Cchhaannuukkaahh

Happy Chanukah! My last post didn't talk about the holiday too much, so I wanted to try again before the "eight crazy nights" come to an end.

Last night, some friends and I gathered together for a delightful Chanukah celebration. We had Manischewitz latkes, sans eggs, with apple sauce and Tofutti Sour Supreme on the side. A local grocery store sells greasy vegan donuts, which are a nice addition to any celebration. I was able to find a couple of bags of dark-chocolate gelt hidden amongst the milk-chocolate variety at a local kosher store. We lit the menorah together and played a few rounds of dreidel, despite persistent interference from Tucker. We also listened to "Lonely Jew at Christmas" as well as "Maoz Tzur" and some other Chanukah-themed songs by Yidcore.

I have a letter to the editor about Chanukah in this week's Jewish Journal of Los Angeles:

My mouth was watering as I read about Follow Your Heart's annual all-vegetarian Chanukah feast ("Follow Your Heart to a Vegetarian Chanukah Feast," Dec. 15). But are latkes and vegetarian liver really that foreign to us? Indeed, there are tons of vegan dishes that are common Jewish foods, from falafel and hummus to blintzes and vegetarian cholent.

My favorite part about Chanukah and other Jewish holidays is getting together with loved ones and chowing down on the easily vegan versions of virtually all Jewish staples. Not only is it easy to be vegetarian, it's easy to be vegetarian and eat Jewish foods.

10 Jewish Punk Bands I’ve Never Written About

In the last few years, I’ve written about quite a few punk groups with connections to Judaism (and klezmer/folk bands with a punk edge). In an effort to “get it all out,” here are 10 that I’ve never mentioned in my writing.

Click here to read a listing of all the Jewish punk bands I’ve talked about in my articles and blog posts.

The Shondes
The Shondes are an all-vegetarian Brooklyn band with a political punk edge, a Jewish identity that shines through even in their name, and, perhaps best of all, captivating fiddle-playing. This morning, drummer Temim Fruchter said that The Shondes don’t just pepper their songs with Yiddish words and “liturgical melodies” but rather build them into “a bigger and more layered composition, both in a particular song and in our body of music as a whole.” Click here to watch a rockin’ live rendition of The Shondes’ “Let’s Go” (the phrase you’ll hear shouted repeatedly is “lomir gayn,” Yiddish for “let’s go”), and click here to read Teruah’s November 2007 post about The Shondes.

On Wednesday (Christmas Eve), The Shondes performed at JDub Records’ Jewltide event in Brooklyn. “One of my favorite moments was getting to engage the crowd about our song ‘I Watched the Temple Fall,’ which is largely about the importance [of] challenging and criticizing Israel and Israeli policy as Jews,” said Fruchter. “It's exciting to have positive dialogue about Israel/Palestine in Jewish spaces, and I love when that can happen through music.”

7SEVENTY
Frum Punk (who runs a blog called A Frum Punk) played guitar in Miami-based 7SEVENTY between 2001 or 2002 and 2005. The band once played at a bar mitzvah and was a big hit there. “Most common Jewish simcha songs can easily be sped up, a-la Me First style, which just makes them better to dance to,” Frum Punk said earlier this month. (Coincidentally, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes once performed and recorded a live album at a bar mitzvah.)

Frum Punk thinks that punk and Judaism can go hand in hand. “Judaism has always absorbed the music of the times, and well-played punk rock can definitely be kosher music, to the newer generation anyways,” he said. “Today, it’s amazing to me how many other bands now exist with the same idea as us, such as Moshiach Oi and, of course, Yidcore.”

CAN CAN
Atlanta’s CAN CAN released a full-length album called All Hell earlier this month. The songs “Betrayer/Deceiver” and “Boreska Mines” draw on religious/spiritual themes (click here to read the lyrics). Patrick A., the trio’s singer and lone Jew, said last month that he relies “heavily on my faith and Jewish mysticism for inspiration for my lyrics, stage performance, and an overall sense of how I live my life and treat others.”

