Tumbalalaika Around the World: A New Series

The Yiddish folk love song Tumbalalaika originated in Eastern Europe in the 19th century, but its exact origin is hard to pinpoint. That hasn't prevented it from being sung and played over and over, not only in places where Yiddish songs are sung, but just about everywhere in the world, in vocal and instrumental versions, in cabarets and in the movies.

Just as we have followed the songs Hava Nagila, Adon Olam, Hevenu Shalom Aleichem, and Abanibi as they took different forms as interpreted by a wide variety of singers, musicians, and dancers, we're starting a series today that will bring you many interpretations of this universal courting and love song.  We'll post other versions from time to time over the next few months.

We're starting the series with a classic version sung by famed cantors Naftali Herstik, Alberto Mizrachi, and Benzion Miller with the Neimah Singers in a concert "Cantors; A Faith in Song" recorded in the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam in 2003. Enjoy!

The English translation appears under the video on this page. 

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Tumbalalaika - English Translation

A young lad stands, and he thinks
Thinks and thinks the whole night through
Whom to take and not to shame
Whom to take and not to shame
Tumbala, Tumbala, Tumbalalaika
Tumbala, Tumbala, Tumbalalaika
Tumbalalaika, strum balalaika
Tumbalalaika, may we be happy
Girl, girl, I want to ask of you
What can grow, grow without rain?
What can burn and never end?
What can yearn, cry without tears?
Foolish lad, why do you have to ask?
A stone can grow, grow without rain
Love can burn and never end
A heart can yearn, cry without tears

A Bill Cosby Show Classic: Baseball on Shabbos?

From 1969 to 1971, comedian Bill Cosby starred in a light-hearted sitcom, playing the role of Chet Kincaid, a physical education teacher at a Los Angeles high school, bachelor, and average cool guy trying to earn a living, helping people out along the way. Many of the episodes involved Kincaid in various situations at the high school with his students and fellow teachers.

In the last episode of the last season, a young Chasidic boy joins Chet's little league baseball team. Saturday is the day of the big game, and the boy is forced to decide between playing in the game on Shabbat or sitting it out due to his religious beliefs. Complicating the decision is the fact that despite his uncool appearance, the kid turns out to be the best player on the team.

We were surprised to see that this theme was presented on television forty years ago, and we think it still has relevance today. So does he play or does he stay at home? It's worth viewing, but be aware that this isn't a 2 or 3 minute clip. It's a complete sitcom episode, running 23 minutes. Enjoy!

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Hava Nagila - But With a Completely New Melody

We have heard and posted many versions of Hava Nagila from all around the world, but what they all had in common was the melody, which didn't vary whether it was sung in a burlesque hall in Thailand, a Bollywood movie in Bombay, or by a busking team in the streets of Italy.

Today we found a new version of Hava Nagila, sung to an entirely new melody. The singer is Noah Solomon Chase, a lead singer and guitarist from the band Soulfarm that he founded with C. Lanzbom in 1991.

We've liked their music, a mix of Jewish/Middle Eastern, rock, bluegrass, and Celtic influence. We plan to profile Soulfarm in a separate blog post soon. 

This new melody for Hava Nagila was composed by Cecelia Margules and Rami Yadid.  

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: Secret to a Healthy Marriage

It's Monday morning, and you know what that means...time for a joke to start the week. Once again we dip into the Old Jews Telling Jokes treasure chest for a gem, this time from Marty Adickman, a 63-year-old dentist and keyboardist from Highland Park, New Jersey.

The setup: A man walks into a barber shop. The barber asks him "What's new?"

The man answers: "Next week I'm going to celebrate my 60th wedding anniversary."

The barber says: "How wonderful. What's your secret? How did you do that?"

And then...

Enjoy!

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Hipster or Hasidic? Jimmy Kimmel Tests His Audience

The Hasidic enclave of Williamsburg in Brooklyn has in recent years seen an influx of artists and musicians who tend to have a hipster look. What the men in both groups share is the avoidance of cutting their facial hair.

A couple of nights ago, late night show host Jimmy Kimmel challenged his studio audience to a game of "Hipster or Hasidic?"

Shooting video closeups of faces of Brooklyn residents, focusing on the beard and mustache, and then panning out to see the whole person, Kimmel asked whether the audience thought the subject was a hipster or a Hasidic Jew.

