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A Jew Sings Christmas Carols
I was touched by @qoumidan’s post on attending plays at Christmas time. It reminded me of the times I was in the school choir and we learned Christmas carols in preparation for the Christmas concert.
I love to sing. I have a fair voice and loved singing in the middle of a group of my friends in school. But Yuletide was always awkward, especially the first time we had a Christmas concert. I was probably around 10 years old. I wanted to sing and I wanted my parents to attend, of course. Only we were going to be singing Christmas songs; some were secular but some of them were clearly religious. I guess Jewish parents were supposed to be comforted by a Chanukah song like “I Have a Little Dreidel.”
I remember asking my mother to allow me to go, and I wanted her to attend (my father worked nights); her hesitation and discomfort were apparent, which on reflection was readily understandable. Should she allow me to participate? Should she attend? I don’t remember our discussion about the options, but I’m sure my only goal was clear: I wanted to sing these beautiful songs. Any religious message was lost to me in the beauty of the music.
So I sang. And she went. I never did ask her how she felt about it.
Published in General
I sang in choir in high school and did carols. I sang in Glee Club in college. I loved it. But after one performance I decided that I was not comfortable singing in a church, and so I curtailed my performances from then on to be in non-religious venues. I kept singing in choirs that did Xmas music for several years after college as well.
Since then, I discovered (and promoted) amazing Jewish sacred choral music. Of course, Xmas music is catchy and often wonderful (all those Jewish composers, don’cha know?). So I often catch myself singing Xmas songs, under my breath.
Some of our best and favorite Christmas songs were written by the Jewish composer Irving Berlin. Every year millions of people, including me, watch White Christmas, enthralled by his music.
As my Brownie scouts used to sing, all things shall perish from under the sky, music alone shall live. :)
Me, too! I’m very comforted by your choices, iWe. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
If it makes you feel better, I used to sing the dreidel song to myself all the time (I have a singing and humming problem). :) We sang it in church choir and our school chorus. :)
Hey, why not? I mean, plenty of Jewish folk wrote many of our popular Christmas songs.
…
Drat, Marci beat me to it.
Last year I was shocked to find out that my Jewish Mother-in-Law knew a fair number of Christmas carols. They sang them in grade school back when she went to public school, which must have been late 1940s/early 1950s.
I tried learning the Chanukah blessing, which I’ve heard sung, (Barukh atah Adonai…) for her but unfortunately it being in Hebrew makes it difficult for memorizing. I’m just mouthing syllables.
My partner works at a university. Last week, the “leadership team” for his department decided that the “Holiday Party” could no longer be called a “Holiday Party,” but would have to be an “End of Semester Departmental Gathering,” and no food or decorations peculiar to Christmas or Hannukah could be allowed.
This was the initiative of … you guessed it … one divorced virtue-signaling white woman on the “leadership team” who rationalized it because one of the the student workers is a Mohammedan.
The Mohammedan thinks it’s really stupid, and is planning on wearing a Christmas Sweater with Santa and Reindeer to the party. Furthermore, since “Christmas Decorations” are forbidden, the office is being decorated with paper snowflakes and the people who work there are calling it “The Snowflake Party.”
Oh that’s true. I did learn the dreidel song in elementary school, and I guess the Jewish kids had to learn some Christmas songs. I don’t recall if they were the religious ones. Dreidel song is not religious.
In 8th grade choir our “counter-balance” song was Hava Nagila. Much to the consternation of our Jewish director we gentile boys would sing the lyrics we learned on Laugh-In: “Have a Nagila, Have two Nagila, Have three Nagila, They’re pretty small!”
But even with a Jewish teacher we were, as Manny noted above, just singing syllables, not the meaning of the words. Having grown up listening to Bing Crosby records I sang the words to Adeste Fideles with meaning because I knew what I was saying. We marvel at Jewish assimilation into and contributions toward American culture and yet to be invited to Synagogue is a lurch into mystery. Friday prayers in mosques are mandated to be in Arabic and in only a few does the imam deliver his sermons in English. Are you really worshipping if you don’t understand what you’re doing? Conversely, American Jews and Muslims that sing with us are fully aware of the meaning of our carols.
I think we just found our entertainment for the next pre-National Review cruise Meetup!
That’s so sweet, Manny. Hebrew is not easy to learn! For you, I think it’s the sentiment that counts.
Sheesh. It gets stupider and stupider. My OP tomorrow will discuss the decorations on our street, which I love. I believe those who are virtue signaling care more about this stuff than anyone else. Grammarians out there, go after “stupider,” would you?! Thanks VTK!
Barely, if at all. As I’m learning the daily prayers, I pray in Hebrew the ones I actually understand; the rest I do in English. I’m sure G-d knows both.
For those who do not know, “dreidel” and “Hava Nagila” are among the most awful, trite and stupid melodies ever created. No surprise that they have no religious content or value whatsoever.
This may be the best thing I’ve read all year.
I believe quite sincerely that music transcends any religious beliefs.
You can’t be more rabidly anti-Roman Catholic than I (I am currently on my way back from attending the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Wittenberg) but, as a music-lover, I freely acknowledge that the RC church and its liturgy have inspired composers from Palestrina onward to produce unparalleled masterpieces.
The liturgy itself is awe-inspiring in its language. Even if you are not a Latin scholar, the poetic power of Dies irae, dies illa, Solvet saeclum in favilla, Teste David cum Sibylla is impressive.
