We seem to be living in the age of the “reboot,” when people can’t get enough fresh takes on old tales. And the word “Hanukkah” might even be creatively translated as such. This year’s hit collection of holiday covers and originals, HANUKKAH+, includes the likes of Jack Black, Yo La Tengo, and Loudon Wainwright III, […]
Read MoreOver the last hundred years, Hanukkah has swelled in significance and popularity among the American Jewish community. In a twist, this trend strangely seems to suit the ancient rabbinic injunction that the holiday miracle ought to be publicized far and wide. In the last decade, social media has provided countless opportunities for increasingly creative, occasionally […]
Read MoreJewish communities can be found all over the world and can be heard speaking many different languages. Ladino is the vernacular favored by many Jews of Sephardic (Spanish) descent. Also called “Judaeo-Spanish,” it contains elements of Hebrew, Greek, and various Balkan dialects as well. The Bosnian-born songwriter Flory Jagoda brings us this infectious, sultry ode […]
Read MoreThis medieval poem so closely associated with Hanukkah is often sung to a triumphant, march-like tune based on a German drinking song. Benedetto Marcello, a Venetian contemporary of Vivaldi, composed this wandering, evocative melody that gives new life to the notion of “rededicating the altar” (since “rededication” is a literal translation of the Hebrew word […]
Read MoreHot a gitn Khanike! This week we’re sampling just a smattering of Hanukkah music from around the world and across time. The great 20th century cantor and Yiddish film star Moishe Oysher released a number of self-titled Jewish holiday LPs, including the Moishe Oysher Chanukah Party (1950) narrated by his young daughter Shoshana who, as we hear her […]
Read MoreJacob’s true love Rachel and favored child Joseph arrive just in time for the fourth day of Sukkot. Unlike our previous pairs this week, these two are mother and son, and are absolutely crying out for this vaudeville classic to be featured today.
Read MoreOn the third day of Sukkot, Jews welcome the spirits of Jacob and his first wife Leah, the “baby momma” for most of his children and older sister of his true love Rachel (who visits us tomorrow). Rabbinic and scholarly commentaries across the centuries are rife with interpretations about Jacob’s relationship with his wives.
Read MoreIsaac and Rebekah, the ushpizin (sacred ancestral spirits) Jews welcome on the second day of Sukkot, are notorious for the all-too human dimensions of their relationship. The Torah describes Rebekah atop a camel, beautifully dressed, on her way to meet Isaac for the first time. She is so smitten by him that she falls off the camel, a veritable victim of love at first sight.
Read MoreThis week, Jewish communities all over the world are exhaling, having made it to the end of the High Holiday season. Today begins Sukkot, an eight-day festival filling a number of purposes: the Biblical account of surviving 40 years in the wilderness; the bounty of the fall harvest; and, perhaps most importantly, the miracle of life in all its fragile, temporal beauty.
Read MoreThis most iconic and instantly recognizable sacred Jewish song has had a lot of treatments over the many centuries it’s been around. While the Aramaic lyrics are quite a mouthful even for a native Hebrew speaker, a surprising number of mainstream pop singers have tried to make the prayer their own, including Al Jolson, Neil Diamond, Perry Como – and Johnny Mathis! In this revealing interview, he describes Kol Nidrei as “…so emotionally driven that I got, I would say, 95% of the words correct.” As I do my best to make this prayer my own tonight, together with cantors all over the world, I will try to remember what inspired Johnny to do the same.
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