A Soundtrack of the Jewish People – Additional
Additional answers to Moment’s musical journey through time and space charting the breadth of the Jewish soul
Additional answers to Moment’s musical journey through time and space charting the breadth of the Jewish soul
Moment spoke with a diverse array of musicians, scholars and music lovers to gather together music with Jewish significance. The result is a rich tapestry of genres evoking the breadth of Jewish spirituality, culture, and history.
Love, Laughter and Tears: Theodore Bikel’s The City of Light with Aimee Ginsburg Bikel. This zoominar is part of the Martha’s Vineyard Jewish Book Festival, in partnership with Moment Magazine, the Chilmark Library and the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.
To assume this is just another depressing Holocaust survivor film would be a huge mistake. Far from it. This outstanding documentary, about survival and the joys of living, is suffused with humor and boundless energy.
Aimee Ginsburg Bikel, Theo’s wife and director of the Theodore Bikel Legacy Project, gives us an up-close and personal look at the man behind the legend. Aimee shares stories about Theo’s life, from his acting roles to a sampling of his folk music, as well as his passion for tikkun olam (repair of the world). Aimee also presents an excerpt from her recently released book, Theodore Bikel’s: The City of Light, which recounts moments from Theo’s childhood in Vienna.
Broadway Performance Coach and Music Director Michael Lavine shares Jewish themed songs that are unfamiliar to many, including songs that were cut from the original Fiddler on the Roof. Actress Barbara Minkus who starred in the Broadway show The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N and the television show Love American Style, makes a special guest appearance.
“In the theater you are either Jewish, Italian or gay and I chose Jewish,” says Protestant-born lyricist Richard Maltby Jr. during a conference call that includes his long time Jewish collaborator, composer David Shire. “Musical theater is so profoundly Jewish—it’s like living in a Kibbutz—you can’t help becoming Jewish. Also, my wife is Jewish, my children are Jewish and we belong to a temple.”
Leonard Cohen blended the sacred and the profane in his own search for a deeper meaning—finding truth in the Torah, yes, but also in sex, travel and the simple thrill of artistic creation.
Why make a documentary that is nearly as much fiction as fantasy, and why deliberately attempt to blur the two?
Louie Kemp, Bob Dylan’s lifelong friend and manager of Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder tour, tells about meeting Dylan at camp, their adventures over the years and Dylan’s relationship with Judaism.
From its origins with Jewish musicians in the 1970s to modern-day Jewish punk bands, the histories of Jewish culture and punk rock are deeply intertwined.