In fact, although I am not a religious person, I do hope that, at my funeral, my nearest and dearest will play Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna from Fauré’s Requiem.
So much religious music, whether Catholic, Protestant (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God) or Jewish, is indeed comforting. It should be shared freely by all confessions.
Not while “Feliz Navidad” yet infests the airwaves.
”There is only one hook, and it’s lame.”
”But part of it is in Spanish.”
”You can translate the whole thing into the Black Speech of Mordor for all I care. We aren’t playing it!”
If you wish to have a live performance, good luck finding a choir and baritone soloist:
P.S. I would love to sing that solo!
My birthday is Christmas Eve, and I often my family that the only gift I want from them is to come caroling with me at a local nursing home.
So, almost every year, my secular Jewish husband puts on his Santa hat and comes and sings with me and his children. Because I am the one picking the songs, there are mostly religious Christmas songs and no non-Christmas tunes.
My little homeschool orchestra is planning a small concert, and “Dreidel” is one of the tunes, along with “Holly and Ivy” and “Away in a Manger.” The concert will actually be in January, and we are titling it the “Not Too Late to Celebrate” concert. Our orchestra director is actually a Messianic Jew, and her husband leads their congregation. Her son is a composer and has composed a Mass entirely in Hebrew, even though they are not Catholic. Interesting people…
To be consistent, I don’t think there is such a group as Messianic Jews. Also, although this is a Hebrew Chanukah song, at least it has an Eastern European flavor. I like it.
For anyone who wants to sing along to Sevivon sov sov sov, here is the transliteration, the Hebrew and the translation:
Sevivon Sov Sov Sov
Chanukah Hu Chag Tov
Chanukah Hu Chag Tov
Sevivon Sov Sov Sov
Chag Simcha hu la’am
Nes Gadol Haya Sham
Nes Gadol Haya Sham
Chag Simcha hu la’am
סְבִיבוֹן סוֹב סוֹב סוֹב
חַנוּכָּה הוּא חַג טוֹב
חַנוּכָּה הוּא חַג טוֹב
סְבִיבוֹן סוֹב סוֹב סוֹב
חַג שִׂמְחָה הוּא לָעָם
נֵס גָדוֹל הָיָ’ה שָׁם
נֵס גָדוֹל הָיָ’ה שָׁם
חַג שִׂמְחָה הוּא לָעָם
Translation:
Dreidel spin spin spin
Chanukah is a nice holiday
Chanukah is a nice holiday
Dreidel spin spin spin
It’s a joyous holiday for the nation
A great miracle happened there
A great miracle happened there
It’s a joyous holiday for the people
The town I grew up in, in New York City’s suburbs, was split between an old neighborhood, with mid-19th century houses, old brick schools and a firehouse( the Catholic end of town), and a neighborhood of garden apartments built right after WWII (the Jewish end of town).
(BTW, there are very few white Protestants in NYC; I might have met two or three while growing up, and they always seemed stranger to me than the Jews.)
Our end of town was always ablaze in colored lights at this time of year. But when I bicycled over to the other part, where my girlfriend’s (now my wife’s) family lived, it was more of a dimly lit orange, from all the menorahs in the windows.
I hate all Christmas songs! Really. They all sound insipid to me.
There! Now I’m the official curmudgeon of Ricochet. (DocJay, eat your heart out!)
Kent
My Italian mother-in-law used to recount for me one of her favorite memories.
She grew up in Boston–roller-skated along the Charles River. Boston is a collection of small hills, and Massachusetts General Hospital was built on the front of one of those hills, and one of the Italian immigrant neighborhoods was on the opposite side of the hill.
My mother-in-law’s mother, Mama Non, used to sew (embroider) the buttonholes for Brooks Brothers. She had learned English early on after she moved to Boston, and she was known to the obstetricians at MGH as being fluent in both languages. She was often roused in the middle of the night to go to the hospital to help calm a mother-to-be who spoke only Italian.
At any rate, the Italians and English have a lot in common, although they probably didn’t realize that until their backyards lined up. Every Christmas Eve, the houses on Beacon Hill would open their doors to their neighbors and serve all kinds good cheer–lots of oysters and sherry. And on the other side of that hill, the Italians were celebrating Christmas Eve with open front doors and the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Eventually over time the neighborhoods began to mix on Christmas Eve–nothing like good food and wine and music to bring people together.
Boo! Humbug! You’re too nice to be a curmudgeon, Kent.
With regard to stupid melodies, I’ll give you dreidel, but Hava Nagila has an awesome minor key with all these delicious half-steps.
Could it be that your delving into Jewish choral music has left you a bitter hipster? ;)
I won’t hear anything against “Hava Nagila”. It’s squiggly melody, klezmer line, and irresistible hooks make it the “Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough” of Bar Mitzvah dance music.
Susan, being nice in the blogosphere is easy. In the meat world this morning, I’ve pulled the cat’s tail, took a toy away from Bob the dog, and told my wife she was a poop head. Now what do you think?
Kent
Brilliant!! I suspect the reference will be lost on the SJW. All the funnier, I suppose.
Hava nagila for you all. Absolutely the best version I’ve ever heard.
BTW, take note of the when and where. This went on-line two months after the murders at Charlie Hebdo and Hypercachet market and was filmed in Paris. That makes it all the better for me. And I love Gad Elbaz’s music videos.