More about Oscar Levant
By David Amos
David Amos
SAN DIEGO–In my last column, I shared with you my comments and enthusiasm upon reading a book by Oscar Levant, A Smattering of Ignorance.
Here are some more quotes from the book that I found informative and entertaining:
“In the musical Damsel in Distress, Gershwin wrote a big, robust song called Sing of Spring, which has the circumstance, if not the pomp of Elgar.”
“During an evening at Harpo Marx’s home, composer Erich W. Korngold took his place at the piano to play some music of his own. I remember in particular a waltz which Korngold played so lustily and with such enthusiasm, with a manner truly “Wienerisch”, that the ivory, (somewhat loosened by the Santa Monica sea air) began to peel from the keys. Unperturbed, Korngold brushed them away and continued to play as though it were an everyday occurrence for the ivory to come off the keys when he played.”
” It was authoritatively reported that all Santa Monica reeled under the impact of his bass, and the seismograph at UCLA registered a major tremor.”
Commenting on the work of a famous producer: “Now I know why he can make those instantaneous decisions; he is never deflected by thought.”
In reference to the group of composers who regularly met with Aaron Copland: “It was the outcome of a little group of which I was a member, whose leitmotif was bad manners.”
On programming modern and American music in concerts: “The public was less than apathetic; it was largely speaking, frankly hostile”. And, “The greatest quantity of American music in the beginning of the twentieth century and the experimental styles that followed was so lacking in individuality that I often wondered if the composer himself would recognize a piece of his own if he didn’t know it was going to be played. The complete characterization of the average American “modern” work of that period was pronounced by an unregenerate listener who remarked, after hearing one, It sounds like an accompaniment to something.” Read more…
The musical staying power of Kol Nidre
By Eileen Wingard
Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO — Eighteen segments are featured in Alan Oren’s remarkable documentary about the Kol Nidre prayer, “Eighteen Voices Sing Kol Nidre, Secrets of a Sacred Chant.” Not all are musical voices. There are the Chassidic Rabbi telling a Kol Nidre tale by the Baal Shem Tov, and Neil Levin, from the Milkin Foundation, pontificating about the sources of Jewish music . There are two holocaust survivors recounting incidents where the Kol Nidre lifted their dejected spirits while at a labor camp and in Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
Most beautiful are the various renditions of Kol Nidre, first by Angela Buchdahl, senior cantor at the Central Synagogue in Manhattan, then by Al Jolson in the first talking movie, The Jazz Singer, and later, by Cantor Raphael Frieder of Temple Israel in Great Neck, New York. In addition, Israeli Cellist, Amir Eldon, once the youngest member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, plays the first part of Max Bruch’s setting of the chant. Max Bruch, the son of a Christian clergyman, learned the Kol Nidre melody through his friendship with Berlin’s Cantor Abraham Jacob Lichtenstein. Snippets of other arrangements are heard or mentioned, from Perry Como and Johnny Mathis to Electric Prunes and Memuga Beach Surf Music.
Like an eighteen square quilt, with each piece having the same border, the Kol Nidre melody unifies the interesting narrative.
Oren, currently a professor of journalism at Pace University, is the son of a rabbi. .He is the former Entertainment Editor for USA Today. Other documentaries he has written include the Emmy award-winning “History of Madison Square Garden.”
While visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., he was awed by the power of Kol Nidre on a Shoah survivor. That experience motivated him to create this inspiring documentary.
During this high holiday season, Public Broadcast stations are airing the documentary in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Miami, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, and Denver. Unfortunately, San Diego’s PBS station did not select it. Perhaps we can influence our local station to air it next year.
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Wingard is a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and a freelance writer
Hostility awaits Pope’s visit to England
Lloyd Levy
LONDON — The Pope is arriving in the UK imminently, on the first official visit by any Pope for at least 500 years —yes that’s correct, it was over 500 years ago since Henry 8th decimated the Catholic Church in England, and established the Protestant Church of England in its stead.