Last year, CAN CAN performed at a funeral party to “celebrate the death of fundie d***head Jerry Falwell.” Patrick’s explanation of that show was what won me over in my decision to consider CAN CAN a Jewish punk band:

The show we did regarding Jerry Falwell was a joke. It was a show we already had booked with some friends of ours, and then I heard Mr. Falwell had died. It was apolitical and had nothing to do with CAN CAN or his religious ideas. Which for the record, I found repulsive. Not as a Jew, but as a human being.

I don't think it's "un-Jewish" to make a comment like that about Jerry Falwell. Sure, it was a pathetic thing to say and I hope G-d grants Mr. Falwell grace (as I believe He does for all people), but that kind of fanaticism is gross to me ... and it's very Jewish to call people out on their hatred, violence, and disgust for humanity. Heck, Jews have a history of calling out G-d on His behavior. So why would we not criticize someone like Mr. Falwell?

Electric Menorah
In December 2005, I corresponded with Brett Singer of Electric Menorah (click here to check out the band’s MySpace page and listen to “Come Light the Menorah,” “Dreidel Song,” and “Oh Chanukah Bush"). Singer said, "The band is, well, one person. I played guitar, bass, did the vocals and had someone else program the drum machine on the tracks you heard (his voice is in the background as well)." He pointed out, "Little Jewish boys and girls need something to mosh to, don't they?"

Yesterday, Singer told me that he hopes to release PassoverCore (featuring “Dayenu,” “Chad Gadya,” and “Let My People Go”) in time for Passover. He added, “Punk is also a good way to express feelings that one might have that come with being born a Jew— for example, the feeling one gets when Mel Gibson tries to tell us that he's not anti-Semitic or that his father wasn't a Holocaust denier can be more satisfyingly expressed in a hardcore song (say, ‘Mel Gibson Is an Asshole') than in other ways.”

Farbrengiton
"We will not be pigeon-holed into the Lubavitch/nu-Carlebach/jazz/jam-band/punk genre!" was a slogan for Illinois-based Farbrengiton. Does that mean they were a punk band? Earlier this month, guitarist Zev Goldberg replied, “Depends who you ask. Maybe not to punks. It's kind of a genre stretch.”

The band's songs included "I Am a Jew" and "Avinu Malkeinu." According to a 2004 article in the Chicago Reader, Goldberg played “punk, jam-band music, and Credence covers” prior to forming Farbrengiton. The article also noted that Farbrengiton’s name “melds the phrase ‘bring it on’ with farbrengen, a Yiddish word for fellowship with friends.”

Gefilte F*ck
Gefilte F*ck’s logo was a magen David with an anarchist symbol inside. Band members wore kippot and tallesim onstage. According to the band’s Web site, “Singer Howard Hallis would come out holding a bottle of Manichewitz wine and scream out to the crowd ‘Yer all a bunch of G-d-d*** b*stards! Oy!’ and proceed to throw chunks of gefilte fish on the dance floor. The hardcore punk guitar would start, and there would be a Hora dance moving in the center of the mosh pit.”

Gefilte F*ck’s repertoire included covers (“If I Were a Rich Man” and “Diyanu”), parodies (“Smells Like Jew Spirit”), and original songs (“Kibbutz”). The band recorded five songs in 1992, which can be heard on their Web site. Despite the site’s claim that Gefilte F*ck was one of “the first Yidcore bands” (that’s “Yidcore” in the generic sense), they were preceded by Jews From the Valley (which bassist Mark Hecht also played in). The band performed at a 600-person show that was briefly shown on MTV, but it seems the biggest success belongs to fiddler Eliza Schneider (who joined after the recordings)—for five years, Schneider was the voice actor behind eight regular characters on South Park.

In January 2006, I asked Hallis if the L.A. punk scene was a good fit for a Jewish-themed band. He replied, “In the early 90’s, when we were doing the shows, it was a perfect fit. We would be billed with acts like The Imperial Butt Wizards and 7-foot-tall drag queen Vaginal Crème Davis’ band. Our Jewishness was just seen as comedy, not really pushing any kind of agenda.”

Kohane of Newark
According to a September article in the Forward, the jacket cover of Kohane of Newark’s new album “features an image of a larger-than-life bird’s eye view of a rumpled and stained velvet skullcap, doubtless donned at some Jewish function that took place around the time that Fonzie and Vinnie Barbarino dominated the boob tube.”

