2012 KlezKamp Zhurnal

KLEZKAMP 28 I 28
The 28th Annual
Yiddish Folk Arts Program
Yiddish Humor
December 23-28, 2012 / 5773
The Hudson Valley Resort and Spa
Kerhonkson, NY
Living Traditions
presents KlezKamp 28
Zhurnal
NEW YORK -12
KLEZKAMP 28
KlezKamp 28 • 28 pmeqzelq
Yiddish Humor / r]mvh
yiddish wydyy
theater
December 23-28, 2012/5773 • The Hudson Valley Resort and Spa, Kerhonkson, NY
Tayere Zhurnal leyener,
This year’s theme, Humor, will allow us to explore one of the most dynamic and longlasting
characteristics of Yiddish culture. Humor underlies a vast segment of our cultural experience as an
art, as a weapon and as a survival mechanism. It is also an elemental part of our worldview and
has helped us balance our chiaroscuro historic experience. What better place to
explore the underpinnings of Yiddish humor than in the Catskills, the breeding
ground for American comedy for most of the twentieth century?
So in addition to our usual bevy of music, language, food, crafts, folklore and
dance workshops—not to mention our world-class KlezKids program—this year’s
theme will be explored by Miriam Isaacs, Ron Robboy, Michael Wex, Steve
Weintraub, Pete Sokolow, Jill Gellerman and myself. We also welcome—after
nudging him for a good two decades—new presenter Reb Moshe Waldoks,
co-author of The Big Book of Jewish Humor and a third-degree black belt
mentsh who will offer classes on the power and scope of Jewish humor. You can identify our specialtheme offerings by the little humor logo:
And we welcome filmmaker Roberta Grossman, whose recently released documentary, Hava Nagila
(The Movie), will enjoy its Catskill premiere. It features scenes filmed at last year’s KlezKamp.
Humor? You decide.
Following the extremely successful A Biselle KlezKamp at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in July
(and looking ahead to the second one on July 21, 2013), we are thrilled to return to our old home.
The Hudson Valley Resort and Spa is a modern hotel mit alle mayles (with all the trimmings) in the
Catskill tradition, whose world-class kitchen is, as always, under the shtreng Glatt kosher hashgokhe
of Ha’rov Avrom Kahn.
Table of Contents
A Brivele der Henry.............................................................................1
The Naturalization of Funny by Rebbe Moshe Waldoks...........................3
The Big Stokh by Henry Sapoznik..........................................................7
Funny Girl—An interview with director Roberta Grossman..................9
Last Laugh by Michael Wex.................................................................12
Meet the Scholarship Students .........................................................13
The KlezKamp Crostic
A puzzle written especially for KlezKamp by Rick Winston....................14
Staff
Editor: Carrie Schneider
Graphic Design: Jim Garber, PaperClip Design
Printed by: Westprint, Inc., Timothy Bissel, President
Cover art: Record label from the Mayrent Collection
Postcard and Yiddish theater newspaper page courtesy of Henry Sapoznik
Groyser Kundes and Kibitzer images courtesy of Eddie Portnoy
It has been an honor and a privilege to
head this wonderful program that has
brought Yiddish culture to a new generation
in a new century. Thank you for being part
of the next exciting chapter of KlezKamp.
We dedicate this year’s KlezKamp to the
memory of our longtime colleague, good
friend and pillar of the New Yiddish cultural
movement, Adrienne (“Chana”) Cooper.
Mit varemste grisn,
Henry Sapoznik
Founder/Executive Director
www.klezkamp.org
1
In loving memory of
our friend and teacher
Adrienne Cooper z"l
September 1, 1946–December 25, 2011
2
KlezKamp 2012: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
The Naturalization of Funny
How Jewish humor became the American Way
by Rebbe Moshe Waldoks
A
merican Jews are often identified with humor. All too often, however, the identification is seen as a result of our particular historical experience of persecution,
which has led to the schmaltzy and inaccurate definition of Jewish humor as “laughter through tears”—
part of the famously dubbed “lachrymose theory of history.” This is how it goes: We suffered. We suffered. We
made jokes. We suffered. We suffered. We made jokes. We moved, and so on through the centuries.
Like all generalizations, this claim contains an
were the sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany
inkling of truth. But if one examines the wider
and France. Their mother, Minnie Schönberg, was
corpus of Jewish humor, especially in its historic
from Dornumin East Frisia; their father, Samuel (né
continuity over the last millennia, it is apparent this
Simon) “Frenchy” Marx, was a native of Alsace and
definition does not do our subject justice. Jewish
worked as a tailor. The family lived in the then-poor
humor is more accurately a vehicle for social criticism
Yorkville section of the Upper East Side, between
and protest, as well as a vibrant method for intrathe Irish, German and Italian quarters. The brothcommunal self-criticism and correction.
ers—Chico, né Leonard (1887–1961); Harpo, né
Adolph/Arthur (1888–1964); Groucho, né Julius
Whether the butts of the humor are authority
Henry (1890–1977); Gummo, né Milton (1892–1977);
figures like the Czar (or whatever despot Jews have
and Zeppo, né Herbert (1901–1979)—exemplified the
encountered), rabbis or the upper classes, Jewish
immigrant experience and challenged the two major
humor and humorists have served as comic equalizbarriers it had to overcome: the nativist leanings of
ers, deflating pomposity with a stokh (jab), a poke, a
many non-urban Americans and the anti-Semitism of
witty riposte. From Groucho Marx to Jon Stewart, the
the urban elite.
verbal stokh in the tukhis of hypocrisy is perhaps the
most cogent comedic imprint of Jews on American
Through vaudeville, Broadway, and those timehumor.
less motion pictures,
Another standard
From Groucho Marx to Jon Stewart, Jewish humor Marxian humor (rather
than Marxist humor, an
motif, dating to the
is the verbal stokh in the tukhis of hypocrisy.
