Why the New ‘Holocaust Music’ Is an Insult to Music—and to Victims of the Shoah

A recent wave of performances turns Jewish composers into shadow images defined only by their status as Hitler’s victims

By James Loeffler for Tablet Magazine

In the never-ending search for ways to remember the Holocaust, the newest media contrivance to appear is “Holocaust Music.” National Public Radio recently profiled an Italian conductor who has embarked on a quixotic campaign to record every note of music composed inside a Nazi concentration camp. Two months ago, New York’s Lincoln Center played host to the Defiant Requiem, a traveling revue that presents a dramatic reenactment of a performance of Verdi’s Requiem that took place in the Terezin concentration camp during World War II. The concert tour has crisscrossed the globe, with headquarters in a summer institute in the Czech Republic. A related documentary film has aired on PBS. On the face of it, these artistic efforts certainly sound legitimate. Aren’t they merely the musical analogue to the literature depicting the horrors of the Holocaust?

They are not. In fact, I’d argue that these efforts represent a tragically misconceived approach that distorts the memory of the Holocaust and slights the very musicians that they purport to honor.

The late Jewish philosopher Emil Fackenheim spoke of the 614th commandment: not to grant Hitler posthumous victories. Yet one of Hitler’s lasting achievements was to leave behind an anti-Semitic myth, acquired from Richard Wagner, that Jews possess no music of their own. Not only did the Holocaust send many composers into exile and worse, it also killed a decades-long effort to build a Jewish school in modern classical music.

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The Best Lullabies Turn Out to Be Jewish

 By Elissa Strauss


Like probably every mom ever, the arrival of my first child came along with the realization of just how many things I don’t know. One of these was lyrics to lullabies..

During pregnancy I was working on the assumption that I would be able to sing at least a couple lullabies nearly in-full. Instead, as I discovered after I gave birth, I could barely make it to, let alone past, verse two for most of them. Considering this is a time in life when most of us barely have time to brush our teeth, taking time to learn lyrics was most certainly not an option.

Fortunately for me, in his first few months my baby responded better to loud fast songs and erratic dancing – the kind of songs I can actually sing in-full. House favorites included Chumbawumba’s “Tubthumping” (you know it, “I get knocked down, but I get up again…), Britney Spear’s “Toxic” and perennial favorite, Hava Negila.

But eventually his taste became more pedestrian, and he started responding better to softer, more-soothing music to help him fall asleep. Still lyric-less, I began to hum. And hum and hum and hum. And then I realized I sounded like an orthodox man.

“Dai – Dai-Dai – dai dai – Dai – Dai – Dai,” I’d repeat over and over again, as his body slowly softened in my arms until, eventually, he was asleep.

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God Bless America—or, Mose and His Big Jewish Nose

 
We recently celebrated the 4th of July, so it’s time to join a rousing chorus of that great patriotic American anthem, "When Mose with His Nose Leads the Band."

What, you never heard of it? Maybe you know the tune by a different name: "God Bless America." Sure, the 2 songs share only 6 notes. (skip to 0:53 to hear them!) But they're the most important and familiar 6 notes in the whole song.

You probably know that "God Bless America" was written by the legendary Jewish tunesmith, Irving Berlin (née Israel Beilin). And you might know the song became popular during World War II, when it was sung by American songbook star Kate Smith.

What you likely don't know is that Berlin borrowed the first 6 notes – the ones behind the words "God bless America" – from the chorus of a minor 1906 vaudeville hit about a Jewish bandleader with a prominent schnoz.

A blatant stereotype, yes, but also a neat little musical phrase which, today, is sung at every baseball and hockey game in America. All hail Mose!

Cue the fireworks.

- Marc Davis

STING ROCKS AUSCHWITZ—wait, what?

 
Rock out, Auschwitz! Woohoo! Freebird!

Hold on there. Rock 'n' roll at Auschwitz? Yes, that Auschwitz. The scene of one of the most notorious mass murders in human history. A place where 1 million people—mostly Jews—were killed. One of the most horrifying places on Earth. And now—the home of a great rock 'n' roll festival! Roxanne!!

It's not your imagination. It happened this past weekend. Sting headlined a concert called Life Festival Oświęcim 2013. Yes, that’s the Polish town that hosted the infamous Nazi concentration camp. The concert promoted the message that "there's no place for anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of xenophobia."

A Polish cultural guide explained: "The music festival was created to demonstrate that there is more to the small city of Oświęcim than just the Auschwitz concentration camp, and to create more positive connections in the minds of visiting tourists."

Yes, more positive connections for tourists! Message in a Bottle! Encore! Raise your yahrzeit candles high! Meet you next year in Cambodia at the Pol Pot Smooth Jazz Fest.

- Marc Davis

Sick of Dancing Hasidim Playing Violins? Meet the New Baal Teshuvah Artists of Brooklyn.

 Orthodox Jews new to insular traditions try to integrate the two worlds of strict religion and artistic self-expression

By Sara Trapper Spielman for Tablet Magazine

Just a few miles from the central Chabad-Lubavitch community in Crown Heights, fashionably dressed Orthodox men and women in their 20s and 30s mingled in the candle-lit hall of the Roulette Theater last week, tasting wine from the bar and food from waiters’ stations to benefit Lamplighters, the borough’s Chabad Montessori school. The entertainment spotlighted performers who are baal teshuvahs—a small but influential movement of incoming Chabad artists who are reinventing the arts in the Hasidic community. Noah Lubin, a 33-year-old musician, painter, and art teacher living in a Chabad community in Boston, unveiled 15 original paintings that evening inspired by the children of Lamplighters, which has been revolutionizing educational standards in Crown Heights with its focus on art, Montessori materials, and a dual curriculum that integrates Torah and secular subjects. Headlining the show was musical performer Levi Robin, who just completed a 25-city North American tour this year opening for Jewish reggae star Matisyahu. His solo performance at Roulette, the first one since his tour, included an acoustic guitar and original tunes sung with a raspy voice and ethereal sound that held the audience captive for almost an hour.

During an interview after he left the stage, Robin described his music as “simple songs of a simple man,” reflective of an inner journey he took as a 17-year-old after his band that played in Hollywood clubs dismantled. “I looked deep inside myself, and everything changed dramatically,” Robin said. “There’s a direct correlation between my songwriting and becoming religious.” He admitted his poetic songs are not the typical Jewish sound of stars in the Orthodox world, whose music is often based on traditional European melodies, but he added that he “can’t put my finger on anything not Jewish” about the songs. “Being a Jew is an inner experience of growing in this context. I’m trying to tap into my American roots and express my American Jewish journey.” Robin’s performance followed a mixed-race band (two Hasidic singers and guitarists in the center with an African-American violinist and cellist on either side), led by Hasidic singer Moshe Hecht, whose son attends Lamplighters.

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