Event exposes public to a variety of Jewish music

Jewish music, said Rabbi Jeffrey Ronald, has been around for a long time — and there have been songs written by just about everything.

“There are songs about love, when Israel was just becoming a country, life in Eastern Europe,” he said.

The list goes on and on.

Ronald is the Rabbi at Beth Israel Congregation in Florence, and on Jan. 10 the community is invited to celebrate the diversity of Jewish music through an evening of song.

“An Evening of Jewish Music” will feature popular and sacred music from a variety of eras and languages.

“They’re all from the Jewish world,” said Ronald. “A lot of them are organized around the liturgy. Some of them might be about life cycles, Jewish life, Soviet Jews’ experience. It’s meant to give you a taste of Jewish culture.”

‘Wow, this is really cool ... ’

The initial idea for an evening of Jewish music came from congregation member Larry Falck.

“I participated in the Pee Dee International Festival for several years (and) I noticed there was an interest in Judaism and Jewish culture,” Falck said. “I had several people who asked about an open house and that takes a lot of planning, so I thought about starting small with music.”

Falck grew up secular and didn’t find his deep interest in the faith and the music until later in life.

“Growing up, I was pretty secular. (My family and I) went (to synagogue) during the high holidays. I didn’t get involved in Judaism until I got down here,” he said.

He joined the synagogue’s choir and his interest grew in traditional Jewish music, especially when a Klezmer band played a concert there.

Klezmer, by the way, is a style of Jewish music that originated in the ghettos of Eastern Europe and was performed at joyful events such as weddings. It combines sacred Jewish music with secular folk melodies and popular dances.

“When the Klezmer group came down from North Carolina, they played a bunch of music I’d never heard before,” he said. “I bought their CD and said, ‘Wow, this is really cool.’”

Intrigued by the Klezmer musicians, Falck scoured the Internet looking for other styles of Jewish music to present to patrons at the International Festival.
What he found was a wealth of Jewish culture expressed through a wide variety of music genres from around the world.

Words, words, words

That’s not surprising, noted Rabbi Ronald.

“You don’t have Judaism without music,” he said. “The Torah is chanted, the Prophets are chanted. In traditional Judaism, almost all meditational texts are chanted. Music is at the heart of Judaism.”

And there’s no particular genre of Jewish music, he said. “It’s variety. It’s different approaches to expression, whether it’s instrumental or vocal music. It’s adaptable to a particular community.

“You’ll see that Yemeni Jewish music sounds like Arabian music and Russian Jewish music sounds like Slavic music.

“It’s the themes that tie them together, rather than the music forms. What makes Jewish music Jewish is not the style or vocal arrangement, but the words.”

Not just a fiddler on the roof

The evening of Jewish music will feature traditional songs alongside Klezmer music, Yiddish and Sephardic music, songs from Israel and even a couple of pieces from the American Jewish experience such as “America” by Neil Young and “God Bless America” by composer Irving Berlin, performed in Yiddish.

Falck said he hopes the evening will open some eyes to a cornucopia of Jewish music.

“Everybody thinks of the typical Jewish person as an Eastern European fiddler on the roof,” he said. “This shows Jews all around the world. There’s so much other Jewish music out there that’s good also.”

Many of the songs will be a capella and some will be accompanied by piano or violin.

Florence Men’s Choral Society will also perform two songs: “Maoz Tsur,” a traditional Hanukkah songs and “Hava Nagilah,” a Hebrew folk song of celebration.

Carrying on tradition

More than anything, Falck sees this event as a chance to expose the Florence community to another minority group within it.

“The Jewish community in Florence has been here since 1888, but we never really it make it public,” he said.

It will be a chance “to share our culture with the community,” Falck added, an opportunity that people of the Florence community shouldn’t pass up.

Jewish music “has a universal appeal to it. Jewish people are from all over the world,” he said. “You might not like one song, but there’s another type of song that may be closer to the music you like.”

On a personal level, the event means much more than an evening of songs.

“To me,” Falck said, Jewish music “connects me to my past, to past generations who did this music — and I’m able to continue it on.”

IF YOU’RE GOING   n   WHAT: An Evening of Jewish Music   n   WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 10   n   WHERE: Beth Israel Congregation, 316 Park Ave., in Florence   n   ADMISSION: $10, $5 for children 13 and younger   n   REFRESHMENTS: Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar will be available.  n   INFO: (843) 669-9724