oxymoron) acculturated
Scroll of Esther in the
America to the verbal
3rd century BCE, is parwit
of
the
Jewish
interpretive
tradition, shaking up
ody: the capacity to use the tradition itself to turn
more than just comedy in the process. Jewish immithings on their heads. In this revolution of what
grants, and the talent they packed, were viewed as
we see, the jokester hopes to reveal a hidden truth
a threat to cultural norms held for generations—an
beneath the surface of things. Like rabbinic interirony, of course, since no group outside of Native
pretations of the Torah text, Jewish humor works to
Americans had not arrived from elsewhere.
actively deconstruct our accepted assumptions. In
its traditional forms in Eastern and Central Europe,
Like a skyscraper on the Manhattan skyline, the
and especially through Yiddish theater (in Europe
towering dowager Margaret Dumont, frequent foil of
and America), Jewish humor helped to refresh and
Groucho, Chico and Harpo, evoked the sort of wealth
reframe our view of reality, grim or otherwise. The
and power unattainable for the newly arrived. In
relief that laughter produces remains most profound.
lampooning her courtly white Anglo-Saxon mannerisms, the Marxes projected the chutzpah of their
As in many cultures, Jewish humor also strives to
prophetic ancestors across the U.S., making clear
reveal manifold truths beneath the surface of any
who would prevail in the end
one over-encompassing public truth. In this way the
Jewish jester or comedian lives within the prophetic
Jews made up a highly disproportionate number
traditions of speaking “truth to power.” This “danof comedians and comic actors in the United States
gerous” aspect of Jewish humor is its appeal.
throughout the 20th century. But as performers
from immigrant “ghettos” entered the mainstream,
In America, this facet shone first in the form of the
“Jewish-style” humor replaced explicit Jewish conMarx Brothers. Born in New York, the Marx Brothers
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tent in comic repertoire. And dialect humor—not
deemed politically incorrect—flourished.
From Fanny Brice and Molly Goldberg to radio
comedians like Fred Allen and Jack Benny (born
Benny Kubelsky), dialect humor lessened assimilation
anxiety among the still-accented and their offspring
alike by spoofing the immigrant generation’s malapropisms and cultural misunderstandings. Spanish,
Greek, Jewish, Chinese and Italian accents were all
fodder for characterization on the radio as they had
been in vaudeville, the training ground for success in
this new far-reaching medium.
The expanding Borscht Belt also
widened Jewish humor’s appeal. In
Catskill hotels and bungalow colonies, the comedians who went on
to create modern American humor
performed for primarily Jewish
audiences, retaining Yiddish for
older audience members. Performing
for the same crowd every evening—
and sometimes serving as daytime
“social directors”—these artists
became adept at parody, improvisation, ingenious pranks and
the overall ability to give weekly
vacationers laughs as copious as the
food portions. For some, the payoff
came later.
With their revolutionary television program Your Show of Shows
(1950-1954), Catskill veterans Mel
Brooks, Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner
launched a near-forty-year hegemony of Jewish male comedians of Eastern European
descent in American popular culture. And their team
of writers, actors and producers moved on to more
revolutionary situation comedies and movies.
Onetime Show of Shows writer Woody Allen’s depictions of Jewish angst vs. goyish docility made him
one of American film’s most prolific auteurs. More
shlimazel than schlemiel (the schlemiel trips and
spills the soup that falls into the shlemazel’s lap),
the neurotic antihero of films like Annie Hall also
had great appeal among protesters of the macho
tendencies associated with the Vietnam War
Another Borscht Belt veteran, Jerry Lewis, perfected the frenetic schlemiel in dozens of films before
going on to become an auteur in his own right.
Acclaimed more by French cineastes than American
critics, in producing, directing and starring in his
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KlezKamp 2012: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
own projects, Lewis, like Allen, came to enjoy widely
envied control and status a far cry from that of a
standup comedian.
“A new joke,” Sigmund Freud wrote in 1905, “is
passed from one person to another like the news of
the latest victory.” Yet while joke telling remains a
social lubricant at bar/bat mitzvahs and wedding
receptions—and despite its recent resurgence via the
website “Old Jews Telling Jokes” (transformed into
an off-Broadway entertainment in spring 2012)—it
eventually lost its centrality in Jewish entertainment.
Past masters Myron Cohen,
Buddy Hackett, and Henny
Youngman, whose machine-gun
delivery created a unique form
of performance art, gave way
to Jewish comedians from the
folksy (Sam Levenson) to the
ribald (Shecky Greene and Don
Rickles), whose appearances on
The Ed Sullivan Show granted
them exposure to vast audiences,
and eventually to television and
film. And the genre was forever
transformed by Lenny Bruce and
the so-called “sick” comedians,
who by the late 1950s were making big fun out of their hangups
and observations mundane and
political.
Self-revelation had become the
norm in written word as well,
exemplified by Philip Roth’s
Alexander Portnoy (often accredited to Lenny Bruce)
and Woody Allen’s New Yorker stories. From Saul
Bellow and Bernard Malamud to Bruce Jay Friedman,
literature remained a rich repository of American
Jewish humor.
In the sphere of pure comedy, meanwhile, the
groundwork had been laid for standup phenomena
like George Carlin and Richard Pryor, who swept
into prominence with their remarkable talents and
multicultural vision of American life. Continuing
the marginal tradition of “red-hot mommas” Sophie
Tucker and Totie Fields, comediennes Phyllis Diller,
Joan Rivers, and Elaine May stepped up to the mike
alongside Mike Nichols, Alan King, Shelly Berman,
Robert Klein, and Albert Brooks to make male and
female Jewish Eastern European neurosis a laughing
matter.
These artists would have been hard-pressed
to imagine the outrageous comedy born of
the lessened restrictions of cable television,
arguably presaged by Saturday Night Live in
1975. Brainchild of the Jewish Canadian Lorne
Michaels. SNL remains an example of Jewishinflected contemporary American humor—especially in its use of parody, the mainstay of its
progenitor, Your Show of Shows, and of most
Jewish humor, dating to the Purim shpils performed in celebration of the festival from time
immemorial.
