Jewish Stereo Types

...It's "I Have a Little Dreidel." Never mind that it's literally a song about a game played by spinning a tiny little top, which is no more exciting than it sounds. It's THE Chanukah song, and it Must. Be. Sung. So here are the Maccabeats, looking for a way to sing it: Video posted by the Maccabeats (I am okay with a Bohemian Dreidel Rhapsody. That is not a bad option.) *** As ubiquitous as the song is, you'd think that it had always been around. Okay, not as "always" as yesterday's 13th Century lyrics set to a 15th Century folk song--it IS in English, for one thing--but still, always. Well, it hasn't been, not unless your definition of "always" is 1927, which is only (almost) Irving Berlin "Always" (1925). We also know who wrote it--one Samuel E. Goldfarb . And as an interesting sidenote, his brother, Israel Goldfarb , composed the equally ubiquitous melody to "Shalom Aleichem" in 1918. Some been-a...

So it's the second night of Chanukah (actually, it will be the second day when most of you will see this, because it is only if I am fast and lucky that I will get this done before I turn into a pumpkin or something) and I thought I would bring you the very traditional "Ma'oz Tzur." Yes, yes, I know. I have brought you Ma'oz Tzur before (and before and before ). But the Jewish people have been singing Ma'oz Tzur at least eight times per Chanukah for...well, for a really quite very long time. I mean, this melody dates back, probably, to the 15th Century or thereabouts, and the lyrics are believed to have be written even further back, in the 13th Century, so yeah. That's a lot of times it's been sung. Three repetitions is NOTHING. So have another. Here's the then-President of Israel, Ruvi Rivlin, lighting candles and leading the audience in singing Ma'oz Tzur on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Israeli Philharmonic, until he is int...

Today I have already received, by actual count, 347 Black Friday Sales emails. That does not count the Pre-Black Friday Sales emails I have received during the past week. That is just this morning. So there was really only one choice for opening up my season of Holiday-Songs-Written-by-Jews: "The Christmas Can-Can," lyrics and arrangement by Walter Chase, music (mostly) by Jacques Offenbach, sung by Straight No Chaser: Video posted by Today in Nashville *** In the past, I have noted that while there was nothing definitive available about the Jewishness or lack thereof of the arranger, Walter Chase. Well, I now have a definitive answer: No. He is not. As he says: In college, the ‘dreidel guy’ was a guy named Mike Itkoff, a nice Jewish boy from Columbus, OH. He was hysterical doing it. When the group re-formed back in 2008, Mike did the group for a year and then he left, and left a void of the ‘dreidel guy’ and that was passed down to me. I’ve been doing it ever sinc...