Jewish Stereo Types

Oh, dear. I'm more than a little behind with the Christmas songs this year, I'm afraid. Well, you can always take a look at last year's selections when I don't post (starting from here and going on through), right? It's the internet, everything is here forever! But I do have something new for you today--"new" as in "a song I haven't posted about before," that is. Here's what Billy Joel called "the only Christmas song I ever wrote"--"She's Right On Time": Video posted by Gabriel Braine (Official video over here .) It's one of Joel's more obscure songs, off his 1982 album The Nylon Curtain, but in 2017 he listed it as one of his Top 5 songs on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert . *** As I wrote in my Memorial Day post , Billy Joel is Jewish . His mother was born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants from England, and his father was a German Jew that came to the US through Cuba, because of US quotas restr...

(Listen, we've been around for a while, okay?) "Ma'oz Tzur," from the simple (sung by Theodore Bikel with guitar)... Video posted by Theodore Bikel - Topic ...to the sublime (played by the Israel Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta conducting): Video posted by IsraelMusicHistory2 *** I wrote about "Ma'oz Tzur" at greater length last year , and of course you can read about it there , but in case that seems like too much work just now: This melody for "Ma'oz Tzur" (also sometimes known as "Rock of Ages") is thought to date back to a 15th Century German folk song , with some alterations over the centuries and variations from region to region, as one would expect. Unfortunately, none of the alterations have made it easier to sing. The lyrics are believed to have been written during the 13th Century --hence the post title!--and each stanza is about a separate occasion during which the Jews were miraculously saved from destruction (...

I've been deep into some rush jobs the past couple of days, so I don't really have time to write anything. Instead, have a medley of Chanukah (and a few other) songs, from Nir Sarussi and Ariella Zeitlin: Video posted by Nir Sarussi & Ariella Zeitlin Official (And many thanks to my sister Sarah Schwartz for finding this gem!)

This melody was very popular when I was in high school, mumblety-mumble years ago, because you could dance to it. (If you did not attend a Jewish girls' school in your youth and don't know which dance, try the bunny hop. Most of the Jewish dance songs from my youth worked with the bunny hop.) "Al Hanisim," melody by Dov Frimer, sung by Izhar Cohen, lyrics from the 8th or 9th Century --the Gaonic period: Video posted by sha1om As I said last year , the lyrics are the introductory phrases to paragraphs inserted in the daily prayers on the Rabbinic holidays of Chanukah and Purim: And (we thank You) for the miracles, and for the salvation, and for the mighty deeds, and for the victories, and for the battles which You performed for our forefathers in those days, at this time. So, Happy Chanukah! Light a candle, have a latke... Video posted by MaccabeatsVideos ; "Latke Recipe." The song on which this parody is based, "Shut Up and Dance," was wri...

We've had this song before , but how could I resist? I mean, Black Friday was more than a week ago and my inbox is still overflowing with "BUY THIS HERE NOW!!!" emails, so... Here's "The Christmas Can-Can (Animated Version)," lyrics and arrangement by Walter Chase, music (mostly) by Jacques Offenbach, sung by Straight No Chaser: Video posted by Straight No Chaser *** Still nothing definitive about Walter Chase (although, as I said last year , it seems more likely than not that he is Jewish. As for the melody, I know that ( the Jewish ) Offenbach titled it "Infernal Galop" in his first full-length operetta, Orpheus in the Underworld , but what I see when I hear that music is neither Video posted by medici.tv (which makes me feel like I really must go see the full thing) nor Video posted by Petittwo , from the 1952 film Moulin Rouge but Video posted by ShopRiteStores What can I say? We are all products of our childhoods. Although j...