Among the many star careers SNL launched
is that of the Zelig-like Billy Crystal, who
memorably transformed himself into characters
from Sammy Davis, Jr., to Fernando, the ultimate
suave and superficial Latin lover. Crystal paid homage to Borscht Belt comedians in the 1992 movie
Mr. Saturday Night, and in his one-man show, 700
Sundays, to his parents, portraying a colorful—and
functional!—Jewish family in the 1950s.
SNL veteran Adam Sandler became a force in
American comedy through overt exhibition of his
roots. His “Hanukkah Song,” with its nod to the
Jewish penchant of identifying prominent members of the tribe, has become a perennial hit. And
Sandler went on to produce and give voice to 8 Crazy
Nights, one of the few animated feature films with
Hanukkah as its main theme.
In 1989, combining entourage comedy like Jack
Benny’s with the power of standup and urban wit,
the Jewish-style comedy Seinfeld broke the mold,
and molded three decades of TV sitcoms. Offering a
way to be both Jewish and non at the same time, the
show identified Jerry and his zany neighbor, Kramer,
as Jews, while leaving George and Elaine ethnically
ambiguous, despite George’s clear representation of
the show’s co-creator Larry David.
Occasionally discomfiting Seinfeld storylines from
nervous mohel to blabbermouth rabbi were nothing
to what David would go on to present in his HBO
series Curb Your Enthusiasm. David’s acerbic misanthropy blends neurosis with the irreverent social and
political criticism of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show and
that of his non-Jewish co-conspirator Steven Colbert.
(Jewish writers feature prominently in both staffs.)
As the 21st century progresses, the outpouring of
Jewish writers, directors and actors continues apace,
including next-generation comedy auteur Sacha
Baron Cohen. British-born and bred, like Peter Sellers
before him Baron Cohen disappears into his roles,
going undercover in plain sight to gauge American
reactions to his bizarre doings—as Ali G, a street jargon–wielding hip-hop interviewer of the unwitting;
the anti-Semitic Kazakhstani reporter Borat Sagdiev;
and an Austrian homosexual fashionista. In his most
recent incarnation, as “the Dictator,” Baron Cohen
spoofs Middle East potentates while delivering an
homage to Chaplin in a kind of summation of three
generations of American Jewish humor.
Just as African Americans developed jazz as an
expression of their specific cultural experience, Jews
transformed insider humor into an American art
form. The question is not whether that influence will
continue, but how.
Dr. Moshe Waldoks is co-editor of The Big Book of
Jewish Humor (HarperCollins, 1981), now in its
thirtieth printing. He serves as a Rabbi of Temple
Beth Zion, an independent synagogue in Brookline,
Massachusetts.
www.klezkamp.org
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In Loving Memory of
Herschel Gellerman, z”l
Tzvi ben Asher Zelig v’ Golda
February 9, 1920-October 28, 2012
whose lifelong love of Yiddish music, language, and culture
continues to inspire his children and grandchildren
from his daughter
Jill Gellerman
and family
Dr. Avi Pandey and Ariel
May his memory be for a blessing.
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KlezKamp 2012: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
The Big Stokh
Yiddish cartoons were one literate poke in the eye
by Henry Sapoznik
A
t the turn of the last century readers of Yiddish periodicals, general fans of edgy,
satirical humor were a satisfied and energized constituency. As part of the Yiddish
renaissance, sassy cultural critique found its voice in a plethora of publications
catering to a mix of political, religious and cultural communities.
In the realm of humor, the yiderati could point to one of the best publications of the era: the wise—and not
a little wiseguyish—Groyser Kundes (“The Big Stick”; sdnvq resyvrg red). First published in 1908 by the
writer and essayist Yosef “Der Tunkeler” (The Dark Guy) Tunkel, the newspaper began life as The Kibitzer, fitting title for a publication that offered endless amounts of unasked for and unwanted advice and opinions.
This Mad Magazine for maskilim (proponents of the
Enlightenment) wielded an edge like a mohel’s izmel.
After a year it changed both management (Tunkel
was replaced by editor Jacob Marinoff) and name to
become Der Groyser Kundes (The Big Stick), probably
owing as much to the foreign policy methodology
of the recent President Teddy
Roosevelt as to kundes’s arcane
meaning of fool or jester. (In
the interest of full disclosure,
I have a connection to this
most Yiddish of sly, satirical
magazines; my great uncle Elye
Tenenholtz toiled for Tunkel
as an editor, penning regular
feuilletons under the nom de
shmate “Moishe McCarthy.”)
The pages of the Kundes
offered acidic assessments in
prose and poetry of contemporary American Jewish life,
taking to task all other Yiddish
publications (from Socialist
to Zionist), icons of page and
stage, and politics in a zesty,
take-no-prisoners style. A
crop of smart young scribes,
including Moishe Nadir (a.k.a.
Yitzkhok Rayz), Chaim Der
Lebediker (”The Lively One”) Gutman and the poet
Moyshe-Leyb Halpern, did the honors.
But what really got people’s attention were the
paper’s cartoons: reams and reams of them. Its cadre of
artists, low-paid Yiddish Thomas Nasts, provided animated accompaniment to the paper’s snappy writing.
The artists who graced its pages were among the
best in Yiddish journalism here and abroad: the
elegant Lola, whose debt to Aubrey Beardsley is
evident in every pen stroke; Saul Raskin, who later
went on to great and deserving fame for his Holy
Land–themed artistic creations; and Zuni Maud,
whose talents took him from book illustrator to set
designer to genius of the toy and puppet theaters.
Their artwork—and occasional uncredited illustrations
delicately lifted from European
Yiddish publications like Der
Krimer Shpigl (“The Funhouse
Mirror”) and Der Bizim (“The
Broom”)—informed readers’
visual aesthetics just as the
writing sharpened their wits.
The vast majority of illustrations gracing the pages of the
Kundes were single-panel art,
a mix of editorial cartoon and
handbill agitprop, lending itself
to a classic, familiar layout.
In a few rare cases were there
the first eggshell taps of strip
art, sequential panels telling
a story in pictures as well
as words. And why not? The
Kundes was whelped alongside
brassy American newspapers
like William Randolph Hearst’s
New York Journal, whose Sunday front pages burst
with bold four-color comic strips by the likes of
Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland) and Dirks
and Knerr’s Katzenjammer Kids.
