Songs of Songs

Where is “Hanukkah, Oy Hanukkah”? Where is it?

In my book ” Jewish Music as Midrash: What Makes Music Jewish?” I tackle this whole notion of authenticity as a Jewish expression in music. Though I cannot subscribe to “hite Christmas” being Jewish simply because Irving Berlin wrote it, I ask the reader to think about both the function of the music and what midrash or point of view this “Jewish” work illuminates an aspect of Judaism. Not being Christian is hardly good enough as a midrash for me what about you?

You may order my book and the double CDs of accompanying examples from Michaelisaacson.com

Albert Von Tilzer (#73–Take Me Out to the Ballgame) was Jewish alright but he was not an immigrant. He was born in the US–Indiana, I think.

Whatabout MelTorme Christmas Song. In my opion the best Christmas song written by a Jewish composer

White Christmas is absolutely a Jewish song. It’s written by a Jew, for one, which seems to be the criteria here (Is Strange Fruit more Jewish for some reason?) And it also speaks to a kind of longing implicit in all the songs listed above. I think it’s a terrific list.

Nice list.

“I Have A Little Dreidel” is a translation of “Ikh Bin a Kleyner Dreydl,” lyrics Ben Arn, music Mikhl Gelbart.

Now that I think of it, where are Mi Y’malel and Maoz Tzur?

I forgot the word music in the last sentence

Israeli pop hits are conspicuously missing.

Sharm El Sheikh
Push the Button

Ronnie Bennett didn’t marry Phil Spector until 1968.

Hal Blaine is also a MOT.

Haven’t you guys ever heard of Jack Yellin?

This list is too ethnicity-oriented. Lots of non-Jews have written better Jewish songs than many of the half-hearted Jews on this list: Desmond Dekker – “Israelites,” Bob Marley – “Exodus,” Siouxsie and the Banshees – “Israel,” Frank Zappa – “Jewish Princess.”

(CONTINUED)

7.- Pop songs like “I Got Rhythm”, “Copacabana”, “Funkytown” and many more that the authors have included… ARE NOT JEWISH SONGS!!! Just because the songwriters, singers, and/or producers were Jews does not make the song a Jewish song.

I could go on… but really, you get my point.
This list belongs in the author’s personal blog, where they can be as irresponsible as they wish. But publishing it on Tablet is a disgrace.
If you want to do a top-100 song list, there are other ways to go about it. Maybe consult a group of 4 or 5 experts from different fields. Maybe have the public vote on their favorites. Maybe specify what constitutes “Jewish” in the first place.

In fact… so much that could be done right.
Yet there is so much that is wrong with this list.

Aerosmith’s drummer, Joey Kramer, is Jewish.

Billy Joel was and is Jewish, Whole Jewish, and I and everybody of baby Boomers generation, know that from the first song he ever created.

I was sorta hoping to see the anthem of the “free the Jews from the USSR” movement of my youth…We Are Leaving Mother Russia by Safam! nothing captured that movement more than that song….and they definitely deserve a shout-out, especially if Debbie Friedman got one!

Where is Devendra Banhart, Shabop Shalom?
Where is Serge Gainsbourg?

Just saying…those dudes are in my personal top 100.

Another addition:

Zog Nit Keynmol or Never Say—-the anthem in honor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Wierd Al, a non Jew, wrote the hilarious Pretty Fly for a Rabbi

It is a strange list with overwhelming emphasis on American music as if authors have no idea that Jews outside USA write songs also. If criteria for being Jewish music suppose to be the ethnicity or religion of the music’s author – then why they did not include composers from Poland, Russia, Germany, etc.? For example, the song of Matvey Blanter “Katiysha” or Mendelsohn’s “Wedding March”? These are very popular around the world indeed.
The biggest nonsense of all was to include in the list among “100 greatest JEWISH songs” “White Christmas”, “God bless America” and “Internationale”. What these songs have to do with Jews or Jewishness?
Where are the lovely Yiddish songs like “Vu nemt mir abisale mazl” or “Lomir ale ineinem”, “Az der rebe Elimeilah” or “Koif papirosn”? Where is the nice shabes song “Shalom Aleichem”? Where are Sephardic songs “Avram avinu”, “Bella”, etc? Where are Israeli songs? Nothing was created in Israel besides “Yerushalaim shel zahav” and “Hatikva”? How about “Nigun”, “Tni li yad”, “Heiveinu shalom Aleichem”\, etc? Unlike “Internationale” or “God bless America” or hymn of the Soviet Socialist Republics those are indeed Jewish songs.
Very strange list – to say it the least.