The two songs on the New York band’s MySpace page don’t sound all that punk to me, but I defer to the experts on this one. The Forward called Kohane of Newark “Judeo-punk,” and Steven Lee Beeber (author of The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk) has said, “An American Serge Gainsbourg, Kohane of Newark's [debut album] probes the dark, sensitive heart of the Jewish experience. Equal parts Lou Reed/Alexander Portnoy/Jonathan Richman/Delmore Schwartz, the result is late-night therapy drenched in beautiful music.”

Mensch
In January 2006, I corresponded with Jed Davis, who produced an out-of-print five-song demo for Mensch. Davis offered the following information: “Mensch performed around Manhattan for a little over a year before breaking up. Their songs were explicitly political though not without a sense of humor (the first time I heard them, they performed a tribute to Joey [Ramone] with the chorus ‘I wanna be a rock 'n' roll Jew like Joey Ramone!’). Their singer, Seth Abrams, was responsible for the band's name and ideology (the rest of the band wanted to drop the Jewish thing and change the name, which I was certainly against).”

In November 2002, Mensch played a show with Yidcore and Golem in Manhattan. In December 2005, Yidcore frontman Bram Presser said, “Mensch were around about 3 years ago. I think they broke up around then, too, just after we played with them. They were kinda street punk …. They were New York boys, and the drummer was great (he actually drummed for us on our last American tour).” In January 2006, Golem singer/accordionist Annette Ezekiel said all she could remember about Mensch’s set was “that they were really loud.” When told that the band was defunct, she replied, “Oh well ... so it goes in Jewish punk.”

The Murrays
I’ve mentioned before that Dan “Bjorn Turoque” Crane is my favorite air guitarist, and I was pleasantly surprised when I learned on one of his Web sites that he had played in a “punk rock Klezmer band.” In August 2006, Crane said, “I was in a pre-Golem, Golem band. Not with Annette [Ezekiel] from Golem, but with another guy who was in a band with Annette before Golem called The Murrays. It was pretty short-lived ... I played guitar.”

The Schleps
A guy named Mendel sings and plays all instruments for Boston’s The Schleps. Last week, JDub Records featured The Schleps’ 37-second take on “Maoz Tzur” on its Web site. JDub quipped that it’s “predicting that koshercore will finally take off in 2009 (maybe),” and Mendel agrees. He’s demoing more songs, and he’s already made connections with Jews in Boston’s punk/hardcore scene.

Mendel describes The Schleps’ music as metalcore: a mix of metal and hardcore. While JDub used the term “koshercore,” Mendel prefers “JewCore.” Yesterday, Mendel said, “My friends and I have affectionately referred to The Schleps' music as 'JewCore.' Yes, I'm aware that ‘JewCore’ has been used in other contexts and some Jewish people might consider using the word ‘Jew’ in this context to be condescending or derogatory, but we use it out of love of our heritage, the enjoyment of the music, and basically because, ‘we callz it like we seez it.’"

The Four Questions: DJ Lil Ray

DJ Lil Ray, aka Rachael Spiewak, got her start as a DJ last year. This Jewish vegan specializes in hip-hop and had a weekly gig at a Saturday night dance party called Radiotron in Atlanta. She recently moved to Brooklyn.

How did the 1994 Ft. Lauderdale bat mitzvah scene influence you as a DJ?
I grew up in a suburban Jewish enclave 30 minutes from Ft. Lauderdale Beach around its Spring Break heyday. Thanks to radio stations like Power 96, freestyle and booty bass were a normal part of the pop music soundscape. And rollerskating was THE thing to do. So all of that youth culture music worked its way into the bat and bar mitzvah scene, and as a result, I belonged to a tribe of adolescents whose weekends were taken up with formal dance parties where it was normal to hear the 69 Boyz and Debbie Deb alongside the Hora and the Macarena. And this went on for about 2 solid years between all of the kids around my age who went to one of the two synagogues in the area. I guess this was the one saving grace, right? The suburbs are pretty depressing and devoid of culture, except for this weird thing that emerged from what's essentially an ancient rite of passage. Given all of that, to me, it makes perfect sense that I would grow up to be a dance party DJ.