Lacking the budget of a New York Journal or World,
Marinoff settled for prim, economical black-andwhite renderings, continuing with the cartoons but
never following up with strip art. If comic strips
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became as American as apple pie, the Kundes was
The next generation of Jewish American cartoonapple strudel, which explains why, by 1927, Marinoff
ists—Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster (Superman),
had ceased publication. But by then the comic baton
Batman-creator Bob Kane (né Robert Kahn) and Will
had passed to the next generation of
Eisner (The Spirit)—would do away
Jewish cartoonists, among America’s
with even that vestigial trace of
most popular, whose strips were less
Yiddishkayt. Soon, any indication
the heady and literate renderings of
that once there was a vibrant, smarta previous generation than broad,
alecky Yiddish cartoon universe was
blunt creations of the Jazz Age.
gone. And outside of a culturally
literate cartoonist like Ben Katchor,
“The Cheese Club,” as these carJewish cartoonists with a direct
toonists dubbed themselves, includaesthetic debt to the Kundes are few.
ed the manic contraption designer
But those in its spiritual debt are
Rube Goldberg, dialect comedian
legion.
and artist Harry Hirschfield, Max
Fleischer (of the eponymous animation studio) and Milt (“Nize Baby”)
Heir unapparent: An ad announcing KlezKamp founder Henry Sapoznik is
Gross. Their strips were brash and
publication of the Siegal/Shuster strip at work on his second book, Sounds
Superman, in January 1939.
explosive. And given that two of
Jewish: The Story of Yiddish Radio,
them—Nize Baby and Hirshfield’s
to be co-published with The Library
of Congress. His first book was Klezmer: Jewish Music
Abie the Agent—featured characters who spoke in
From Old World to Our World (1999, 2005; Schirmer
lushly transcribed Yiddish accents, their work was
Trade Books, New York).
nothing less than spiritual, errant Kundes offspring.
America’s newest center for the study and dissemination of traditional and
popular Yiddish studies is proud to announce its programs for 2013:
In Record Time: The Mayrent Collection, Historical
Recordings, and the Local Meets the National in
Music • March 14–15, 2013
A two-day conference – and an evening concert --- focusing
on the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s outstanding
Mayrent Collection of Yiddish 78s, its place among other
vital sound archives, and the issues facing preservation and use
of historic recordings
A Biselle KlezKamp • July 21, 2013 - University of
Wisconsin–Madison
The Midwest’s premier one-day free event revealing and
reveling in the vast array of Yiddish folks arts: language,
music, dance, media arts, and popular and folk culture,
taught by the nation’s greatest exponents of Yiddish
culture
Henry Sapoznik, Founding Director • Jessica Courtier, Assistant Director
108 Ingraham Hall • 1155 Observatory Drive • Madison, WI 53706
608-890-4818 • mayrent-institute@cjs.wisc.edu • mayrentinstitute.wisc.edu
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KlezKamp 2012: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
Funny Girl
An interview with Hava Nagila (The Movie) director Roberta Grossman
H
ava Nagila”—what is it? Beginning in 2009, filmmaker Roberta Grossman sought
the cinematic answer to that question wide and large. The result, Hava Nagila
(The Movie), is being screened at KlezKamp 2012, two months in advance of
its New York premiere—which is highly appropriate, since Kampers play a cameo.
(Grossman and company filmed right here last year, in the hallowed halls of the Hudson
Valley Resort and Spa.)
In making the movie, Grossman discovered much more than a bar mitzvah song. The
amazing story of the song “Hava Nagila” spans the Old Country and the formative years
of Israel, the Jewish American experience in the twentieth century, and the explosion of American pop culture
on a global scale. It features legendary performers like Harry Belafonte and Connie Francis, wisdom from spiritual giants Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and a dose of sour cream-inflected wit
from KlezKamp founder Henry Sapoznik. The end product is a film that’s high on humor but also surprisingly
profound, tapping into universal themes about the power of music, the importance of joy and the resilient
spirit of a people.
KK Zhurnal talked with director Roberta Grossman about it all.
Zhurnal: As you know, the theme of this year’s
KlezKamp is Humor. So Zhurnal 2012 is looking at how
funny plays out, personally and in the culture at large.
Was laughter a big part of your childhood home?
Roberta Grossman: Oh, definitely. Humor was a main
tentpole of my growing up. My father especially… My
parents got divorced when I was young, but my father,
who I did not always have the easiest or best or warmest relationship with, is a very funny man. I’m grateful
to him for having learned the gift of cutting as close to
the bone as possible without the
other person’s really knowing
it. And by the time they know
they’re laughing, so it’s OK.
Zh: Where were you brought
up?
RG: I grew up in Los Angeles.
Zh: And how did your parents
wind up there?
RG: My mom was a schooteacher
and LAUSD [Los Angeles Unified
School District] administrator,
and my dad is a private practice
lawyer. They moved there from
Chicago.
Zh: And your grandparents?
RG: My grandparents were born
in Europe—in Ukraine—but
they emigrated to Chicago and later followed my parents out to California.
Zh: Growing up in L.A., did you taste Jewish humor
beyond your immediate family?
RG: Well, my favorite album when I was a kid was an
album my grandparents had that we listened to over
and over again, which is When You’re in Love the Whole
World Is Jewish. It was a troupe of comedians, including
Valerie Harper, doing a bunch of skits, and it was one
of my formative influences growing up. My sister and I
would listen to it over and and over again and knew all
the routines. I still refer to it all the time.
Like—old Jewish guy at the cemetery just, you know,
crying: (She intones a dirge) “Oh why-y did he di-ie,
why-y did he di-ie…” And he’s going on and on, and
someone comes up to him and says: “I’m so sorry to
interrupt you in your obviously
painful grieving, but you’re so
broken up—can you tell me
who it is that you’re mourning?”
And he replies: “My wife’s first
husband!”
So it’s that kind of shtick, you
know, vaudeville shtick on vinyl.
That was extremely formative
for me.
Zh: Like an injection of New
York in an L.A. childhood?