I Just reread this — SO FREAKIN’ INFORMATIVE! And yes, it’s Ashkenazi-ish but there are a LOT of diverse genres on this list, c’mon. And how did it not dawn on me before that Lenny Kravitz ripped off Yo-Ya?? My mind she is blown. Kol Ha’Kavod to the authors.

I was actually hoping to see Frank Zappa’s “Jewish Princess”…

Not so sure I agree with you @Adina (maybe a bit).

The reason why I like Tablet is because it tends to be very balanced in terms of liberal and conservative, intellectual and traditional, secular and orthodox… as well as all the many variations in the middle of the spectrum.

My issue is not so much with Tablet, but with this list… and on second term, with the hypocritical idea of “diversity” within Jewish culture, as was demonstrated by Ms. Marjorie in her comment (and in much of her writing).

50. “Lechi Lach” (1986)

Debbie Friedman’s adaptation of the Biblical “Lekh Lekha,” the command God gives to Abraham to go and find his destiny, is one of the few songs written in the last century that has reached near-liturgical status. Sung at graduations, confirmations, and bar and bat mitzvahs nationwide, this song is guaranteed to reduce any group of parents to tears within the first few bars.

On a list with no song by Shlomo Carlebach, whose tunes are now used by congregations around the world and whose name now describes a category, the “Carlebach minyan” with purley musical (no theological) meaning, this listing proves my point.

And I cannot count the many different lyrics, prayers and youth group songs, set to the tune of “Sharm el-Sheikh.”

I found the list fascinating and amusing, but it is the product of two people who know only a very small slice of world, the secular, American slice.

Who doesn’t love lists? I think lists helped Mike Levy’s Texas Monthly become part of the culture – lists such as Best (a) Chicken Fried Steak (b) Mexican Food (c) barbecue ribs (traif but when they are great they are sooooo good) (d) whatever.
But, what is a Jewish song? I won’t get into the REAL Jewish songs that were omitted (other than to wonder how l’dor v’dor was omitted), but if a Jewish lyricist makes a song Jewish, “The Christmas Song,” by Mel Torme, written after “White Christmas,” has to be high on the list. According to Charles Osgood last Sunday, it is the most performed Christmas song.

Someone else also mentioned one of my favotites, Zog Nit Keynmol (the Partisans Song). Another of my all-time favorites since I first heard it in elementary school is Dona Dona.

al kol eleh by Naomi Schemer; (practically another Israeli national anthem).

Does anyone know a good sheet music book for Klezmer
music that includes a piano part? I’m looking for a
score, not a Fake Book.

I love this collection and the sprightly commmentary accompanying it. It may neglect Sephadic music somewhat, but it’s full-on from the heart of Jewish music most familiar to most Ashkenazim (who consititute the majority of contemporary Jews). There are nuances and incongruent little details that delight me and doubtless many others. One can also come up with substitutes or alternative collections. The miracle is that someone had the heart,courage and intellect to put this list together. It hits the highs and lows, the idealizing and the trashy, the spectrum of life. Mazel tov. This should be put out on a CD album, if someone hasn’t already.

Neil Diamond? …and not Joseph Kosma’s gorgeous “Les Feuilles Mortes” with french lyrics by Prevert. As beautiful as September Song when done by Yves Montand. Toots Thielemans called it “the empress of songs…” Neil Diamond? Get real!

What about Phil Ochs?

There is a distinct laziness to having no criteria at all for this list. Gentile composers create music that has no religious affiliation and cannot be described as “Christian”, “Hindu”, or “Moslem”. Therefore I don’t understand the lazy anything goes attitude expressed by this group of music critics. I appreciate and enjoy the music created by Paul Simon and E. Y. Harburg perhaps even more than that of Sulzer or Lewandowski, but there is a distinct reason why Sulzer and Lewandowski’s music clearly qualifies as Jewish that does not follow AT ALL for either Simon or Harburg.
There is a cuteness to this list that reveals to me a deliberate thumbing of the nose and that of course is a classic post modern Jewish stance. My sense is that the authors are more interested in seeing who they can get worked up by making this list than actually thinking through the pieces and coming up with a comprehensive list that reflects the history and culture of Jewish music. For example, why pick a song from West Side Story to represent the work of Leonard Bernstein when he composed an entire body of music that is clearly and deliberately Jewish (eg., Kaddish). As one other commentator pointed out there is a clear lack of Sephardic music or any other diasporic Jewish music other than Ashkenaz. And where are the many compositions that have come out recently from the downtown Radical Jewish music movement? What I can only conclude is that this list was thrown together without a significant amount of profound thought and as I already wrote above, is meant more to provoke than inform. What a pity. And what a wasted opportunity. My final observation: this list fails the test the critical list of the top 100 pieces of Jewish music is still waiting to be made.

