Nostalgia

I keep saying that nostaligia isn't what it used to be, but the truth is that cleaning out the house for Pesach allows one to find all sorts of things from the past.

One of the things I dug up was a video of a TV programme made by TVNZ about being a Jewish teenager in New Zealand. It was for 'Viewfinder' which was a teenage magazine programme. And guess who the teenage Jews were that they used for the show? Me and brother Michael.

I managed to turn the video into a DVD and uploaded it to youtube. So if you want a laugh, or remember the 80s, have a look at this:



Chag Kasher v'Sameach

PS In the clip I am teaching why we have an egg on the seder plate. Luckily they cut the film before the bit where I said "Actually, I have no idea!" I've learnt from my mistakes, and now know why we have an egg on the seder plate (and it is nothing to do with the Easter bunny!)

What's worse than Jewish music?

NOTHING! Not even the original dodgy 70s disco eurovision pop song that it was ripped off from!

[caution: possible kol isha warning! and definite dodgy 70s disco warning!!]



(I know this is old news, but I thought this edit was well done. The only problem is that I have had this tune in my head for the past 24 hours!!!)


On the other hand, if you want some real Jewish music, check out Blog in Dm. A great collection of everything good in the Jewish music scene today. (and Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water')

Back to the disco:

Wikipedia know all about them

Dschinghis Khan (Pronounced "Jingis" Khan (IPA pronunciation: 'dʒɪŋ.ɪs kaːn)) was a German pop band, created in 1979 to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. The name of the band was chosen to fit the song of the same name, written and produced by Ralph Siegel with lyrics by Bernd Meinunger.

Appearing at the height of the disco boom and following on the heels of other German-produced bands such as Boney M, Arabesque, and Silver Convention, the band achieved wide popularity throughout the world, especially in Europe, Russia, Australia and Japan, though they went wholly unnoticed in the United States. Their songs invariably were themed on historical figures and exotic cultures and locales.

Though the group broke up in the mid-1980s, it has enjoyed a recent resurgence in popularity on the Internet due to the discovery of a video of them performing their hit song Moskau. The video and the song associated with it have become a popular topic on blogs and can be considered an Internet fad. The specific video was a part of the show "Disco", very popular on ZDF through the 70s.

On Wikipedia they even know the truth about this song:

The Yiddish song on Jerusalem Not For Sale (1986) (with chorus, "Yidden, Yidden") is an adaption of "Dschinghis Khan" (English: Genghis Khan), from the German band Dschinghis Khan.

I like... being Jewish

I like music. When I say that I don't mean that I only like a specific kind of music (for example only music in D minor, or only microtonal music). True, there are some kinds of music that I don't like, but many more that I do like. And even those that I don't like, I am prepared (to a certain extent) to give them a go.
I like heavy rock though I don't like death metal
I like Bach and Beethoven but strongly dislike Gamelan music
I like reggae but I don't like hip hop or rap
I like sixties acoustic, but I don't like free form jazz
I like Ladysmith Black Mambazo but I don't like Miami Boys Choir
I like Billy Bragg but I don't like the cover versions of his songs
I like punk but not all the aggro that goes with it
I like glam rock but not David Bowie's attitude to Jews

But what do you do with someone like Fish, or Marrilion, or even Dream Theatre? They don't fit neatly into any category, except that I like them all.
Having labels for music is kind of useful when you have to chose an online radio station to listen to, or when you want to find the right bin with the CDs that you like, but it is more useless than useful, because the bands and people I like could be in several different categories.

Which is why I just like music. There are even moments when i can put up with Abba. It is much better (I think) to avoid the labels and categories, and just get on with the tunes.

Yet people seem to have a need for labels. And this is most damaging when it comes to Judaism. We can't just be 'Jewish' but have to be Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, New Age Atheist Jewish etc. Within each group (but mainly within Orthodoxy) we have more and more refined definitions. Chasidic, chareidi, modern chareidi, modern orthodox, traditional orthodox, etc.
I posted the link to the quiz to find out what kind of Jew you are. I enjoyed the questions and thought it was cute. But the best result was the person who scored exactly the same in almost every category. In other words, just plain Jewish without any labels.
It gets worse, because some people think that those who don't fit into their category are no longer Jewish. In the same way that I struggle to see how some of John Cage's stuff (or most Jewish music) is really music, they can't understand how someone who looks or thinks differently can still be Jewish. We all know that the Second Temple was destroyed because people invalidated those who had a different hashkafa than they did (look at the Netziv's introduction to Haemek Davar). But nothing seems to have changed since then.
At Sinai, we all stood around the mountain, each tribe in its place. This means that each tribe and each individual had a slightly different perspective on what happened there. Each person saw and heard something slightly different than anyone else. This is because there are multiple paths to Torah. As long as we are facing Sinai and trying our best to relate to G-d and people in the best way, we can agree to disagree.
I was speaking to someone the other night who claims to not be chareidi. But he isn't anything else either. He suggested making a new category called 'Askan' for people who just get on with it and do things, rather than worry about labels. I think that is a great idea.
Let's all be Jewish, and appreciate that there are many paths to Torah and to serving G-d.

Sorry for the rant, but where else if not a blog.