RG: Not having not lived in New
York, I can’t answer to that.
Zh: Does that sort of ensemble
humor influence your work
today?
RG: Well, in terms of this film,
the writer, Sophie Sartain, is
very, very funny; and Marta Kauffman, who is the creator of the television series Friends, was the producer.
So we had a lot of funny power in the room. And I
think that helped because, you know, it’s a serious
film—it’s ultimately a serious exploration of 150 years
of Jewish history and culture and spirituality. But the
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9
fact that there’s a lot of humor in it really keeps audiences in their seat.
You get this history lesson and this contemplation
about Jewish identity and Jewish culture and where
we’ve been and where we’re going, and along the way
you’re getting some laughs. So it’s a palatable experience.
Zh: Maybe that’s kind of a microcosm of Jewish humor
altogether.
RG: Perhaps. In terms of Jewish humor, there’s in the
film davka, a transliteration in English of the Hebrew
word davka that means “in spite of.” So it’s like, “It’s
raining; davka, we’re gonna go have a picnic anyway.”
That kind of a thing.
It’s a strain. I think, in the Jewish psyche, the Jewish
communal psyche. And there’s a theme in the film
that sort of presents “Hava Nagila” as a davka kind of
experience. That you, you know—OK, life is hard, but
let’s dance at the wedding because that’s what you do.
You have to celebrate. A life-affirming kind of dance, a
joy-affirming kind of stance.
I think the whole idea of davka is kind of funny. It is
inherently ironic. It’s like, OK, so there was a pogrom; but
look, things could be worse! We’re gonna have my son’s
bar mitzvah anyway because look, we’ve gotta do it.”
Zh: Right.
RG: So its a wry way of looking at life.
Zh: Not to ask too wry a question, but the production notes say you interviewed Glenn Campbell at his
“synagogue”…
RG: He belongs to a messianic Jewish synagogue. I
guess that’s what they call Jews for Jesus these days.
They were a very engaged, active congregation. They
were wonderful to us. And yes, Glenn is a member
there.
Pretty much everything in the film comes under the
who-knew category. And that was certainly one of
them—a, that he had performed and recorded “Hava
Nagila” and b, that he actually had some deeper connection to the whole story.
Zh: Did you ask him how he came to Judaism?
RG: No, no. I don’t know if you know, but he has
Alzhemier’s. And it wasn’t public when I interviewed
him, but it was obvious. So we did not have a wideranging conversation. He was very kind.
Zh: Were there other such surprises?
RG: Well, the most incredible thing that happened—the
song started out as a nigun. We don’t know where it
came from, but we know it was sung in a Hasidic court
in Sadagora, Ukraine, and I was trying to find a descendent of the most famous rabbi from that court, Israel
Friedman.
For a year, maybe a year and a half, I tried every avenue I could to find descendents of different branches
from that court. For various reasons—because I am a
10
KlezKamp 2012: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
woman, because I am a Reform Jew—even with the
help of some quote-unquote insiders I was unable to
make headway in that direction. So I gave up.
But I ended up going to Sadagora anyway, to film at
the remnants of Sadagora court. It’s a beautiful edifice
from the outside, but it’s destroyed on the inside. And
as people will see in the movie—and often people
think it’s a setup and it’s not—we were about done
filming, we were leaving, when all of a sudden this guy
in a black hat followed by gaggle of schoolboys showed
up in the compound.
We kind of sized each other up. I said, “Who are you?”
and he said, “Who are you?” And it turns out it was
the great-great-grandson of Israel Friedman, the guy
I was looking for. Exactly how that came to be I don’t
know. Funny? Maybe. Beshert? Maybe. Totally great?
Absolutely.
Zh: What was his reaction to you?
RG: He was cautiously bemused. We had a good
exchange. He’s from outside of London and so he spoke
English, so that was great. And he was nice enough to
let me film while he talked to the boys and gave his
spiel about the place and Israel Friedman, his greatgreat-grandfather.
He also let me interview him on camera, but he didn’t
sign his release. He wanted to see the film before he
did that to make sure there wasn’t anything he would
deem inappropriate. So I was anxious about that for
quite a long time. Finally, right before the film was
going to premiere I had to just buck up and send him
his portion of the film, a good chunk of the film. And
he kindly sent back his release.
Zh: Yay!
RG: So, you know, happy ending.
Zh: Speaking of which, can you leave us with one of
your funniest Hava Nagila recollections?
RG: One of the funniest things—and it’s not in the
film—happened when we did the first interviews.
Some of the earliest interviews were at Canter’s Deli
in Los Angeles, and we interviewed a wonderful and
funny and brilliant scholar, Josh Kun. But I brought
in Marta [Kauffman], who’s also very funny too, to be
interviewed as well, and I actually interviewed the two
of them together. They had a priceless back-and-forth
about why Marta had not chosen “Hava Nagila” as the
theme song for Friends.
Zh: “Hava Nagila”: the theme song for Friends! Lost
opportunity, that.
RG: Exactly. (laughter) And as a special bonus I’ll make
that available as a link to KlezKamp participants, to
thank Henry for letting me film there.
http://vimeo.com/54338295 Password: hava
Roberta Grossman’s last film, Blessed Is the Match:
The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, broadcast on
PBS in 2010, was shortlisted for an Academy Award.
Her feature documentary Homeland: Four Portraits of
Native Action aired on public television stations in
November 2005.
www.klezkamp.org
11
Last Laugh
Roots of Yiddish Humor
by Michael Wex
U
ttered in the proper tone of voice, virtually any Yiddish phrase can be turned into
an insult. True, no great imagination is needed to see how something like mazl
tov can be used to “congratulate” someone who has ignored previous results and
repeated an oft-repeated mistake, or gone ahead and done something after multiple warnings not to. Yiddish
might embrace such low-level irony, but it also goes far beyond it. Apparently innocent statements, factdelivery systems that are supposed to have as little to do with emotion or opinion as mezuzahs do with mezzotints, can be turned into shpilkes, pins, to be used
as agents of deflation.