This is NOT a List of Jewish Music! This is a list of Music by JEWS!. There is a big difference. If I, as an orthodox Jew, write a Mass is it Jewish? No it is Chritian. As is White Christmas. I. Berlin may have written it but it is not a piece of Jewish Music. Nor is this a liskt of Ashkenazi Music- Again, maybe music written by Ashkenazism. There are , infact, three major streams of authentically Jewish Music. REliogus- Not only Ashkenazic and Sephardic, but Yemenite, Italian, Greek, etc.; Secular- Yiddish and Hebrew – experesseing the hopes, dreams and politics of the Jewish People, and Israel- but only that which, again , express the hiopes, ideas, and dreams of the Jewish People. Modern Israeli Rock, would be classified a s, perhaps, Music by Jews, as opposed to Jewish Music, the same as most of the Tablet’s list.

Dee Dee Ramone, non jew, wrote the lyrics to Blitzkrieg Bop. Try again.

I’ve enjoyed a lot this “100 BEST JEWISH SONGS”, thank you so very much. I’ll pass it on to my lists too (wish I could eliminate all those ignoramus comments though…

…Yes, it’s disgraceful that many of the commenters are so ungrateful and write so many critiques, most quite ignoramus and totally bypassing any hint of good spelling and grammar!

If they think themselves so muchh better, why not do it themselves like…live and let live???

There’s a good proverb: “Tell me what you boast of and I’ll tell you what you are lacking.”

Just wondering…are all these composers 100% Jewish? I.E., both parents were Jewish? No question about the genius and beauty of these songs, that will live forever. For that I say, thank you.

To all those who seem to be yelling about this list as not jewish or whatever. I quote from the “not Jewish” Frank Zappa:

“Don’t yell so loud. You’ll hurt your voice.”

Fun list. Don’t agree with everything, but that’s OK. You certainly provoked responses.

I agree with everything David C says. Putting “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” at #1 is an obvious thumbing the nose. This list is ridiculous and should be taken as a joke or light humor. It is not scholarly, well researched or open minded; nor is there any cogent guiding principal to it.

As to those who are asking if the composers are fully Jewish by having two Jewish parents, Judaism is a religion, NOT a race.

“Over the Rainbow”, the unofficial gay anthem, written by two Jews. Who knew?

They ain’t making Jews… by Kinky Freedman deserves to be on the list,
but to overlook City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman, who actually got a country grammy for lifetime achievement is criminal. And I would hope that good ol’ Jewboy Kinky would agree with me.

Yes, ideally, Kinky Friedman, Steve Goodman, and more Sephardic music should be on this list, but hey, there are only 100 slots. (But Steve Goodman, I mean, really, should be…). This is tremendous fun. Oz as Yeretz Israel? Interesting…

LOVE THIS LIST =I AM LOOKIN FOR A SONG CALLED “ISRAEL” I DO NOT KNOW THE SINGER, OR WRITER. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME?
ALSO, WHERE CAN I GET THE WORDS TO SOME OF THESE SONGS? I WOULD LOVE TO BUY IT.

For Gene, 12/21, 2:53: God Bless America, Irving Berlin is as Jewish as you can get. God is Jewish not Christian and ‘stand beside her, and guide her’ means Jews should stand beside the New Promised Land and direct her. Very cleverly worded with disguised meaning but Jewish none the less.

What about Idan Raichel’s Im Telech (If You Go)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSHX7so63fo

Just a note: The band listed here as Poogy was known inside Israel as Kaveret, and they really did have some great tunes–and lyrics.

Great list and great follow up comments. (I agree with the person who suggested Yerushalaim Shel Zahav should have been on the list, especially after tablet’s excellent podcast about the song a few months back.)

