My
earliest memories of attending Bar Mitzvah and wedding parties back in the late
50’s and early 60’s include “flash backs” to undulating waves of guests in
circles within circles, holding hands and dancing to “Hava Nagilah,” and
“Tzena, Tzena, Tzena.” The first few strains from the band brought everyone to
their feet (after kicking off their shoes) and running to the center of the
room. Everyone knew the words, and everyone sang. It wasn’t a “Jewish affair”
without these songs. There was electricity in the air as guests from all over
the country were united by a common thread of Jewish (and Israeli) Pride.
Then,
Israel was a new state, so new in fact, that it didn’t have a national “sound”
reflecting the youth and energy of a new nation. Then Pete Seeger’s recording
of “Tzena, Tzena, Tzena” was released in 1950. It captured that new spirit and
was an immediate success, going straight to the top of the charts. I watched a
video clip of “Tzena” on TV from 1951, and it was introduced this way, “If
you’ve been dancing to this song for the past year, you should know that it
comes from the new state of Israel.”
English lyrics were added along with the Hebrew.
On
Christmas Eve, 1955, Pete Seeger and The Weavers had a “comeback” performance
at Carnegie Hall, having been blacklisted by the music industry after Seeger’s
appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committe. Sung during this
concert, in addition to the very popular “Tzena” were other Hebrew songs
including “Shalom Chaverim,” and “Mi
Yimalel.” Two albums came out of this concert and, as we say today, “went
viral.”
As for that other standard, “Hava Nagila?” That was popularized by Harry Belafonte,
in his concert “Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall” in 1959. It became the
lifetime standard of his career. When interviewed about the impact of Hava
Nagila in his life, he told the writer John Leland in his book Hip: The History, “Life is not
worthwhile without it. Most Jews in America learned that song from me.”
The
impact of Seeger and Belafonte on American and Canadian Jews cannot be
underestimated. Israeli folk dancing, Israeli music, and Jewish pride in the
new State of Israel erupted. Their voices swerved us from the despair and
victimhood of World War II to the elation of Israeli Independence.
The
rest, as they say, is history. College
students all over America started singing the songs and grasped on to the Folk
Music Revolution. (Note: Seeger’s father was a Harvard musicologist and Pete
had traveled with his dad on many of his folk music collecting forays.) These college students then started working
at Jewish summer camps. They taught the
songs to campers who then brought them back to their communities. Some campers and counselors went on to become
professional Song Leaders, Youth Leaders, Rabbis, and Cantors in congregations
and camps all over America. And through this Jewish Folk Music revival came a
new industry filled with recordings by fabulous, dedicated songwriters and
musicians who shaped the modern Zionist and religious music of the Reform and
Conservative movements. They brought the
guitars, the drums, the pianos, the tambourines and “ruach” (spirit) and moved
us from a minor to a major key.
Now,
can someone explain to me exactly WHY we dance “The Macarena,” “The Electric
Slide,” “The Chicken Dance” and “YMCA” at Bar Mitzvahs and Jewish Weddings?
Shabbat
Shalom,
Rabbi
Rose
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