You DJed Veggie Conquest last weekend and Vegan Drinks on Thursday. Are you already becoming the dominant DJ in the NYC vegan event scene?
I only moved to Brooklyn recently from Atlanta, where I had a resident Saturday night gig for the last year, so instead of starting from scratch here, I've been lucky to join a certain vegan community that makes a point of supporting its members. My roommate Jessica Mahady, who's an old friend from ATL, is responsible for Veggie Conquest, and we've been talking about having me come up to DJ it for months, even before I decided to move. So I thought, if I need to have a following to get booked anywhere, and here's this community I would join anyway that's presenting all sorts of DJing opportunities, I might as well work that. Everyone benefits, and I'm grateful to have met such friendly and supportive people. And now I really do have an NYC following (ahem, booking agents/bar managers).

Speaking of having a following, I would be remiss if I didn't add that I'm also a part of a crew called Astoria DJ Group, and whenever one of us plays somewhere solo, the rest of us show up.

I see you'll be at Shalom Queen, billed as the "most fabulous Chanukah party ever," next month. What kind of songs will you be playing?
Well, I billed it that way, but I think the promoters would agree. Hey Queen parties are all about camp and glam, so I'm going to pull out bangers, sing-a-longs, and club hits, mostly from the 80s and 90s. Lots of female vocals, nothing down tempo. If people Jazzercise or do the Running Man to it, I've done my job. Oh and Madonna. I will play lots of Madonna.

Suppose you were volunteering at a soup kitchen and you were monitoring the line where people enter the building. What would be the perfect soundtrack to play?
I was managing the line at a soup kitchen recently, and I suggested that funk is the universal genre and that's what we should listen to if we had the means to listen to anything. I was informed that Johnny Cash would be much more relevant and enjoyable. Loretta Lynn, too.

Round Challah, Apples With Agave Nectar, and ... Charoset?!?!

Trivia: Which Jewish holiday features round challah, apples with agave nectar, potato latkes, soofganiyot, charoset, karpas with salt-water, Israeli salad, hummus, kasha varnishkes, Manischewitz wine, Dr. Brown's soda, and grape juice? Rosh Hashanah heebnvegan-style, of course!

There's no reason why most traditional Jewish foods can't be made vegan (and still be delicious!). That was the thinking behind the Vegan Jewish-Foods Mega-Potluck that I organized last year, and last week's sequel set a new standard for Jewtasticness. Thanks to resources like JewishVeg.com's recipes page, it's quite easy for even mediocre cooks to whip up traditional Jewish foods that are 100% vegan and 100% yummy. (Vegetable broth was a great substitute for chicken broth for the kasha varnishkes, the potato latkes tasted great without eggs, agave nectar was just as sweet as honey, and some of the other dishes are usually vegan to begin with.) And as a recent Santa Fe New Mexican article discusses, vegetarian Rosh Hashanah celebrations aren't so rare these days.

The potluck drew an eclectic mix not only of food but of people as well. There was a quarter-Jew who just started college locally and had never been to a Jewish holiday celebration before; he felt that good food was a fantastic introduction to Judaism! There was a 2-toothed, 6-month-old baby whose parents gave her apples (albeit not the large slices that everyone else had) as her first solid food in honor of Rosh Hashanah. There were a few herbivorous heebs who have attended my unconventional Chanukah, Passover, and Tu B'Shvat celebrations in the past. And then there was my mother, who made the charoset and, without giving it much thought, packed a food chopper in her airplane carry-on luggage (thankfully, it wasn't detected!).

The gathering also featured a special guest appearance by my shrilling rubber chicken. The rubber chicken shrilled in dismay at the mere mention of upcoming kapparot ceremonies. And the rubber chicken (and the success of the vegan Rosh Hashanah dinner) got me thinking: The myth that Jewish cooking requires chicken fat or eggs must've been started by a chicken farmer.

Add The Clash's Mick Jones to the List of Vegetarian Jewish Punks

Last year, I wrote a post about prominent Jews in the punk scene who are vegetarians and animal advocates, namely The Ramones' Joey Ramone, NOFX's Fat Mike, New Found Glory's Ian Grushka, Yidcore's Bram Presser, and the members of Useless ID. Add Mick Jones, the guitarist of The Clash, to the list!

