Defiantly Optimistic
How fitting that we conclude the 2024 Holiday Season with Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. We have spent the month exploring illumination—both the literal return of sunlight following the Winter Solstice, and the metaphorical light we seek in the darkness of hatred, bigotry, and greed that defines our new political reality. The allegorical, daily, additive light of the menorah notwithstanding, Jews know a thing or two about finding light in the darkness.
Perhaps this is why I am so attracted to the music of my ancestors. Klezmer, the traditional music of Ashkenazi Jews, is the quintessential manifestation of this duality. Composed predominantly in semitic scales, there's a sort of ubiquitous melancholy to its harmonic progressions—unexpectedly dark in the places we anticipate brightness. Melodies transpire in complex entanglements of tight, chromatic intervals, rendering cadences (resolutions) eminently satisfying—but also hard-won. There's an inherent soulfulness to Klezmer that remains defiantly optimistic against all the odds of its own, Jewish history.
In a world where neo-Nazis are platformed by both the world's richest man and POTUS-elect, where dog-whistles about "globalism" reinforce Jews as the universal scapegoats, and where the authoritarian head of the Jewish State wages genocide against Palestinians—radicalizing against Jews entire populations who will never delineate between Jewish identity and the war crimes of a corrupt administration—I think we all could use a little Klezmer. This Sunday, we celebrate Hanukkah infused with UU love, light, optimism, and our everlasting support to all marginalized people. My wonderful wife, Kaitlyn, and mother, Jodie, will join me in singing and playing Drey Dreydl—which will surely become your new favorite dreidel song; Jacob Hoffman's haunting "Der Yiddisher N'shome-Ruf" (The Call of the Jewish Soul); the great Klezmer love song "Di Sapozhkelekh" (Little Boots); and conclude with the exhilarating "Kalá Kallá" (Light Bride) from Eric Whitacre's Five Hebrew Love Songs. Together, we will sing hymn #222: "Mi Y'Malel” and take a detour to Scotland to ring in the new year with the venerated "Auld Lang Syne."
I wish you a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year of good health, irrepressible joy, stubborn optimism, a healthy dose of resistance, and the eternal light of love.
David
Perhaps this is why I am so attracted to the music of my ancestors. Klezmer, the traditional music of Ashkenazi Jews, is the quintessential manifestation of this duality. Composed predominantly in semitic scales, there's a sort of ubiquitous melancholy to its harmonic progressions—unexpectedly dark in the places we anticipate brightness. Melodies transpire in complex entanglements of tight, chromatic intervals, rendering cadences (resolutions) eminently satisfying—but also hard-won. There's an inherent soulfulness to Klezmer that remains defiantly optimistic against all the odds of its own, Jewish history.
In a world where neo-Nazis are platformed by both the world's richest man and POTUS-elect, where dog-whistles about "globalism" reinforce Jews as the universal scapegoats, and where the authoritarian head of the Jewish State wages genocide against Palestinians—radicalizing against Jews entire populations who will never delineate between Jewish identity and the war crimes of a corrupt administration—I think we all could use a little Klezmer. This Sunday, we celebrate Hanukkah infused with UU love, light, optimism, and our everlasting support to all marginalized people. My wonderful wife, Kaitlyn, and mother, Jodie, will join me in singing and playing Drey Dreydl—which will surely become your new favorite dreidel song; Jacob Hoffman's haunting "Der Yiddisher N'shome-Ruf" (The Call of the Jewish Soul); the great Klezmer love song "Di Sapozhkelekh" (Little Boots); and conclude with the exhilarating "Kalá Kallá" (Light Bride) from Eric Whitacre's Five Hebrew Love Songs. Together, we will sing hymn #222: "Mi Y'Malel” and take a detour to Scotland to ring in the new year with the venerated "Auld Lang Syne."
I wish you a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year of good health, irrepressible joy, stubborn optimism, a healthy dose of resistance, and the eternal light of love.
David
Posted in Music Notes