Shpilkes are well-known from such phrases as Ikh
zits af shpilkes—I’m on pins and needles; I can’t
wait; I’ve got ants in my pants. The English version,
“I’ve got shpilkes”––as if shpilkes were rhythm––
doesn’t work for anyone who already speaks Yiddish.
Everybody has non-metaphorical shpilkes, and in the
days before Velcro, shpilkes, in the form of diaper
pins, were the first fashion accessory worn by most
human beings. If you say “I’ve got shpilkes” rather
than “I’m on shpilkes” or “sitting on shpilkes,” you’d
best add “in my posterior” to those pins if you want
to make any real sense.
Shpilkes can penetrate; they can prick egos as well
as fingers, burst all your hopes and dreams and claim
to do so out of love: “We didn’t want you to be disappointed if things didn’t work out.” It’s the domestic interpretation of the rabbinic maxim, “Know what
is above you” (Ovos, 2:1). Where the sages meant
that God was watching, the rest of the Jews take it
to mean “Don’t get too big for your britches”: given
the nature of the world around us, we believe in the
near inevitability of failure and we’re doing this out
of love. So when you say, “Mom, Dad, I’m quitting
med school to devote myself to playing the koto,”
the first thing they’ll do is remind you of what
you’ve just said by repeating the name of the activity
that you’ve mentioned:
VEST SHPILN KOTO?
You’re going to play the koto?
Then they’ll answer themselves:
VEST SHPILN KOTO.
You’re going to play the koto,
and note the Yiddish italic. And then, with head
turned to the side, whether anybody else is there or
not, they’ll ask another question:
HERST?
You hear?
12
KlezKamp 2012: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
ER VIL SHPILN KOTO NOKH.
He wants to play the koto, yet.
The herst in the third line is vital here and is especially effective when only two people are present.
The appeal to an invisible force—the ambient Jewish
mind, a tribunal of the world’s super-egos, the ear of
God implied by the Mishna—the constant wondering
if people who aren’t there have heard and absorbed
the fullness of your folly, is really an attempt to save
you from yourself, to spare you the trouble of having
to justify your idiocy on that great and terrible day
of judgment that non-Yiddish-speakers describe as
“maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon,
and for the rest of your life”:
EFSHER NISHT HAYNT, EFSHER NISHT MORGN,
NOR BALD, IN BIZ NOKH HINDERT IN TSVONTSIK
YUER
Casablanca is a film with a marked Yiddish influence, profoundly touched by Yiddish turns of phrase
and patterns of speech: “Of all the gin joints in all
the towns all over the world, she walks into mine,”
follows the very rhythms of Yiddish speech—it sure
doesn’t help to make Humphrey Bogart sound like
the ex-gunrunner that he’s supposed to be. In real
Yiddish, though, we’re all supposed to make like
Ingrid Bergman and let someone else do the thinking. In real Yiddish the problems of “three little
people” —even two little people—far from not
amounting “to a hill o’ beans in this crazy world,”
are really all that matters—at least for the next
ninety seconds. So go ahead, play it, Sam—and let
me point out your mistakes.
From Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When
English Just Won’t Do), by Michael Wex (St. Martin’s
Press, 2007).Wex is also the author of Born to Kvetch
(St. Martin’s Press, 2005) and an upcoming book on
Jewish food to be published by Scribner in fall 2013.
He has been teaching at KlezKamp longer than anyone
cares to remember.
Meet the Scholarship Students
Susanne Ortner-Roberts is a professional clarinetist who has been specializing
in klezmer and early jazz for nearly thirteen years. Originally from Germany,
for ten years she led the klezmer quartet Sing Your Soul, which she founded
in Augsburg. She has served as interim directer of the Carpathian Ensemble at
the University of Pittsburgh in 2012, currently coaches the klezmer band at
Carnegie Mellon University, and frequently conducts master classes at universities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York.
Susanne and her husband, the pianist Tom Roberts, were the closing act at this
year’s Jewish Music Festival in Pittsburgh. She is now developing a duo project
with the Bulgarian accordionist Vladimir
Mollov that explores the possibilities of
traditional klezmer tunes using creative
language to communicate through the
pieces.
As a self-taught musician, Shiri Goldsmith busked her way from her
hometown of Oakland, CA, to Royal Street in New Orleans, playing
trombone, ukulele, accordion, kazoo, and even the washtub bass. First
inspired to learn Yiddish song at the
Yiddish Culture and Music Festival
in Krakow, Shiri has continued her
study of classical Yiddish singing
techniques with the Oakland-based
vocalist and pianist Eleanor Cohen—
who sang with Sholom Secunda
in the Catskills almost sixty years
ago—and delved deeper into pronunciation and performance with Joanne
Borts and Paula Teitelbaum at last
year’s KlezKamp.
Shiri’s klezmer ensemble, the
Yiddishe Serenaders, features members of her Sour Mash Hug Band,
which the San Francisco Bay Times
has called “a true treasure of the Bay
Area.” She also performs in the Sansa and Shiri Show, a romantic, fastpaced medley of German cabaret, 1940s harmonies, skits, jokes, and
tap dancing.
The KlezKamp Scholarship Fund enhances our ability to teach and learn
from talented students who cannot otherwise afford to attend. To learn
more about donating, please speak to staff at the Epes Center, or contact
the office during the year. Thank you to the generous donors who made
this year's scholarships possible.
www.klezkamp.org
13
KlezKamp Crostic Puzzle
by Rick Winston
Answer the clues; transfer the letters on the numbered dashes to the correspondingly numbered squares in the diagram.
Work back and forth between the grid and the word list to complete the puzzle. The finished puzzle will spell out a
quotation reading from left to right; black squares separate the words in the quotation. The “crostic” part of the puzzle
(“crostic” derived from the Greek, meaning “head”) is that the first letters of the clued answers, reading down, will
spell out the name of the author and/or the source of the quotation.
