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Hanukkah video helps Jews sing new tune
Hanukkah video helps Jews sing new tune
Article w/ clip: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/1...w-tune/?hpt=C1
Quote:
By Jessica Ravitz, CNN
Face it: Good Hanukkah songs are hard to come by.
For decades, school children performing in holiday concerts have droned on about that dreidel, dreidel, dreidel they've made out of clay. That showstopper (and please don't let this be a reader stopper) goes like this:
I have a little dreidel, I made it out of clay.
And when it's dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play.
Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay.
And when it's dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play!
I, for one, have never seen a child make a dreidel out of clay, let alone wait for it to dry so he or she can play, but that's not the issue here.
The point is this pervasive song is a sorry answer to the melodies filling our malls this time of year - the Christmas carols which, by the way, were often composed by Jews.
That's right. Irving Berlin brought us "White Christmas," Johnny Marks gave us many seasonal hits including "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "A Holly Jolly Christmas," and "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" came courtesy of Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. Oh, and don’t forget Mel Tormé's "The Christmas Song" - the one about chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
But Hanukkah songs we can be proud of? These musical geniuses gave Jews bubkes. That would be Yiddish for nothing.
In recent years, comedian Adam Sandler has brought Jews light amid the Hanukkah music darkness. And partnering up last year with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg to pen "Eight Days of Hanukkah," was Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) - a devout Mormon known to wear around his neck a mezuzah, an encased Jewish prayer scroll.
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