers themselves Jewish.  Think about the music we listened to in class Monday the 5^th.  The music from the Middle East sounded typical of any music from that area.  The song that almost sounded like an opera came from a trained opera singer.  The last two songs that are from our generation sound like songs that are playing on the radio.  The only thing that connects all of these songs is the lyrics.

Jewish music has to have something overtly Jewish about it, and the only thing that can do that is the lyrical content.  A lot of the songs we listened to were prayers and psalms, sung in a variety of ways with completely different instruments.  We even heard the same song a couple times, however they each sound completely different.  The only way these songs can be equated to being Jewish is the fact that they are songs are Jewish prayers.  Religion is not the only factor in the lyrics that makes a song Jewish though.  I consider the Matisyahu song we heard Jewish (yeah I know he talks about religion in it too) because he talks about Jewish history.  He mentions the Holocaust and the subsequent change to the face of Jewish Identity by being afraid and using the example of people changing their names.  The Eprhyme song I do not consider actually Jewish.  I could understand almost everything he was saying, and the only mention to Jewish culture was in the chorus with “crash like glass at a wedding.”  Other than that it was just his journey through the different genres of music he likes. If there was more of a mention to Jewish culture in any way then it could be possibly Jewish.  I would compare his music more to the Beastie Boys (not nearly as good), as it is clearly performed by a proud Jewish person but has no merit as a Jewish song.

And no, I do not believe just because a song is sung by a Jew makes it a Jewish song, like the one we heard the woman singing in Ladino.  I do not think anyone would consider Bob Dylan’s music prior to his born again period Jewish.  His music, even though possibly influenced by Jews, was just simply the music of a generation and culture with many other influences as well.  As for non-Jews singing what I qualify as Jewish songs, they would still be Jewish because of the content.  It works the other way around too.  “Oh Holy Night” is still a Christian song no matter if a Jew or a Muslim is singing it.

Last class we listened to samples of “Jewish” music, which included different clips from the Jewish High Holiday services and popular reggae “Jewish” music. What I found interesting was my own reaction to what I previously perceived as two separate types of music. The two pieces in particular that I am referring to are the Kol Nidre prayer, which occurs the during the service the night before Yom Kippur, and the song Jerusalem by Matisyahu, which is a reggae style song about not forgetting the city of Jerusalem.

While listening to the Kol Nidre prayer I found myself actually singing along in my head, because after all it does happen to be one of my favorite prayers of all time. It may seem weird to think that someone could have a prayer that is truly one of their favorites, but I would encourage anyone who isn’t familiar with it to just type it into YouTube and just listen to it. Now I feel that I must clarify even further that the Kol Nidre incantation, which I am referring to is from the traditional Ashkenazic service; and by Ashkenazic, I am referring to Jews that descend primarily from Eastern Europe and Russia. This prayer is a very emotional and soulful prayer, which is chanted and repeated three times and every year. While in services I tend to get chills, I am just absorbed into a trance (which is the best way I can describe it, although it might seem foreign to some); and in class I experienced a similar feeling even though I wasn’t in services. I guess I can explain my reaction to the connection I make personally with that prayer. That would explain how I started to feel the same way I did the week previously while listening to my Shliach Tzibbur (Cantor) chant the prayer.

While I listened to Jerusalem by Matisyahu, I experienced the similar feelings to when I listen to Kol Nidre. The feeling I got put me in a sort of Jewish trance, which made me think about my trip to Jerusalem only a few years ago. Matisyahu adapts some of his lyrics for that song directly from Psalm 137:5, which is why I make the claim that his music is Jewish. However, his music is enjoyed by the secular community as well.

Which causes me to ask, can both the secular and Jewish communities enjoy Jewish music, but have it still represent something uniquely special to Jews?

I would argue yes because, although non-Jews may enjoy the music of Matisyahu I believe that I am able to make a deeper connection to the songs. In the song Jerusalem, he makes an allusion to the Holocaust, “years gone by, about 60 / Burn in the oven in this century / And the gas tried to choke, but it couldn’t choke me”; and having been to the death camps in Poland, those lyrics strike a particular chord in me because they bring back those memories. The verse continues with,

“Change your name and your identity
Afraid of the truth and our dark history
Why is everybody always chasing me
Cut off the roots of your family tree
Don’t you know that’s not the way to be”,

which stresses that you should not forget your past, which is an ideal that I believe strongly in. Now I am unsure if that connection is the same to all Jew’s, I doubt it is, however, I would also wager that a non-Jew would be distanced even further from making a personal connection of that sort.

I just think that it is interesting that the soulful sorrowful lyrics of the Kol Nidre prayer and the powerful lyrics of Matisyahu can illicit similar reactions from me.