1
L2
23
B 24 W 25
1S
N3
2F
D4
3D
U5
4T
T
22M 23V
44 N 45
A 46
42N
63
B 64
86
J 87 H 88
26
B6
H7
J 27
P 65
P 47 H 48
A 66 M 67 N 68
A
8
7K
C9
K 28 O
27B
29
J 30 H 31 N 32
P 33 U 34 M 35
V
49
E
V 53
66C 67A
89 G 90
84O 85N
M
24C 25D 26T
43N 44M 45I
63H 64D 65F
6L
5A
86O 87I
46A
F 50
47J
48B
I 69 W 70 D 71
68R 69P
B 91
K 92
88H 89L
108 B 109 A 110 M 111 T 112 D 113 L
104O 105M 106K
28S
107S
X 10
8L
A
29H
51 W 52
49H 50K
T 72
70A
P 93 N 94
90S
91B
L
11 Q 12 N 13 W 14
9C
51R
10K
11U 12J
30D 31L
F
73M 74B
L 95 M 96 H
92J
93D 94F
114 M 115 P 116 Y 117 O
132 A 133 Y 134 X 135 G
150 W 151 A 152 U
153 A 154 T 155 X
136 O
145T 146Q 147N 148G 149V
171 U 172 N 173 B 174 P 175 L 176 D 177 T
36
34S
K 77 H
I 99 Q
96R 97U
118 S 119 E 120 D
55L
L 16
156 P 157 U 158 X 159 G 160 W
168K 169B 170G 171Q
180 R 181 Q
T 18
S
38
V 39
S 40 M 41 G 42 C
35G 36N
57
56H 57B
78
37E
38R 39F
80
20H 21L
Y 61
S
P 81
L 82
T 83
K 84
60S
81R 82N
61L
100 C 101 T 102 J 103 V 104 E
98I
99N
147 Y 148 G 149 P
142F 143T 144I
168 K 169 X 170 V
160B 161K 162Q
182 J 183 H 184 G 185 B
127 G 128 T
121S 122A 123T
144 O 145 C 146 E
161 M 162 P 163 J 164 N 165 L 166 G 167 B
B 85 N
103C
121 H 122 A 123 L 124 N 125 J 126 U
134D 135I 136U 137O 138T 139B 140R 141N
62 H
62B
83U
186 W 187 I
163R 164V
172B 173P 174R 175L 176N 177S 178M 179K 180I 181C 182U 183F 184D
A. In Yiddish, an impractical fellow, lit. someone who “lives on air”
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
A. Axis country that was a safe haven for Jews in World War II
45 109
65 151
122 88 10 153
___132
___ ___
___ ___
M. Popular entertainer (1926 - ), born Joseph Levitch (full name)
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
40 Lennon
34 74song
7 inspired
95 141
110 114
66 (four
161words)
L. John
by Lewis
Carroll
B. Constitutional amendment first proposed in 1923 (two words)
___B.___
___
___
___his___
___debut
___at___
Actor
who
made
screen
age ___
16 in___
the film of Clue N
___ 23
___ ___
142 108
84 ___
5 ___
90 ___
63 ___
167___
185 173 131
89Yiddish,
80 119slapped
175 21together
166 55without
61 6 form
128 or31sense
8
N. In
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
M. 12
Olympic
___ 20
___ 93
___ ___
67 throwing
164 138 event
44 172 85___31
2 ___
124
70
5
46 122 67
151 57 14 74 172 114 169 132
___ ___(two
___ words)
___ ___ ___ ___
C. Expression of ___
enthusiasm
139 118 32 48 160 27 62 91
___ ___ ___ ___ ___
145C. 8Baby
100
54 42
hooter
___ ___ ___ ___ ___
66 103 24 9 181
D. How “some came” in 1958 Frank Sinatra film
___D.___
___comedian
___ ___who
___made
___ it big with “The Chinese Waiter”
Jewish
21 120(full
176name)
3 70 112 75
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
111 184 126
64 ___
25
E. Defeat30
in a134
sly 40
manner
___ 93
___115
___3___71___
16 146 97 50 119 104
E. Buddy who played Davy Crockett’s sidekick
___ ___ ___ ___ ___
F. Chimney
102buildup
37 154 127 58 ___ ___ ___ ___
53 49 78 36
F. German shepherd of Hollywood and TV fame (hyphenated)
G. Vital instrument
some
klezmer
bands
___ ___ ___in ___
___
___ ___
___ ___
183___
65 ___
130 ___
142 ___
39 76
___ ___
___ 94
___ 2 33
184 127 159 135 89 41 166 148
G. “The Book Peddler,” born Sholem Abramovich
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
H. Popular entertainer (1892-1964) born Isidore Iskowitz (full name)
148 155 35 18 77 170 129
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
30 H.62
6 at 47
96 ___
77___22___121
Acts140
like183
a rabbi,
times87 ___
___ ___ ___
I. Mountain pass
S
105 K 106 I 107 V
100V 101S 102E
115D 116R 117O 118B 119L 120K
43
40D 41T
X 60
59V
80L
P 20 N 21 D 22 H
59
58E
F 79 R
19
17Q 18G 19S
T 58 R
77G 78H 79P
150S 151B 152V 153R 154E 155G 156T 157I 158J 159U
178 O 179 I
E 17
15R 16V
F 37 R
Y 56 Q
75U 76F
E 98
15
14B
137 L 138 N 139 W 140 H 141 M 142 B 143 P
124J 125N 126D 127E 128L 129G 130F 131Q 132B 133S
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
178 73 105 22 44 113
O.
In Yiddish, a gossipy woman ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
N. Yiddish film (1937) based on Peretz Hischbein play (2 wds)
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___144
___ 28
___ 117
____178 136
36 176 42
85 125 99 112 141 147 82 43
P. Celebratory Jewish holiday (two words)
O. ___
Relating
a particular
______
______
___ ___
___ ___
___ ___
___ to___
___ ___culture
___ ___
___
137 92
84 143
117 109
86
64 162 80 149 174 32 19104156
46 115
P. Automotive
pioneer
Q.
“Fool me_____......”