So one would expect a great deal to be made of this official visit (the previous Pope visited in 1982, but it was a Catholic event and not an “official” event). Well indeed, a great fuss is being made, but in a vicious wave of anti religious hysteria, generated by much of the press and TV. The Pope’s visit is being widely criticised on the grounds of child abuse, gay rights, women’s rights, the cost to the Treasury, etc. Even the Foreign Office officials tasked with planning the trip, were found to be so hostile that they apparently had to be replaced by another team. There appears to be no sense of History, or acknowledgement of how important the issue is to many Catholic British.Anyone would think it was the Devil visiting , rather than the Holy Father.
What fascinates me, is the similarity to the hysterical revulsion the “liberal” establishment have towards the Jewish State of Israel. It has been a moment of clarity for me. Clearly the Catholics and Jews are singled out for particular revulsion, because of their affiliation with religious beliefs. The Jews cannot, in post Holocaust Europe, still be attacked too directly, so Israel is a substitute target. As for the official Protestant Church of England, it is so weak and marginalised, that it appears to be irrelevant, despite in theory being the official state church. It is to be noted that Tony Blair converted from Church of England to Catholicism soon after he retired as Prime Minister. Read more…
Dogs in Thanksgiving costume to join Run for the Hungry
SAN DIEGO (Press Release) – Jewish Family Service and the San Diego Food Bank are teaming up for the ninth annual Thanksgiving Day Run for the Hungry.
The 10K/5K/ (3.1 mile/6.2 mile) run/walk takes place on Thursday, Nov. 25, 2010 at Petco Park (13th & Imperial) and makes its way through San Diego’s historic Gaslamp District and East Village.
The 10K run begins at 7:10 a.m., and the 5K run/walk starts at 8:15 a.m. Proceeds from the event directly benefit Foodmobile, a program of Jewish Family Service, and the San Diego Food Bank.
Every year family dogs are invited to participate in the run/walk, but this year race organizers are taking doggie participation to another level.
Officials are inviting run/ walkers to bring their family dogs dressed in Thanksgiving-themed costumes. Read more…
As Yom Kippur approaches in Jerusalem…
By Judy Lash Balint
Judy Lash Balint
JERUSALEM–In the days before Yom Kippur, thousands of Torah observant Israelis rush to finish the ritual of kapparot, where human sins are symbolically transferred to a fowl–generally a chicken. It’s a custom that does not appear anywhere in the Talmud, but whose origin seems to come courtesy of several 9th century rabbis.
In a parking lot near Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda market, dozens of live chickens are whirled above the heads of men, women and children while a pronouncement is made declaring: “This is my substitute, my vicarious offering, my atonement: This chicken will meet its fate while I will proceed to a good, long life of peace.” [See my Kapparot photos from Machane Yehuda at www.Demotix.com] The chickens are then donated to the needy or redeemed with money that goes to the poor.
Meanwhile, curious secular Israelis by the hundreds take part in pre-dawn Selichot tours, where they look in on dozens of congregations where the faithful are immersed in penitential prayers chanted to ancient melodies.
Members of the Kurdish Bashari Synagogue in Nahlaot dance to selichot tunes.
In the streets later in the day, men hurry along with towels to the nearest mikveh (ritual bath). Many have already started building their sukkot (booths) in readiness for Sukkot, the one-week festival that starts the week after Yom Kippur. Sukkot structures of all kinds have sprung up on balconies, street corners and in front of cafes. The final decorations and the schach covering will be added right after the conclusion of Yom Kippur. Read more…
Peres and Clinton meet the media
PRESIDENT PERES: Mrs. Secretary of State, ladies and gentlemen, I must admit I knew the Secretary of State a long time when she was called Hillary, and already then I had the highest regard for her – her wisdom, her friendship, her carefulness and caring. And it’s a great pleasure to see you at a very important time in the history of the Middle East, providing us with your experience and knowledge and determination to bring peace.
I heard your comments before the Foreign Affairs in New York. My God, what a list of nations, what a list of problems and it so happened that you are today the traveling ambassador of goodwill all over the world, the most mobile statesman that carries hope and the responsibility. It is in this spirit that we receive you here. It’s a good and (inaudible) and able (inaudible) in our time. The Middle East – new ups and downs. We are not repeating what happened in the past.