It was all in good clean fun, and the hipsters and Hasidim seemed to be enjoying themselves. One Hasid, Yanky Schnitzer, even promoted his Facebook page.
  
We played the game, and got four out of five right. One really fooled us.

So try your luck and play the game. How many did you get right?
 
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Shofar Adds Special Sound to Cuban Jazz Shabbat

Hurricane Sandy's path of destruction this week hit the Northeast very hard and caused downed power lines and fallen trees to shut down our shul for Shabbat services tonight. Although there will be a minyan in a congregant's home and Shabbat morning services in the building without light and heat, most shul members are being advised to stay home for safety reasons.

So we decided to surf the web and see if we could find a video of a Shabbat service to enjoy at home before candle lighting and the onset of the day of rest. Because you can find anything on the internet, we discovered a service unlike any we had experienced.

At Congregation Beth Ami in Santa Clarita, California, Rabbi Mark Blazer brought in musicians David Zasloff and Iliana Rose to lead the worshippers in a Cuban Jazz Shabbat service, adding a new twist (a Yemenite shofar) to the keyboard, drums, trumpet, and guitar on the stage.

Enjoy, and Shabbat Shalom!

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"Donate" - Parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" to Raise Funds for Colorado JCC

Fundraising for new synagogues and Jewish community centers is never an easy task. But as long as Jewish communities are growing, they have a need to build and expand. So creativity comes in handy when it's time to start asking for donations.

And creativity is what the Boulder Jewish Community Center is using to raise $18 million to start construction of their new building in Colorado.

They created a video parody of Michael Jackson's hit, Beat It, called Donate. In producing the video, no demographic was left out. In the video we see men, women, and children of all ages dancing in a musical montage to bring home the importance of making donations to the project.

It seems to be working. They've already raised $17 million. If this catches on, we could see a whole new genre of music videos focusing on fundraising. We support the idea fully, because it could give us a lot of new funny videos to post. So, JCCs and synagogues everywhere, take a cue from the folks in Boulder and show your creativity! 

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Israeli Song Contests Feature Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"

Hallelujah, the song Leonard Cohen wrote in 1984, was not a big hit when it was first released. But over the years, it has been the choice of a large number and broad range of artists, who performed cover versions in recordings and in concert. The song has also seen significant use in film and television soundtracks, including Shrek.

In the last two years, it's been the choice of some very talented young singers participating in Israeli television talent shows. 

In 2011, eleven-year-old Shalev Menashe rode it into the finals of the School of Music talent show, singing it in Hebrew.

Earlier this year, Inbal Gershkovitz did the same for another TV talent show, The Voice, singing it in English.

Here are both versions, as performed on TV. Enjoy!

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 (A tip of the kippah to Allan Becker for bringing this to our attention.)

A Vaudeville Classic : Eddie Cantor in "Moe the Tailor" (1929)

Eddie Cantor (1892-1964) had a long career as a comedian, actor, singer, dancer, and songwriter. Born Edward Israel Iskowitz, he got the name Cantor through a misunderstanding when his grandmother Esther Kantrowitz signed her grandson up for school and the clerk shortened the name to Kanter.

In 1917 Cantor signed a long term contract with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. to appear in the Ziegfeld Follies. He appeared on stage in comedy skits, including one called Moe the Tailor in 1923. This skit was so popular that it was included in a 1929 film about the life of Ziegfeld.

Cantor went on to become the highest paid comedian of the 1930s, making several hit movies for Samuel Goldwyn (Whoopee, Palmy Days, Roman Scandals, The Kid from Spain, Kid Millions, Strike Me Pink) but was primarily a radio comedian. Today he is largely forgotten, but he was one of the biggest names in comedy in his day.

Here's the video clip from the Ziegfeld film showing the complete Moe the Tailor skit. Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: Lady on the Bus

Here we go again -- another Monday morning, and another joke to start the week. 

This time we tap into Old Jews Telling Jokes for a classic from Al Leiderman, a 95-year-old retiree from the wholesale laundry business telling a joke about a lady who gets on a bus and then...

Enjoy!

