Topping the Charts: American Jewish Music Scales New Heights

American Jewish Committee
Sunday, 9 December 2001

Jewish musicians are producing more new music — with more variety and in more genres — than ever before, according to a feature article in the American Jewish Committee's American Jewish Year Book 2001. With over 400 artists and groups annually creating 250 new releases to supplement the 2,000 recordings currently available, Jewish music has become "a growth industry."

"The Jewish music being created, performed, preserved, and disseminated today in America not only reflects the vast changes that have taken place in American Jewish life, but represents a quintessentially American Jewish phenomenon," writes musicologist Mark Kligman.

In "Contemporary Jewish Music in America," the first article on Jewish music ever to appear in the Year Book., Kligman, associate professor of Jewish musicology at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, comprehensively examines the history and present-day landscape of American Jewish music.

"Jewish musical self-expression is on the upswing," declares Kligman. "Today, a wealth of Jewish musical styles allows American Jews to choose the music that expresses a particular dimension of Judaism — be it religious or secular or a combination of both."

In his essay, Kligman addresses:

-- the nature of American Jewish music;

-- the degree to which older European styles are retained and innovations made;

-- the identity of the new music's creators;

-- the function music plays in Jewish life; and

-- the reasons why it has become a growth industry.

HISTORY: Eastern Europeans originally brought Jewish music to the United States around the turn of the twentieth century. Genres were closely associated with their venues: cantorial music — the synagogue; Yiddish songs — theater or folk settings; klezmer — cultural events like weddings; Hassidic music — liturgical and paraliturgical occasions; and art music — the concert hall. Zionist songs appeared early in the century and gained momentum through the founding of Israel in 1948 and the Six-Day War of 1967.

Kligman chronicles Jewish musical styles as they lost and gained popularity and as they were influenced by trends within and without the Jewish world. Such trends included the American folk-song revival and the recording of original Hassidic melodies, both starting in the 1950s, the democratization of worship, and, most significantly, the appearance of the widely-recognized father of contemporary Jewish music, Shlomo Carlebach.

"Carlebach's most striking innovation was the blending of Hassidic song with folk music," Kligman asserts. He was the first to recognize that Jewish music is an effective vehicle to connect Jews to Judaism. "Carlebach's music and message provided a model for younger artists, particularly those in the religious denominations," Kligman adds.

TODAY: When surveying the contemporary Jewish musical landscape, Kligman notes, "Members of the postwar generation have developed an American Jewish music, a vehicle that distinguishes themselves from their parents, a new, positive expression of their Jewishness." New contexts shaped a new, diverse type of music, which contributed to the formation of a new kind of American Jewish culture.

Contemporary genres are both religious and secular:

-- Orthodox religious music represents at least half of all Jewish music available; about ten Orthodox musicians support themselves entirely through music, far more than any other style. Top performers play between 30 and 50 concerts a year. "The simple explanation for this growth is the rising number of right-wing yeshivah and Hassidic members of the Jewish community who do not listen to popular American music," writes Kligman. "And since activities such as watching television or attending the theater or a movie are also discouraged, their own music is virtually the sole means of entertainment."

Orthodox music incorporates styles as diverse as pop, rock, easy listening, blues, and country. Influential Orthodox musicians included the Carlebach-inspired folk groups Rabbi's Sons and D'veykus, and the rock- and bluegrass-playing Diaspora Yeshiva Band. Contemporary Orthodox musicians include the soft-rock balladeer Mordechai Ben David and the popular, message-song vocalist Avraham Fried.

-- Reform musicians have worked at revitalizing older, synagogue-based music, which they felt was too formal and out of date. Cantor Jeff Klepper and Rabbi Daniel Freelander exemplify a group of folk-rock musicians who, starting in the 1960s, introduced new liturgy based on the desire for an aesthetically satisfying, participatory musical style that was playable on guitar. "They remind us baby boomers of our youth days singing together at summer camp, on the college campus or at the protest rally," comments Freelander.

The most influential Reform musician has been Debbie Friedman, whose social-action songs make Judaism relevant to modern life, and many of which have entered the core repertoire of not just Reform but also Conservative and other Jewish movements. Her recordings are among the most widely sold in the Jewish market.

-- Most Conservative congregations still adhere to the traditional style and songs of the cantorate in their liturgy. For Conservative Jews, new music serves as entertainment rather than worship. Still, the group Safam, which performs cantorial and Hassidic music stylized in rock, pop, Latin and reggae rhythms, is widely popular.

-- In Jewish Renewal leader Rabbi Shefa Gold's music, participants repeat, in a meditative fashion, simple, easily learned musical phrases.

-- The revival of klezmer, begun in the late 1970s, was encouraged when major record labels began signing bands such as Brave Old World and Klezmatics and promoting them as 'world music.' "Klezmer is extremely popular among young Jews on the political left who do not identify religiously and do not desire to listen to the music produced by the Hebrew-speaking world of Israel and Zionism," observes Kligman.

-- Other genres with significant followings include Israeli popular music in vogue, among those on the Israeli folk-dancing circuit; Jewish choral music, such as the Zamir Chorale and its offshoots; concert hall art music of the type composed by Leonard Bernstein and, more recently, Pulitzer Prize-winner Aaron Jay Kernis; and Jewish music recorded by mainstream artists like jazz saxophonist Kenny G., violinist Itzhak Perlman, and theater and film stars Mandy Patinkin and Barbra Streisand.

Kligman closes by looking at current trends in American Jewish music, such as the magnitude of Hassidic influences and the commercial limitations of the Jewish market, and by looking ahead.

"Contemporary Jewish music reflects American Jewry's religious and cultural diversity and also shapes it by staking a claim to a synthesized contemporary Jewish identity," Kligman concludes. "The baby-boomer creators of the music accept, reject, and reshape the Eastern European heritage, showing a younger generation different ways of accommodating Jewish life and ideals to current challenges."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org