The New York Times noted in an article this week:

Mr. Jones explained that he doesn't consume meat or dairy. "I read about how animals experience fear on the way to slaughter," he said. "I didn't want to eat that. I figured it would make me a stronger person."

I first learned that Jones is Jewish by listening to Yidcore's "Punk Rock Chanukah Song." (The video shows an animated Jones dancing the hora while wearing a Union Jack shirt, set to the lyrics "Lou Reed danced the hora at his bar mitzvah bash, with li'l Jonny Richman and Mick Jones from The Clash.") According to The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk, Jones is the author of the line "He thinks it's not kosher!" in The Clash's "Rock the Casbah." Vivien Goldman, a prominent music critic in The Clash's heyday, is quoted in the book as saying:

[T]he English and the American experience is so different, but I would say that there are hardly any Jews in punk in England, and that the main role of Jews in punk in England was ideological, and in terms of formulating the identity of punk. It was not so much in the bands, although there was ... Mick Jones ... it's because of Mick, I think, that we have that line 'This is not kosher' [sic] which is the biggest Jewish line in punk, as far as I can see. ... It was kind of radical, because it's so rare to hear any Jewish terminology used in England. It's not like here where everybody schleps. So I thought it was very bold to have the Jewish vibe out there in the punk mainstream.

The Four Questions: Bram Presser of Yidcore

Yidcore at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley as part of the Eight Crazy Nights tour in 2006

Yidcore played their final show on December 17 in their hometown of Melbourne, Australia. The genre-defining Jewish punk band went from just covering classic Jewish songs a decade ago to recording gems like "Punk Rock Chanukah Song" and "They Tried to Kill Us. They Failed. Let's Eat!" Their 2005 cover of the entire Fiddler on the Roof score is a masterpiece of cultural expression. Untold amounts of hummus, falafel, latkes, bagels, and Manischewitz have been lost along the way.

I give credit to Yidcore for introducing me to the very notion of Jewish punk in the first place. They made me want to dig deeper and find out everything I could in terms of other bands, books, and films. They helped me better understand my own Jewish identity and realize that I could be Jewish on my own terms. I will always cherish the memories from when I covered their 2006 U.S. tour for the Forward and got to spend quality time with the band's members. Whether it was the discussions we had when I put my clipboard down or the time that Bram, Myki, Rory, and I squeezed into the back seat of a car, I'll never forget my Almost Famous experience.

One last time, here is Yidcore singer (and vegetarian) Bram Presser in his own words.

1. Why is Yidcore calling it quits?
It's been ten years of something that was supposed to be a stupid one-night joke. We've had an awesome time, met tons of amazing people, toured with most of our heroes and sampled all the best falafel the world has to offer. Plus, when I was young and thin, getting naked and smearing hummus over myself on stage was funny. Now it scares even me. And I can't afford the amount of hummus it now [takes] these days. The death of our [rubber chicken] mascot, Scrambles, didn't really help things either.

2. Things are coming together for Jewish punk in the U.S. A few movies connecting Judaism and punk are in production. As far as bands go, Moshiach Oi! released an album of "Torah hardcore" in August, CAN!!CAN and The Shondes are working on new albums, and Di Nigunim is a delightful punk band with a klezmer slant rather than the other way around. What's your take on these developments?
Yeah, it's really cool. I've always said that punk and Judaism is a natural fit on so many levels, so let's hope it continues to grow. As for us, I hope we played a part in paving the way, perhaps providing a path between the early bands like Gefilte F*ck and the new breed. It was never commercially successful, but maybe that's the next step in the evolution of Jewish punk from which those bands can benefit. If not actual commercial success, then at least sustainable in the long term.

3. What legacy does Yidcore leave behind?

Filthy hummus-soaked stages around the world. A slew of dead Israeli songwriters whose fate can be directly attributed to their outspoken dislike of us (see Naomi Shemer). Lots of laughs. Showing people that it's OK to have fun with the culture/religion and that God won't strike you down with lightning for slaughtering sacred cows.

4. Do you have any parting words for Natalie Portman?

On our last album, we had a song "Natalie Portman, This Is Your Last Chance." What can I say, she missed out. She's too short for me anyway. And she was way hotter when she was 14 in Leon [released as The Professional in the U.S.]. Is that wrong?