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Susan Winter: Eight Song Classics in Five Minutes

OK, so they're snippets, not complete songs. But we found Susan Winter's song stylings to be authentic, nostalgic, and just plain entertaining. We hadn't heard of her before, but made our discovery surfing through YouTube, and we're glad we did.

At a concert last year in Queens College called Rise Up Singing, Winter covered a wide range of songs, excerpts of which are included in this promotional video.

In a span of less than five minutes, we see and hear her singing from the best of George Gershwin, Leonard Cohen, Tom Lehrer, Bob Dylan, Jacques Brel, and the genres of Yiddish theater, Russian Gypsy music, and Sesame Street.

Multi-award winning Susan Winter, is a singer’s singer. She has been most recently making a name for herself in the New York cabaret scene, but she has worked in and around New York clubs for many years. This native New Yorker has performed with her trio in intimate jazz spaces and has also sung with big bands, following the charts of the famous 30’s and 40’s singers.

We hope you enjoy the video.

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Musical Showcase: Meet Die Drei Dudelim, Klezmer Trio from the Netherlands

Continuing our series of introducing new musical groups, today we're focusing on a talented trio of Klezmer musicians from the Netherlands who call themselves Die Drei Dudelim.

The band Die Drei Dudelim ('the three players of tunes') consists of three good friends who have been playing Klezmer music since 1994. Their music is heavily inspired by the old Eastern European Klezmer tradition, but with a modern 'feel', and it clearly reveals their classical music education. The Dudelim are multi-instrumentalists, playing several guitars, violin, clarinet, and mandolin as well as double bass, but they also distinguish themselves by their excellent vocals. The moods of their songs vary from quiet and melancholic to vibrant, fast, and full of excitement. 

In today's video they play a Yiddish classic, Der Rebbe Elimelech, sort of a Yiddish version of Old King Cole. Just in case you don't know this Yiddish standard, it describes an Eastern European rabbi who has a little too much to drink when Shabbat ends and becomes more and more happy and boisterous as the evening progresses. 

First he takes off his tefillin and puts on his glasses, and calls for two fiddlers. Then he makes Havdalah, calls for the shamash and two cymbal players. Finally he takes off his hat and puts on his kittel and calls for two drummers. The music reaches a crescendo when the fiddlers drum, the drummers play the cymbals, and the cymbal players fiddle (or some such combination -- you get the idea.) 

Enjoy!

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Bei Mir Bist du Schein is Back -- Bigger Than Ever

Last year we did a long post about the Yiddish song Bei Mir Bist Du Schein. It was composed by Sholom Secunda and Jacob Jacobs as a love song for a Yiddish show in 1932, but really got started as an act at Grossinger's Hotel by two black singers, Johnnie and George, who brought it to the Apollo Theater in Harlem where it was heard by Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin, who bought the rights to the song for $30.

We went on about how it became a massive hit and was covered all over the world, even ending up as a kiddie song called "The Bear Missed the Train." 

What we didn't know then was how popular the song was becoming in Europe. It went viral among fans last winter as a dance track because of a new video featuring Azerbaijani singer Ilhama Gasimova.

It has a vibe reminiscent of the song "We No Speak Americano." The sound is very different from the original recorded by The Andrews Sisters in 1938. The black-and-white music video has a retro feel, incorporating some hilarious footage of old Laurel and Hardy silent movies. Go figure.

In June the video won the Best Music Video award at the Eldani Music and Media Awards in Berlin.

We found it infectious, and begging to be played again. We hope you'll like it, too. Enjoy! 

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If you want to see how they made the video, here is a behind the scenes look and an interview with Ilhama.



(A tip of the kippah to Elliot Greene for bringing this video to our attention.) 

Israeli Dance Flourishes With a Mexican Twist

In 1971, Carlos Halpert organized a group of young Mexican artists, creating an interdisciplinary, traditional Jewish dance group called Anajnu Veatem (Anachnu v'Atem - We and You.)

The group integrates Israeli and Mexican music and dance, linking traditional folklore and contemporary Jewish and Mexican themes.

They have toured almost all the states in the Mexican Republic and some cities in other countries, performing in theaters, open air stages, festivals, concerts in cultural institutions, universities, public plazas, social centers, and regional fairs.

