Throwback Thursday Entertainment Special: Leonard Cohen Sings "Un Az Der Rebbe Zingt" in Yiddish

On this Throwback Thursday we're taking you back 46 years to 1976 when Leonard Cohen performed Un Az Der Rebbe Zingt, a popular Yiddish folk song, at an Austrian student protest meeting in a Vienna arena.

Enjoy!

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Andrea Bocelli and Daughter Virginia Sing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah was originally released on his album Various Positions in 1984. Achieving little initial success, the song found greater popular acclaim through a recording by John Cale, which inspired a recording by Jeff Buckley.

Following its increased popularity after being featured in the film Shrek (2001), many other arrangements have been performed in recordings and in concert, with over 300 versions known. The song has been used in film and television soundtracks and televised talent contests. Hallelujah experienced renewed interest following Cohen's death in November 2016 and appeared on many international singles charts, including entering the American Billboard Hot 100 for the first time.

Now Andrea Bocelli, one of the greatest singers of our time, has included his rendition of the song in his latest album and is singing it during his 21 city USA tour, now underway.

Last month he performed it at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, accompanied by his 9-year-old daughter Virginia.

Here's the Hallelujah duet by the Bocellis. Enjoy!

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Welcoming Shabbat with Temple Avodah Adult Choir Singing Lecha Dodi to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah

With Purim in the rear view mirror and Pesach coming up on the horizon, we're getting ready for our weekly holiday, Shabbat. Every Friday we select a song from the Shabbat services to put us in the right mood, and this week is no exception.

Today we're sharing another version of Lecha Dodi from the Kabbalat Shabbat evening service, as performed by the Adult Choir of Temple Avodah in Oceanside, New York. This one is sung to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

Temple Avodah is the center of Reform Judaism in Oceanside and the surrounding communities. Its congregants come from all over the South Shore of Long Island including Oceanside, Freeport, Baldwin, East Rockaway, Rockville Centre, Lynbrook, Island Park, Hewlett, Woodmere, Long Beach and all surrounding areas. 

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah for Hatzalah Israel with an All-Star Cast

Since Leonard Cohen released his song Hallelujah in 1984, it has been performed by a more than 300 singers in various languages. By late 2008, more than five million copies of the song have been sold in CD format.  

It has been the subject of a BBC Radio documentary, a book, and has been included in the soundtracks of numerous films and television programs. Different interpretations of the song may include different verses, out of the over 80 verses Cohen originally wrote.

Last week we were treated to a special new version from Hatzalah of Israel.

As JTA and Marcy Oster reported in Haaretz,

A new version of the iconic Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah” performed in English, Hebrew and Arabic was released as part of a benefit supporting first responders in Israel.

 “Saving Lives Sunday,” a virtual benefit to support the emergency response organization United Hatzalah of Israel in its fight against COVID-19, raised over $1 million.

The new “Hallelujah” was performed by Israeli recording artist Dudu Aharon, as well as “Fauda” star Rona-Lee Shimon, actress and singer Layan Elwazani, Iranian-American Jewish singer  and composer Chloe Pourmorady, and Adam Kantor from the Broadway cast of “The Band’s Visit.” Joining in were first responders and people whose lives were saved by Jewish, Muslim and Christian Hatzalah volunteers.

Enjoy!

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Leonard Cohen Tribute in Yiddish: Batsheva Sings "Dance Me to the End of Love"

In February 2017, Toronto's Beth Tzedec Congregation celebrated the life, words and music of the legendary Leonard Cohen with a Kabbalat Shabbat service and dinner, special Shaẖarit service and a community concert. 

Batsheva Capek is a Canadian Jewish folksinger who is living in the USA with her song writer – composer husband. At the Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert, she sang her own Yiddish translation of Cohen's classic Dance Me to the End of Love.

She preceded the song with a short story about how she met Cohen at a dinner in Toronto's King Edward Hotel.

Enjoy!

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If you'd like to see Cohen's original music video of this song, here it is. So far it has been seen 50 million times on YouTube.

Remembering Leonard Cohen (Continued): A New Yiddish Rendition of Hallelujah

Our tribute to Leonard Cohen on Friday was so well received that we got requests for more videos of his songs. We will be posting some of his other works in the future, but today we're extending the tribute by posting one of the latest versions of his signature song Hallelujah, in Yiddish, performed by Daniel Kahn.

Hallelujah has been performed by almost 200 artists in various languages. The song is the subject of the book The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of 'Hallelujah' (2012) by Alan Light.

In a New York Times review Janet Maslin praised the book and the song, noting that "Cohen spent years struggling with his song Hallelujah, which eventually became one of the most "oft-performed songs in American musical history."

This week Jordan Kutzik's article in The Forward tells about how he got Daniel Kahn to record his Yiddish version. Kutzik wrote:

A world-class singer of more traditional Yiddish fare and a brilliant songwriter in English in his own right Kahn’s unique genius lies in his self-described “tradaptations,” his translations and adaptations of songs across languages. He, along with his friend and mentor the late Theo Bikel, is one of the few masters of creating singable English versions of Yiddish songs.

