The Political and Social Ramifications of the Revival
“The importance of memory and remembrance in Jewish life and ritual has been much noted. That which is remembered lives on, while the forgotten dies” (Slobin, 80). This was exemplified in the life and work of Ben Bazyler, a Jewish musician from Warsaw, Poland who in his youth was a member of the Di Kalushiner Klezmurim, a Jewish folk orchestra centered in the town of Kalushin, Poland. During World War II, Bazyler spent 7 years in Siberian prison camps, and remained the only survivor in his family after the war ended. Bazyler later settled in the United States with his wife and children and as the lone surviving musician of the Di Kalushiner Klezmurin, Bazyler felt compelled to continue the musical traditions that he had performed with this group. “Like many immigrants, Bazyler’s attitudes towards the past were often ambivalent” (Slobin, 81). For Bazyler, his attachment to traditional Jewish Klezmer music was a tool used for reconciling his past and present experience. Through performance of traditional klezmer, Bazyler was “recounting and recreating not only the music, but also the setting, the characters, and the episodes of all the milieux of his life,” and doing so in the context of a group of younger musicians who were interested in reviving this music tradition (Slobin, 82). Although this dichotomy drove Bazyler to bring klezmer to a generation of new musicians, it also caused him much pain in recalling events from his past and Bazyler eventually took his own life in 1990.
Following World War II, there was a large influx of Jewish immigrants into the United States. Around the 1970s, “there seemed to be an unquenchable thirst for Yiddish music, as if it would fill the void created when American Jews divested themselves of their ethnicity in order to assimilate into the mass culture” (Slobin, 208). In other words, the klezmer revival began. However, klezmer music had varying meanings for both the musicians and their audience. For some, “it’s an outgrown of their secular, cultural, Jewish identity, while for others, it’s an expression of Jewish spirituality” (Slobin, 209). Svigals (in Slobin) notes that three movements emerged around this time for those Jews who rejected the assimilationist model of the past and sought to create a sense of Jewish identity and community. The Havurah/Jewish Renewal approach includes religious observance but without observance of old world traditions, and the cultural secularist model (“Yiddishism”), for the most part discards religious observance. On the other hand, the Ba’al T’shuvah movements embrace both the culture and religion of the past as a source of identity and community. “There’s something ironic – and very American – about the Jewish renewal and the secular Yiddish movements, since they both depend upon a notion of the separability of religion and culture that didn’t exist in Jewish life” (Slobin, 214). The original klezmorim themselves were likely not very progressive. However, the appeal of klezmer to secular American Jews may be due to the fact that “klezmer music, being textless, is as close as we can get to secular Jewish music (Slobin, 215).
The revival and resurgence of klezmer music as it occurred in the 1970’s, “provided a kind of sound track for the reawakening of American ethnic identity and the sense of its being linked to yidishkayt (cultural “Jewishness”). Klezmer has taken many forms throughout the years. This is well exemplified by a comparison of the klezmer bands, Klezmorim and Brave Old World. The Klezmorim, founded in 1975, was of the first Yiddish bands to become active in the movement and was influenced by the current culture of the time in California, where it originated. As a result, Klezmorim began experimenting with a combination of klezmer music and performance art, including shtick such as “performing in fezzes and tossing rubber chickens into the crowd…Yes, we did conduct a mock Socialist rally, holy-roller revivalist meeting, and kabuki drama onstage” (Slobin, 193). However, this style of klezmer was not well received by the American Jewish audience, “which brought to the music certain expectations of ‘authenticity’ based on what they had heard from older recordings and at celebrations” (Slobin, 194). Some called into question whether klezmorim’s music did in fact constitute what is known as “klezmer”. The music of Brave Old World arose in part as a reaction to the current political climate, a time where the Jewish community’s identity was often “Israeli-oriented”, and Brave Old World’s songs often feature Yiddish lyrics, which address a specific political agenda. Their music has been described as offering, “an alternative mode of Jewish consciousness…severs Yiddish language and Yiddish music from the nostalgic, “schmaltzy”, connotations, instead linking them to the development of anti-Zionist sentiment and radical political consciousness (Slobin, 200). Brave Old World went farther to comment on social rights issues such as gay rights, “expressing solidarity with ‘all those who strive for just and pluralistic societies’” (Slobin, 203). Whether deviating from or conforming to traditional conceptions of klezmer music, “klezmer musicians find themselves a valued, if appropriated and somewhat anomalous, symbol of Jewishness” (Slobin, 203).
Following World War II, there was a large influx of Jewish immigrants into the United States. Around the 1970s, “there seemed to be an unquenchable thirst for Yiddish music, as if it would fill the void created when American Jews divested themselves of their ethnicity in order to assimilate into the mass culture” (Slobin, 208). In other words, the klezmer revival began. However, klezmer music had varying meanings for both the musicians and their audience. For some, “it’s an outgrown of their secular, cultural, Jewish identity, while for others, it’s an expression of Jewish spirituality” (Slobin, 209). Svigals (in Slobin) notes that three movements emerged around this time for those Jews who rejected the assimilationist model of the past and sought to create a sense of Jewish identity and community. The Havurah/Jewish Renewal approach includes religious observance but without observance of old world traditions, and the cultural secularist model (“Yiddishism”), for the most part discards religious observance. On the other hand, the Ba’al T’shuvah movements embrace both the culture and religion of the past as a source of identity and community. “There’s something ironic – and very American – about the Jewish renewal and the secular Yiddish movements, since they both depend upon a notion of the separability of religion and culture that didn’t exist in Jewish life” (Slobin, 214). The original klezmorim themselves were likely not very progressive. However, the appeal of klezmer to secular American Jews may be due to the fact that “klezmer music, being textless, is as close as we can get to secular Jewish music (Slobin, 215).
The revival and resurgence of klezmer music as it occurred in the 1970’s, “provided a kind of sound track for the reawakening of American ethnic identity and the sense of its being linked to yidishkayt (cultural “Jewishness”). Klezmer has taken many forms throughout the years. This is well exemplified by a comparison of the klezmer bands, Klezmorim and Brave Old World. The Klezmorim, founded in 1975, was of the first Yiddish bands to become active in the movement and was influenced by the current culture of the time in California, where it originated. As a result, Klezmorim began experimenting with a combination of klezmer music and performance art, including shtick such as “performing in fezzes and tossing rubber chickens into the crowd…Yes, we did conduct a mock Socialist rally, holy-roller revivalist meeting, and kabuki drama onstage” (Slobin, 193). However, this style of klezmer was not well received by the American Jewish audience, “which brought to the music certain expectations of ‘authenticity’ based on what they had heard from older recordings and at celebrations” (Slobin, 194). Some called into question whether klezmorim’s music did in fact constitute what is known as “klezmer”. The music of Brave Old World arose in part as a reaction to the current political climate, a time where the Jewish community’s identity was often “Israeli-oriented”, and Brave Old World’s songs often feature Yiddish lyrics, which address a specific political agenda. Their music has been described as offering, “an alternative mode of Jewish consciousness…severs Yiddish language and Yiddish music from the nostalgic, “schmaltzy”, connotations, instead linking them to the development of anti-Zionist sentiment and radical political consciousness (Slobin, 200). Brave Old World went farther to comment on social rights issues such as gay rights, “expressing solidarity with ‘all those who strive for just and pluralistic societies’” (Slobin, 203). Whether deviating from or conforming to traditional conceptions of klezmer music, “klezmer musicians find themselves a valued, if appropriated and somewhat anomalous, symbol of Jewishness” (Slobin, 203).