Anajnu v'Atem have performed their signature piece, Un Poco de lo Nuestro, in many venues, including Mexico City's Palace of Fine Arts.  It's a beautiful blend of Mexican and Israeli musical and dance styles, a melange of Tzena Tzena, Hava Nagila, BaShana HaBa'ah, Dovid Melech Yisrael, and Hevenu Shalom Aleichem. We consider it nine minutes well spent and hope you will agree. Enjoy!

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(A tip of the kippah to Linda Englander for bringing this video to our attention.)

Memories are Made of This: A Short Film Built Around a Joke

It's not often that we find an elaborately produced film that was created for the sole purpose of delivering a punch line. In three years of blogging we have only found one, The Tailor, and it's one of the three most viewed posts on Jewish Humor Central.

Today we found another one. Do you know the old joke with a punch line that involves a rose? We won't go any further to spoil the joke just in case you don't know it. But here's the film, made by Australian producer Robert Teicher. It's called Memories are Made of This.

Let's set the scene: An elderly Jewish man is having some memory problems. First he gets confused when buying a treat for his wife, who is reading in bed what seems to be a chumash or a siddur. Then he mixes up the chess pieces in a game with a friend. Then he has a problem remembering the name of a tablet prescribed by his doctor. Then...the punch line we have been waiting for.  Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: A Jew Rides Shotgun

Another Monday, another joke to start the week. Once again we tap into the treasure trove known as Old Jews Telling Jokes for a classic tale.

Today the stand-up spotlight is on 67-year-old Mike Leiderman, sportscaster and producer. Here's the setup: It's the old West. Desperadoes commandeer a stagecoach and force an old Jewish man to be a lookout for Indians and ride shotgun. And then...

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Comedy Classics: Clean Stand-Up From Wendy Liebman

Wendy Liebman has been performing stand-up comedy for more than 20 years. We like her style. It's mostly clean and reminds us of Rita Rudner, another of our favorites.

Wendy has been called the master of the one-liner with subliminal afterthought. Her distinctive style includes quick, clever follow-ups after her jokes. She starts the joke leading it to one direction then changes it. As in "This Thanksgiving I made a 28 pound turkey ... pot pie," or "I really like to shop....lift."

She has appeared at comedy clubs and most of the late night TV shows. According to her website, she counts among her accomplishments the American Comedy Award for Best Female Standup in 1996, and clue #23 down in a New York Magazine crossword puzzle in 2010.

Here's Wendy performing on Craig Ferguson's Late Late Show in December 2010. Enjoy!

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Comedy Showcase: Meet Eli Lebowicz, Standup Comic

Whenever we discover comedy clips from a comedian we haven't seen before, we like to profile the comedian for our readers to meet. Today we ran across some videos of stand-up comedy by Eli Lebowicz at Standup NY, an Upper West Side comedy club in New York City.

Eli Lebowicz is a senior in at Yeshiva University, where he co-founded its first satire magazine, The Quipster. He is originally from Chicago and has been doing comedy for about a year and a half. He has performed all around New York City, at clubs like Standup NY, Comix, and Caroline's. 

Eli has many clips of his comedy routines on YouTube. He jokes that most of the views come from his dad trying to figure out how to use YouTube.

Here is Eli's family-friendly routine that we'd like to share with you. Enjoy!

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Musical Showcase: Nachas - From Wedding Simchas to Patriotic Country Music

Back in August we started a series profiling up-and-coming musicians and singers who focus on Jewish music in all of its forms. Today we're highlighting Nachas Baldinger, a wedding singer who goes by his first name, Nachas, whose claim to fame was his appearance in the Jewish Star singing competition.

Nachas has shown a wide range of musical talent, singing in Hebrew, Yeshivish, and English. He is offering a free download of his debut song, Nachas, from http://nachasmusic.com/NACHAS_the_Single.mp3.

But what we found most interesting about Baldinger was the ease with which he drops the Yeshivish accent and transitions to a country music genre, as exemplified by his cover of the patriotic song God Bless the USA originated by Lee Greenwood. 

Here are two videos, the first a look behind the scenes as he gets ready to sing HaTov v'Hameitiv, and the second a rousing rendition of God Bless the USA.  Enjoy!