Due to the confines of rhyme and meter song translations always vary a bit in literal meaning from their source material. As such the English subtitles are a literal translation of Kahn’s version of the song rather than Leonard Cohen’s original text. As you will see the two vary in some ways but match entirely in spirit.

Enjoy!

Remembering Leonard Cohen: His Music and His Reflections on its Biblical Themes

The world of popular music lost a giant yesterday when Leonard Cohen, the Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist died at the age of 82.

His work has explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Cohen has been described as a Sabbath observing Jew. He has been involved with Buddhism since the 1970s and was ordained a Buddhist monk in 1996; however, he still considers himself Jewish: "I'm not looking for a new religion. I'm quite happy with the old one, with Judaism." he said.

Last month, at a press conference related to his latest album You Want it Darker, Cohen was asked about his spirituality and faith. In this video clip, he said that he didn't see himself as religious, but that the Biblical landscape that he grew up with inspired the Judaic references in his songs, such as the story of David and Bathsheba in his Hallelujah.



In 2009, when Cohen appeared before a large audience in the Ramat Gan stadium near Tel Aviv, he performed Hallelujah and ended with the priestly blessing said by the Kohanim in the synagogue.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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Leonard Cohen performs Hallelujah in Ramat Gan concert



Priestly blessing in Israel to the crowd at his concert at the Ramat Gan stadium

Israel Defense Forces Choir Sings Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah - A Special Post for Ceasefire on Rosh Hodesh Elul

A few years ago the chorus of the Israel Defense Forces recorded a video performance of Leonard Cohen's signature song Hallelujah. Since we just came across it today we thought it would be an appropriate post on a few levels.

Yesterday and today we are celebrating the start of the Hebrew month of Elul, a day in which we say Hallel, ushering in a month of reflection, repentance, and prayers for forgiveness and mercy. It may be just a coincidence, but we noted that on Rosh Hodesh Elul a ceasefire without a time limit went into effect between Israel and Hamas. We only hope that this time it lasts.

During this coming month the song's composer, poet and singer Leonard Cohen will be celebrating his 80th birthday with the release of his 13th studio album, a collection of his latest songs called Popular Problems.

If you weren't a subscriber to Jewish Humor Central back in October 2009, the first month that we started blogging, you probably didn't see our post of Cohen singing to 50,000 people in the Ramat Gan Stadium in Israel, and it's something worth watching. As a bonus, he ended the concert by giving the crowd the Priestly Blessing, Birkat Kohanim. To see both videos, click here.

Enjoy!

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Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah Takes New Form With Russian Ballet

One of the most popular songs of Leonard Cohen -- Canadian poet, philosopher, musician, singer, songwriter, and novelist -- is his Hallelujah. 

The song was released in 1984 and had limited initial success, but found greater popularity in 1991, and since has been performed by almost 200 artists in various languages,

We featured the song a number of times in Jewish Humor Central, as performed in Israeli song contests, by Cohen in a Tel Aviv concert in 2009, and by Yeshiva University's Maccabeats (with different lyrics).

Earlier this year, the song was the basis of a performance by a ballet troupe in the city of Podolsk, Russia. It's this performance that we're posting today.

The song has always been as enigmatic as Cohen himself, and he never gave a detailed explanation of its meaning.  In 1988 interviewer John McKenna wrote about the song after a session with Cohen.in Ireland.

Here is what he wrote about Cohen's background followed by a sort of explanation by the songwriter himself.

McKenna: Leonard Cohen was born into a Jewish family in Montreal in 1934. Yet his influences come also from the Catholic and Protestant communities of that city. And perhaps its that cosmopolitan background that gives him an intriguing angle, particularly on biblical history. In the song Hallelujah, he draws on a wonderfully and subversively passionate passage in the second book of Samuel. It happened towards evening when David had risen from his couch and was strolling on the palace roof that he saw from the roof a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful. David made enquiries about this woman and was told 'why that is Bethsheba, Allion's daughter, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.' Then David sent messengers and had her brought. She came to him and he slept with her. Now she had just purified herself from her courses. She then went home again. The woman conceived and sent word to David - 'I am with child'.

In the song there's the baffled king, David, and there's the baffled singer, Leonard Cohen, in search of the lost chord that certainly pleased the lord and might possibly please the woman. And there's the original story too, reduced now to the domestic and physical situation that it was and always is. Bethsheba may have broken the throne, but she also tied David to a kitchen chair. Delilah did something similar. There's more to be learned from the bible than God's dealing with the human race. There's also the dealings of women with men. There's the hard fact that nothing can be reconciled - at least not here.

Cohen: Finally there's no conflict between things, finally everything is reconciled but not where we live. This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled but there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess and that's what I mean by Hallelujah. That regardless of what the impossibility of the situation is, there is a moment when you open your mouth and you throw open your arms and you embrace the thing and you just say 'Hallelujah! Blessed is the name.' And you can't reconcile it in any other way except in that position of total surrender, total affirmation.

We enjoyed the ballet performance and hope that you will, too.

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