There are two important developments that we shouldn’t forget. The nature of the region has changed. It’s less of a conflict between Palestinians and Arabs, and less of a conflict between Muslims and Jews and Christians. It’s more of a conflict of one country that wants to become the hegemon of the Middle East. We used to call it, in the past, an imperial ambition; I’m referring to Iran, which is using terror, and financing terrorists, training them, and building a nuclear threat to the Middle East. I believe all the independent countries in the Middle East feel that they are threatened, no matter to which religion or nation they do belong. It’s also a threat, I believe, to the rest of the world. Nobody would like to see the world living under the double threat of a nuclear bomb and of the terroristic activities. It never happened in history; all this is a new experience and it requires a great deal of courage and wisdom. Read more…
Swastika on Sacramento Kings billboard prompts reward offer
SAN FRANCISCO (Press Release) — The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has announced a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for defacing a billboard image of Omri Casspi, the Israeli-born Sacramento Kings forward, with a swastika.
The swastika, painted on the forehead of Casspi’s likeness, was reported on September 8, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
Dan Sandman, Director of ADL’s Central Pacific Region, which includes Sacramento, on Tuesday issued the following statement:
“The defacement of Omri Casspi’s likeness with a swastika – an ugly symbol of hate – is disturbing and an affront to the Jewish community and the Sacramento community at large, which has welcomed Israeli-born Casspi with open arms.
“ADL is in contact with the Sacramento Police Department, which is appropriately investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. We urge anyone with information relevant to the case to contact the Sacramento Citizen’s Crime Alert Program at (916) 443-4357 or to text 274637.
“We applaud the Sacramento Kings for condemning this anti-Semitic act, and we hope they will continue to lend their voices to the fight against anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry.”
ADL’s 2009 Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents showed that anti-Semitic hate crimes and incidents continued to be a serious problem in California and nationwide.
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Preceding provided by the Anti-Defamation League
Companies soon may recruit the ’emotionally intelligent’
HAIFA (Press Release)–Employees with a high level of emotional intelligence are more dedicated and satisfied at work, compared to other employees. This has been shown in a new study from the University of Haifa.
“This study has shown that employees with a higher level of emotional intelligence are assets to their organization. I believe it will not be long before emotional intelligence is incorporated in employee screening and training processes and in employee assessment and promotion decisions” stated Dr. Galit Meisler, who conducted the research.
The study, which Dr. Meisler carried out under the supervision of Prof. Eran Vigoda-Gadot, and which won the Outstanding Doctorate Award from the Israeli Political Science Association, surveyed 809 employees and managers in four organizations: two public sector organizations and two private companies. The study examined the effects of emotional intelligence on aspects of organizational politics, on employees’ work attitudes, on formal and informal behavior, feelings of justice, burnout and the like. Read more…
‘We have been here before,’ said Mrs. Clinton
By J. Zel Lurie
J. Zel Lurie
DELRAY BEACH, Florida–When I visited Israel recently, I told my Israeli family –daughter, granddaughter and a brand new great-grandson — that they were living in a bubble of prosperity and peace. As Time reported last week the last suicide bomber was over two years ago. What was happening to the Palestinians on the other side of the wall hardly affected them.
Oddly enough, the majority of Palestinians, who live in the Palestine Authority-governed cities, with an efficient American-trained police force, are living in a similar bubble of prosperity.
Outside the two bubbles are the Arab citizens of Israel, twenty percent of the population, and the Palestinian farmers surrounding the cities living under the confusing and often brutal rule of the occupying Israeli army, assisted by the Jewish settlers the army is assigned to protect.
Lying in wait, licking its chops, ready to pounce and prick the bubbles lies Iran. If they achieve the bomb and attack, it will be doomsday.
But it’s not going to happen. Iran will not use the bomb to destroy Israel because they know that Israel has second strike capability. Israel has nuclear-armed submarines lurking in the Indian Ocean aimed at Iran’s cities. Read more…
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