An American Folksinger With A Hasidic Twist

When you first listen to Levi Robin's tender, breathy vocals and hypnotic fingerpicking, what comes to mind is likely Iron & Wine or Bob Dylan. But if you close your eyes and listen to the lyrics, you might be surprised.
Instead of odes to long-haired beauties and urban chaos, Robin, a 21-year-old Lubavitcher Hasidic folksinger, delivers tried-and-true paeans of spiritual gratitude and God-longing.
One song, the upbeat "No Worries," reads like something out of a Rebbe Nachman tale, with the "bird who sings a song of a lost kingdom." Others are sprinkled with mentions of lion's dens, longings for a promised land, and a call to "open your arms, release the bound"—a line straight out of the morning prayers.
Is acoustic folk ready for a Hasidic takeover? Can a bearded man with sidelocks and a yarmulke rise to the top of the Billboard charts? Sounds unlikely, but it's certainly happened before.
- Elie Lichtschein for Jewniverse

A Hasidic Alt-Rock Girl Band Gets Its Groove On—In Crown Heights

Sorry, guys. Bulletproof Stockings—drummer Dalia Shusterman and singer-songwriter Perl Wolfe—plays for women only.

By Vox Tablet

In 2011, adventure-seeking rock drummer-turned-Hasidic mother of four Dalia Shusterman became a widow. At about the same time, Perl Wolfe, born and raised in the Lubavitch sect of Hasidism, married and divorced, was living with her parents and beginning to write her own music. A few months later, the two women would meet in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and soon after that, begin recording their first EP, titled “Down to the Top.”

Their band name, Bulletproof Stockings—a somewhat derogatory term used to refer to the opaque stockings worn by some Orthodox women—hints at their insider status as Hasidic women, and also at a kind of freedom or irreverence they bring to their enterprise.

Bulletproof Stockings, which also includes cellist Elisheva Maistser, performs for women only, in keeping with kol isha, the prohibition on men hearing women sing that is adhered to among Orthodox Jews. They also dress modestly, as is customary in the Lubavitch community to which they belong. But when playing music, they are not contained. They can be loud and raucous and sooner find common ground with the likes of Jane’s Addiction or the Throwing Muses than with Keren Ann. For that, they've attracted attention well beyond their Crown Heights enclave.

Listen to a talk with Vox Tablet’s Sara Ivry about their musical backgrounds, about ways their faith gets expressed in their music, and about why it’s so important for women to have opportunities to rock out without any guys around. [Running time: 24:46.]

Listen here.

The Temptations Do Fiddler on the Roof

You've heard "Matchmaker, Matchmaker," and you might even know half the lyrics, but you've probably never heard as groovy a take as The Temptations'.

Though best known for their number 1 hit, My Girl, the Temptations' discography is actually incredibly extensive, and in 1969 they joined Diana Ross & the Supremes for a program called GIT on Broadway ("GIT" stood for Getting It Together). The show featured both groups singing some classic Broadway showtunes, including this disco-inspired medley of songs from Fiddler on the Roof.

The surviving video gives a great sense of their far-out renditions of classics like "Sunrise, Sunset" and "If I Were A Rich Man." Our favorite, though, is their soulful and cheeky take on "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" at 5:50.

Break out your bellbottoms and dance along with The Temptations as they bring a whole new vibe to the musical you know and love.

-Tamar Fox

Revolution and Evolution of the American Cantor

Sound of Judaism Has Changed Radically in the Past 30 Years 

By Jenna Weissman Joselit for forward.com 

It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads the Forward that American Jewish life is awash in change, much of it far-reaching and monumental. Most of us can catalog those changes in a flash: intermarriage, the waning support of traditional Jewish charities, an increasingly contested relationship with Israel. But there are other, equally wrenching changes afoot that have not yet garnered the attention they deserve, perhaps because they take place right under our noses and within close range: I have in mind the re-tuning of the American Jewish soundscape, especially that associated with prayer.

Synagogues across the country, and across denominations, too, are rethinking the role of the cantor and with it the nature of the Sabbath and holiday service. Where once formally trained cantors, well-schooled in nusach (traditional liturgy), held sway, more and more congregations are dispensing with them altogether, placing their faith instead in one of their own. Formality has given way to informality; the guitar has supplanted the tuning fork and improvisation trumps stewardship.

Outside the precincts of the sanctuary, within the byways of middle-class, American Jewish life, professionalization is de rigueur. But within the sanctuary, the pendulum has swung in another direction, so much so that it wouldn’t be amiss to speak of the de-professionalization of the cantorate.

Some of this has to do with the growing popularity of independent minyanim, lay-led congregations whose members prefer to go it alone, relegating the clergy to the sidelines. It’s also a reflection, I suspect, of the open- or crowdsourced approach to life in the 21st century, whose enormous appeal inevitably spills over from the quotidian into the sacred. Then again, we might do just as well to look to the recent past for explanations, which is where a website comes into play.

 Continue reading.