Bram covered in hummus at Yidcore's final show

The Non-Jewish Side of My Jewish Punk Research

As regular heebnvegan readers know, I've written numerous posts and articles about Jewish punk. When I seek to learn more about bands that play Jewish-style music or discuss tangentially Jewish subject matter, I often ask musicians if they are Jewish. If they are, I try to learn more about how their Jewish identity influences their music. If they aren't Jewish, I often feel awkward because I don't mean to suggest that non-Jews shouldn't play Jewish-style music. Of course, inquiries into Jewish music would be superficial if they only addressed whether musicians are Jewish, as though they were just being name-dropped in Adam Sandler's "The Chanukah Song." My questions allow me to learn more about Jewish punk, but I do occasionally regret that they might seem shallow or myopic.

Some people (including Jews) don't appreciate this line of questioning. In his book The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk, author Steven Lee Beeber notes that Tamas "Tommy Ramone" Erdelyi (the drummer of The Ramones) asked, "Are you trying to out Jews with this book?" Richard "Hell" Meyers (the frontman of Richard Hell and the Voidoids) refused Beeber's request for an interview because he didn't want to be "defined" by his Jewish background. Beeber saw the importance of connecting musicians' Jewish identity to their art, but he couldn't help but reflect:

Was I merely trying to lay claim to a group of individuals who had no similarities other than a superficial cultural link? Was I using the worst sort of reductionist thinking and flattening them to two-dimensional representations of one thing and not another? Was my complicated argument based at bottom on a dichotomistic, black-and-white, overly simple division between "Jew" and "Gentile"? . . .

An argument could be made for this. I don't think it would hold. I am focusing on what I consider the 'Jewishness' of certain individuals, but in doing that I'm not saying that Jewishness is everything. I'm only saying that it plays, to varying degrees, a part.

No matter "how Jewish" musicians who play Jewish music or invoke Jewish themes might be, their relationship to Judaism is an important consideration. Here is some information about the non-Jews who have come up as part of my exploration of Jewish punk.

Netjajev SS
In 2005, I learned that Schizophrenic Records, a Canadian label and distribution company, was selling a split record featuring Sweden's Netjajev SS and Holland's Johnny Cohen & The New Age Nazis (see my article that talks about the latter band). Schizophrenic Records' Web site described the album as "2 Jewcore bands total HC [hardcore] Holocaust." A representative from the record label told me that "they are Jewish HC/street punk bands" and that "there is no room for anti semitic, neo nazi s*** at our label or distro or with the people we associate with." I e-mailed Netjajev SS to find out if the band had an anti-Semitic outlook and if any of the band members were Jewish. Band member Magnus Lundberg responded and claimed that "neither" is the case. I then purchased the album.

The cover for Netjajev SS features two Jewish stars. The song "Talmud Boy" includes the lyrics "How long can Steven Spielberg sniff Zyklon B gas?" and "[T]he righteous is da Jew we've to exterminate and all the circus monkeys... Exterminate!" If the band had any Jewish members, perhaps I'd look for some explanation of how those lyrics aren't as appalling as they seem, but I can't help but conclude that this song has a horribly offensive, unacceptable anti-Semitic outlook.

Dead Kennedys
That same year, I saw that Wikipedia and Jew Watch (check out an article about Jew Watch's anti-Semitic nature) listed Eric "Jello Biafra" Boucher, the founding frontman of the Dead Kennedys, as a Jew. I knew I couldn't trust either of those sources to be accurate. But I figured that Jello Biafra's potential Jewish background would offer fascinating insight into Dead Kennedys songs like "California Über Alles" and "Nazi Punks F*** Off."

Many months after I asked if he was Jewish, Jello Biafra e-mailed me to say, "I am not really Jewish. I found out recently I'm 1/8th, but I was not raised in a religious or ethnically conscious home." He added that the two songs I mentioned "are against fascism and violent fascist behavior," which I already knew. Had he actually considered himself Jewish (or been in touch with the Jewish roots he does have), it'd be fair to examine those songs in a different context.

Total Passover
In early 2006, I learned about Total Passover, a Jewish-themed punk band that played in Iowa in the early 1990s. I corresponded with some of the band's former members around that time and got to meet the band's ringleader, Andy Levy, later that year. I believe that Levy was the only Jew in the band, but the rest of the band members fondly recalled their days playing Jewish punk.