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Camp Morasha Flash Mob Takes Over Syracuse Mall

If you've been following this blog, you're probably aware that we're suckers for flash mobs, especially when they have a Jewish or Israeli connection. Here's a recent one that should bring a little Yiddishe nachas. 

A few hundred boys and girls, campers at Camp Morasha, took over the Destiny USA (formerly Carousel) Mall in Syracuse, New York this summer to put on a choreographed dance extravaganza called Anu B'nei Morasha that proclaimed who they are and what they do. 

Morasha is a Modern Orthodox co-ed camp based in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, with over a thousand campers attending each summer. It runs a Morasha Yachad program that gives more than 40 disabled campers an inclusive camping experience together with their mainstream peers.

Some wearing shorts and T-shirts, others wearing pants and skirts, the dancers blend together into a single entity, but if you look closely you'll see an invisible line dividing the boys and girls.

About 3 and a half minutes into the video, the solid mass splits into two sections, revealing an aisle through which some campers with developmental disabilities, including two in wheelchairs, and their counselors march forward as the dance continues to its conclusion. 

Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Making Challah in the Moroccan Mellah

In Morocco, the old Jewish Quarter is called the Mellah (Yes, the name derives from the Hebrew word for salt. How it got the name is very interesting and you'll have to read about it here.) The art of braiding and baking challah is still very much alive there. 

This short video shows the rolling, braiding and shaping of traditional Jewish Challah bread to the accompaniment of some lively Moroccan music. Its preparation is one of the classes offered in the Moroccan hotels that are part of the Sans Souci Collection. Now, if only they included the recipe for the dough which seems unusually pliable and easy to work with.

This was filmed in the old Jewish neighbourhood of Marrakech, where today there are only a few families that still live and preserve these traditions. Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: "My Wife is Poisoning Me"

It's Monday morning and time to start the work week with another joke from the files of Old Jews Telling Jokes.

Today's joke teller is 82-year-old Sylvie Drake. Sylvie was chief theater critic at the Los Angeles Times from 1991 through 1993. She served on the 1994 Pulitzer Prize Drama Jury, was a personal interpreter for playwright Eugene Ionesco in the 1980s, served as president of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and on the Executive Committee of the American Theatre Critics Association.

We expect some groans after she tells the joke. Yes, we know you've heard it before, and yes, we know you know how to tell it better. But isn't that the case with all old Jewish jokes? Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Hava Nagila in a Greek Taverna

During the last three years we have been following the popularity of Hava Nagila as it made its way all over the world. If you scroll down the Labels section of this blog in the left column, you'll see 22 posts involving what's arguably the most popular Jewish song on earth. But until now we haven't found a video of it being performed in Greece.

Karpathos is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea. From its remote location Karpathos has preserved many peculiarities of dress, customs and dialect, the last resembling those of Crete and Cyprus.

Karpathos is known for its tavernas, restaurants where music and dancing prevails, usually Greek songs. But last week, our old favorite found its way into a taverna called Pelagos, where the patrons eagerly adopted it as a Greek dance, singing the Hebrew words to the sounds of guitar and bouzouki music. Opa! 

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Comedy Showcase: Meet Chasidic Comedian Hilly Hill

Just because Chasidic clothing tends to be black and otherwise colorless doesn't necessarily mean that every one who wears it is colorless. The Chasidic world has produced its own share of comedy and comedians who can keep their community and the larger Jewish community laughing out loud.

Much of the comedy takes place on the holiday of Purim and at weddings, where the badchan, a sort of jester, is responsible for entertaining the bride and groom and their guests with funny songs and rhymes, mostly in Yiddish.

We have profiled Chasidic comedians such as Yisrael Campbell and Mendy Pellin in previous blog posts. Today we're sharing a video clip of comedian Hilly Hill at a Melave Malke Shabbaton in Parsippany, New Jersey, a few years ago.

Hilly is the son of Skverer Chasid and former actor Steven Hill, who was a featured actor on Mission Impossible and Law and Order. In this video, he jokes about airline security, Haredi websites, the need for a Chassidishe radio station, and radio announcers who report play-by-play of a rebbe cutting the challah or holding a sefer Torah in the style of reporting a baseball game. He also reflects on how different our cuisine would be if Chassidus had been invented in America instead of Eastern Europe and conducts a simulated texting session with God.

LOL!

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