The video of Bob Dylan’s “Neighborhood Bully” (No.94 on the list) has been removed by YouTube “because its contents violated YouTube’s Terms of Service”.
Can it reslly be that the person(s) responsible (or the computer program used for the purpose) have characterized this song as fomenting hatred toward Jews?
Witless and outrageous!

this is a great list. it accomplishes what it set out to accomplish, dialogue, and looking at the world through jewish eyes. to those who found fault, create your own criteria and lists, the more input the better. the important part of the exercise, is to share with others.

what about Carole King,, “You’ve Got a Friend”?
Meir Finkelstein? Julie Gold’s ” From a Distance”
Goldrich Heisler’s Alto’s Lament?
Abie Rotenberg’s The Place Where I Belong?
Shlomo Carlbach?
Robbie Krieger? ( ok, a distant cousin..)
Cantor Adolph Katchko? ( yeah, my grandfather)

I enjoyed most of it,, would hope that someone will do another list soon! I’m doing a concert and a cd soon, called, The American Jewish Songbook and some of the comments were helpful!

There are many great songs on this list. However, I was hoping to find a list of Yiddish Folk songs and words to them (even music sheets if possible).
It is very sad that the Yiddish culture is disappearing. A list of Yiddish songs(as a working document) would be a good way to contribute to the history of our culture as much as possible, and a practical step to preserve what we could still collectively save from disappearing. Just a thought…

Tum Balaleika-In spite of the title,the song is the lament in riddle form about a young wouldbe lover on how to attract the young lady of his dreams and desires.

A wonderful, wonderful comprehensive look at these great, familiar songs. They have been part of our lives since we were children, and we have a tendency to take them for granted! Bravo to the writers for a terrific article!

I am stunned that you have not included a single song of the man who nearly singlehandedly revived Jewish devotional music in the post war period and whose amazing and authentic melodies are sung in thousands of synagogues and temples and shtibluch across the world, from the ultra orthodox to Renewal to Reform, the person whose music galvanized the Soviet Jewry movement and Soviet Jews. I mean, of course, those of one of the greatest Jewish figures of the 20th century, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

What a wonderful list! And of course it would not be a Jewish list if it didn’t elicit lots of protest and argument. Let the debate continue! I’ll help by griping about the inclusion of I Have a Little Dreidel, and the exclusion of more songs by Debbie Friedman (Aleph Bet, Mi Sheberach, etc.)

In Dylan’s “Highway 61″,I think Max the Finger is (Maximillian) Robespierre and Louie the King is Louis XVI; note the next line about red, white, and blue shoestrings…but maybe that theory is crap…that’s why Dylan is so much fun…

Well, I for one am glad that a pedophile rapist’s songs aren’t on the list.

I was surprised to see so few
specifically Jewish songs (as distinct from songs written by Jews); in fact, on reflection, I think the exercise,
as done here, objectionable. Do you recall the claim by Richard Wagner
(and his many supporters) that Felix Mendelson was “Judaizing” music?
They claimed there was something ineffably Jewish about the music . . .
and . . . well, so what’s Jewish about “My Funny Valentine?”

The stirring melody of the Marines Hymn came from the works of a Jewish composer, Jacques Offenbach. He composed “Genevieve de Brabant which included the “Gendarmes Duet”

This list is just a confusion between “Jewish songs” and “Songs written by Jews”. 2 different things. Most of these songs are not Jewish songs.

A great list. Really well chosen selection. Yasher koyekh. But can we finally, once and for all, put to rest the notion that something is Jewish because it was done by a Jew? Even when it is done in a tongue-in-cheek, trendy post-modern hipster way, it is still redolent of Nazi ideology. Their excuse for kicking all of the Jews out of the orchestras (an early expression of their ideology) was that no matter how well a Jew may do something (i.e. play Beethoven) it is still an imitation and their true (that is, Jewish) nature comes through. A Jew can only play Beethoven in a Jewish way. If “Over the Rainbow” is a Jewish song because it was composed by a Jew, if the act of a Jew composing a non-Jewish song makes it Jewish, then a Jew playing non-Jewish music makes it Jewish. So, my question to the authors of this great & fun list, do you really believe that anything a Jew does is Jewish or were you just having fun, making a cool list, and not really thinking about the underlying issues and their implications?

Interesting point… not sure I agree 100%, but that’s OK. Everyone is allowed their own opinion, right? I’ll keep checking back to see if anyone else agrees or not. Thanks!

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I’ve said that least 3654923 times. The problem this like that is they are just too compilcated for the average bird, if you know what I mean

I’m not losing weight fuck that shit. I like my body idgaf if I’m fat :)

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