Jewish Songs and Non-Jewish Jewish Songs

By Jacob Kieval
Washington University in St. Louis

As a member of a Jewish a cappella group, I am constantly on the lookout for good Jewish music. It can be a complicated issue. The rules of my group (for the purposes of an obvious plug, we're Staam, from Washington University in St. Louis) are that we can only sing songs that are in Hebrew, dealing with Jewish subject matter or written by Jewish artists—after all, like all a cappella groups, we're contractually obligated to sing a Guster or Billy Joel song every now and then.

A lot of the Hebrew songs we end up singing are Israeli pop songs. Ofra Haza's "Zodiac," Shotey HaNevua's "Ein Ani," Hadag Nachash's "Shirat HaSticker"—camp favorites, all. Lately I've been thinking about these songs. Most American Jews know them, and they've become staples of the Jewish youth culture in America. But are they really Jewish songs? You won't find much Jewish subject matter in them: "Shirat HaSticker" takes its lyrics entirely from various bumper stickers seen around Israel, while "Zodiac" is about, you know, that cycle of symbols, where they get horoscopes from…well, I forget what it's called. The point is, these are as secular as any given pop song.

Of course, this is not the case for all artists. Idan Raichel, famous in Israel and throughout the world, has drawn inspiration for several of his songs from passages in the Tanakh, and his music brings together several different cultures and religions. All over the place I've heard The Chevra, an American Jewish group, and their Backstreet Boy-esque take on the Kaddish, "Yehai Yehai." The reggae/rap/beatboxing sensation Matisyahu sends a message of Orthodox Judaism and the glory of God in almost all of his songs and in his career as a whole.

What I'm trying to say through all this is not that Matisyahu's music is Jewish and Shotey HaNevua's is not, but that all of it is; all of this music combines to form a Jewish culture of music that is uniquely our own. I think it's remarkable the way this culture has evolved over the years. In our grandparents' generation, American Jewish kids had limited access to Jewish culture through music; most of it was about going back to Israel, or Shlomo Carlebach-like tunes for popular prayers in the siddur. Since then, especially thanks to the development of modern Hebrew and the establishment of the State of Israel, Jewish summer camps and USY conventions are full of a rich variety of music that is part of our culture. Whether it's the spiritual rock interpretations of Jewish prayers performed by Blue Fringe, the more general teenage pop music of Tami or the somewhere-in-between compositions of Idan Raichel, our music has grown as diverse as any culture's, and I'm very proud of that.

Jacob Kieval is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, majoring in Film and Media Studies. He'll be spending several months next fall interning in the Israeli film and TV industry, and can be reached by email at jacobkieval@gmail.com.

[Posted 3/25/09]