______
______
______
___
___
173 69 110 79
181 56 11 99
Q. Redolent of a sewer
R. Having
strong
___ ___ a___
___liking
___
171 162 131 146 17
___ ___ ___ ___
79 37 58 180
R.Mao
ActorZedong’s
who said, revolutionary
“I think that ‘Star
Trek’ consistently
shows
S.
enclave
___ ___
___ ___ ___
certain Jewish values,” (full name)
118 61 39 43 18
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
140 53 163 81 68 38 51 174 116 153 96 15
T. Noted
historian of Yiddish culture (full name)
___
___
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
S. Rueful Bob Dylan song of 1968 (five words)
57 ___
101 ___
71 ___
154___
82___
177
___
___25___128 17 111
34 165 101 60 28 121 19 150
29 49 88 63 20 56 78
U. Like some jobs
streets
words)
___or___
___ (two
___ ___
___ ___
177___72 13 133
___ ___ ___107
___ 90
___ 1___
33 152 73 4 157 171 126
135 98 157 87 180 144 45
___ ___
___ ___
___ ___ ___ ______
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
V. Like
a fender
in a___
fender-bender
41 138 108 123 143 156 26 145 4 167
107 38 103 52 48 170
___ ___ ___ ___ ___
I. Those just starting out
106 179___
187___
68___98___ ___ ___ ___
J. Like some hairstyles, clothes, or cars (hyphenated)
Only___
Central
whose official language is English
___J.___
___American
___ ___nation
___ ___
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
86 182
102
26
129
163
125
29
52 47 12 124 92 158
K. Expression
admiration
K. Havingofno
illusions or astonishment, Yiddish style (hyph.)
___ ___
___ ___ ___ ___ ___
______
___ ___
___ ___
___ ___
161 91
50 168
120 105
7 179
83 76
27 168 106 95 10
14
97
95K
Y
33F
53R 54V
73 U 74 M 75 D 76
71D 72S
L
54 C 55
52J
108T 109O 110P 111D 112N 113M 114B
129 J 130 W 131 B
165S 166L 167T
32B
13S
L. Many of our forebears landed here (two words)
KlezKamp 2012: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
72 94 1 165 35 175 113 137 81 123 15
T. Yiddish nighttime command (two words, one of many variants)
U. Walter, John, and Angelica
W. ___
One___
arriving
at place
in Clue
___ ___
___ ___
___ L
___
___ 83
___182
___97___
75 ___
11 159
136___ ___ ___
51 130 13 186 24 160 150 139 69
V. Having the most clumps of grass
___ ___
___ ___ ___ ___
___
X. “The
Hammerklavier,”
for___
example
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
54 23 164 59 16 152 149 100
155
134 158 on
169page
59 16
9
Answers
Y. In Isaiah 19:18, it’s called the “language of Canaan”
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
60 116 147 133 14 55
The original.
Tough but vulnerable.
Patient (the daughter you wish you had),
straight shooting, opinionated, outspoken
CERTIFIED Apple computer support in your
home, office or over the phone.
I never lie. It’s hard enough to remember the
truth.
Now serving the Bay Area.
Soon the galaxy.
Cookie Segelstein
510.520.7760
cookie@themacmama.com
www.themacmama.com
themacmama.blogspot.com
www.klezkamp.org
15
16
KlezKamp 2012: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
Rick Winston teaches film
history at a few locations
in Vermont, where he
plays accordion in the
Nisht Geferlach Klezmer
Band (KlezKamp ‘90)
and is working on a book
about Vermont during
the McCarthy Era. Rick
constructs crostics twice a
month for the Montpelier
Times-Argus. If you have comments or questions
about his crostic or crostics in general, he can be
reached at winsrick@sover.net.
J(im) Hoberman, Bridge of Light– “Like all secular
Yiddish culture, a burning bridge suspended between
traditional Jewishness and the civilization of the
West, a Yiddish cinema was inherently unstable. The
films themselves are often self-contradictory.”
A. Japan
B. Herschel Bernardi
C. Owlet
D. Buddy Hackett
E. Ebsen
F. Rin-tin-tin
G. Mendele
H. Advises
I. Novices
J. Belize
K. Realistic
L. I Am the Walrus
M. Discus
N. Green Fields
O. Ethnic
P. Olds
Q. Fetid
R. Leonard Nimoy
S. I Threw It All Away
T. Gay shlufen
U. Hustons
V. Tuftiest
KlezKamp Crostic Answers
Westprint
ad here
KlezKamp 2012/5773:
The Yiddish Folk Arts Program
KlezKamp 2012 is produced by Living Traditions.
Living Traditions
207 West 25th Street, Room 502
New York City, NY 10001
(212) 532-8202
info@livingtraditions.org
www.klezkamp.org
Henry “Hank” Sapoznik, Founder/Executive Director
Sherry Mayrent, Associate Director, KlezKamp
Sarah Plant, Associate Director, Living Traditions
Amy Carrigan, Administrative Associate
Dan Peck, Operations
Shayn Smulian, Technical Director
Carrie Schneider, Editor, Zhurnal
Living Traditions is supported by a development grant from the Corners Fund for Traditional
Cultures. Additional funding from members of Living Traditions, Inc. Founded in 1994, Living
Traditions is a national non-profit organization committed to the celebration and continuity of
community-based, traditional Yiddish culture. We make Yiddish a meaningful part of one’s active
personal identity in a multicultural world. Besides KlezKamp, Living Traditions also produces a
growing library of CDs preserving performances by legendary and exciting new artists from the
klezmer world, Yiddish theatre, and radio, and publishes books on Yiddish cultural themes. Gifts to
Living Traditions, Inc. are tax-deductible to the extent provided by law.
The Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture, devoted to fostering an understanding of the world
of Yiddish through the arts, was founded in 2010 at the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies
at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Planned programming includes conferences and courses on
Yiddish studies, as well as sponsorship of scholars and artists working in Yiddish arts. The Institute’s
centerpiece is a collection of over 6,000 78-rpm discs of Jewish Music donated by Sherry Mayrent,
which is currently being digitized and will soon be available for study and enjoyment. The Mayrent
Institute co-sponsors Winter KlezKamp and the new, annual Madison Summer KlezKamp. For more
information: http://mayrentinstitute.wisc.edu/.
Graphic Design by Jim Garber, PaperClip Design. www.paperclipdesign.com