American Jewish Musicians and the Jewish Tradition

By Simeon Cohen
List College

"My so-called Jewish roots are in Egypt. They went down there with Joseph and they came back with Moses, you know, the guy that killed the Egyptian, married an Ethiopian girl and brought the law down from the mountain." Bob Dylan

Jews are often lauded for their achievements in the major intellectual fields, including the sciences (Einstein), literature (Roth), and even philosophy (Spinoza). Equally as impressive is the number of Jewish achievements in the cultural realm. Jews can claim as their own everyone from Jerry Schuster and Joel Siegel (the creators of the comic-book hero, Superman) to Larry David (of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame). However, the number of Jews who have made an impact on popular music arguably constitutes the most significant Jewish cultural contribution of all.

Since the onset of modernity, Jews have made a major impact on the music of the Western world. However, Judaism's connection to music dates back to an era which precedes the modern one by several thousand years. As Eric Werner writes in his essay "The Jewish Contribution to Music," "Even in biblical times, the Jewish people must have enjoyed an outstanding reputation as a musical nation…an Assyrian document tells us that King Sennacherib demanded and received and received as tribute from King Hezekiah many Jewish musicians, male and female."

Music also played an essential role in Temple ritual; in fact, the Second Temple even had an organ. "The organ was used regularly in the Second Temple and is called in Magrepha in Talmudic literature…it seems that its sound was powerful enough to be heard far outside Jerusalem." After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, control of music in the Jewish world shifted to the cantors or hazzanim (an institution which took hold in a significant way for the first time during the Gaonic period). Yet, everything described thus far can be categorized under the heading of what Werner refers to as Jewish "folk music," which he feels stands in stark contrast to works of music composed by individuals who happen to be Jews. "The musical contributions of Jews lie chiefly in the realm of collective and anonymous folk music, the basis of its musical culture. On the other hand, individual composers of Jewish birth concerned themselves, naturally, with the art music of their time and environment."

While Werner's assertion may be true to a large extent, I find his black-and-white compartmentalization of what he considers to be the two varieties of Jewish music to be a bit too rigid. To me, it seems that the two categories are not hermetically sealed, but rather, are in constant engagement with each other. If the Jewish folk music tradition did not exist, then it is unlikely that there would be as many Jewish musicians as there are, as it is often through the Jewish folk-tradition that these musicians are exposed to music for the first time in a significant way.

This notion is exemplified by Mike Gordon, the bassist of the seminal improvisational rock quartet Phish and a graduate of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Newton, Massachusetts. The music to which Gordon was exposed while at Schechter made a profound impact on him and eventually, several of the songs he learned there, including the traditional Jewish liturgical piece Avinu Malkenu and the Zionist anthem Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, made their way into Phish's repertoire. "‘At Schechter,' Gordon explains, ‘we always had morning services, sang birkat hamazon [blessing after the meal] and everything else. A handful of melodies circulated and Avinu Malkenu stuck in my head. It was pretty much my idea to start playing it as a band.'" Strengthening the connection between the Jewish folk-music tradition and individual art, Gordon also says that "‘I've always compared my movements on stage to davening [praying]…‘To me, music has always served as that type of religious release.'" Thus, just as the ancient Temple priests and the hazzanim of the Gaonic period used music to connect with God in a spiritual sense, so does Mike Gordon of Phish. In doing so, he utilizes a key facet of the Jewish folk-music tradition and applies it to his individual art.

Another major example of this type of integration between the two categories is Matisyahu, who integrates traditional Jewish (particularly Hasidic) themes into his reggae-infused rap. Yet to me, the musician who relates to his Jewish heritage in the most interesting way is the Jane's Addiction/Porno For Pyros front-man and Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrel (born Peretz Bernstein). After quoting Leviticus 25 (specifically the verse about the sound of the trumpet welcoming in the jubilee year) in the afterword to Guy Oseary's Jews Who Rock, Farrell says the following: "The parsha Behar in Vayikra (Leviticus 25-27) has inspired me beyond all other writings and I am working to bring in the Jubilee for our generation." Like Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Billy Joel before him, Perry Farrel is an American Jewish rock musician. Yet unlike his predecessors, Farrell explicitly states what those before him have only implied—he is attempting to accomplish the same end as the Jewish folk-music tradition, (according to Farrell, both the biblical trumpet and Jane's Addiction are working towards heralding the "Jubilee year") through the means of his individual art. No longer are Werner's two categories separate and distinct. As Farrell indicates, the two have now converged and it seems that, at least for the foreseeable future, they will remain on the same trajectory.

Simeon Cohen will be starting his junior year at List College in the fall, studying history and Jewish philosophy.

[Posted 7/21/09]