Bassist Tom Meehan said, "While I'm not Jewish, I did think the band was a good fit for me. . . . Even though I was born and confirmed Catholic, I proudly wore the Star of David around my neck. This really freaked my parents out!" Guitarist Jesse Trent said, "To me, being in Total Passover wasn't really about the whole Jewish thing. I mean, yeah, okay, I was down with the cause, and in fact, I too still own a star of David necklace that I wore even after I left the band. I was only Jewish by association. But I dug it." Guitarist Kurt Johnson added that "after my parents found out I was hanging around Jewish people they had me de-programmed and my head filled back up with the proper and correct Catholic dogma. So most of those Total Passover memories are lost to the ages ... along with any memory of owing Tom twenty dollars."

Photo courtesy of Tom Meehan

Zydepunks
In late 2006, I found out about the Zydepunks, a New Orleans band that mixes punk rock with various types of folk music, including klezmer sung in Yiddish. I e-mailed the band to find out what their connection to klezmer was, and frontman Christian Küffner said none of the band's members are Jewish. He added, "I'm certain there is Spanish Jewish ancestry on my mother's side, but how far it goes back I cannot tell." He said that accordion player Eve Venema was "the one who got us into Klezmer in the first place - she's a Judeaophile (from a Dutch Reformed family)."

When I met Venema at the 2006 Hanukkah tour that I covered for the Forward, she told me that she got into klezmer while living in Spain. At that tour's opening show, Küffner introduced the Zydepunks as "the honorary gentile band from Louisiana." And as I wrote in my article, "Bassist Paul Edmonds proudly wore a yarmulke on the second night of the tour, and Jewdriver quipped that he’d be Jewish by the end of Hanukkah." The Zydepunks didn't need to be Jewish to fit right in.

Jewdriver
On that same tour, I interviewed the lead singer of Jewdriver, who goes by the stage name "Ian Stuartstein." He told me that only two of the band's four members were Jewish. He said that while he and guitarist "Max Bagels" have a deep understanding of the meaning behind the group's Jewish shtick (e.g., lighting a menorah onstage, wearing yarmulkes while performing, having bagel fights, drinking Manischewitz wine, commenting on anti-Semitism), the two non-Jews in the band "just think it's funny."

Polka Madre
Yesterday, I saw Polka Madre in concert in Richmond, Virginia. The Mexico City-based band blends punk and polka, and according to their MySpace page, their "princip[al] influences lie in Jewish music and the old sounds of Gypsy and Eastern European cultures." The band includes clarinet, accordion, bass, guitar, and drums.

After Polka Madre's set, the band's merchandise salesperson gave me a button featuring the band's name and a Magen David. When I asked her about the symbolism, she said that the band plays klezmer and that one of the band members is half-Jewish. But frontman Eric Bergman then told me that there aren't any Jews in the band. He said that the extent of the band's Jewish connection is that he was born in Finland (he claimed that Finnish music and Jewish/Eastern European music are similar in nature) and that his mother had been to Israel three times. I'd probably look to write an article about the band's take on Jewish music if any of the band's members were Jewish, but a Jewish angle doesn't seem like an appropriate way to tell Polka Madre's story.

Update (6/17/09): Oi-vey
In February 2009, Menashe Yaakov of Moshiach Oi told me that following one of the band's performances, the DJ played the song "Saturday Night" by Oi-vey, which includes a "Hava Negila" interlude. The song appeared on a 2004 compilation called Cheap Sampler Vol. 3, which was released by the British record label Damaged Goods. Today, Ian from Damaged Goods told me, "Oi-vey was more of a made up name for a six-track EP (a double 7” called ‘The New Wave Of The Close Shave’ (Damgood 0111) each track was by different people including Snuff, Hard Skin and a few indie bands all doing spoof Oi songs, therefore Oi-vey. I’m pretty sure there were no Jewish connections, it was basically another band (Oizone) with me attempting to sing, just a good pun! Wish there was more of a story for you."

Etc.

Daniel Kliman's Mother Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit
heebnvegan readers may recall that Jewish vegetarian activist Dr. Daniel Kliman passed away last year and was apparently found dead in an elevator shaft. (Click here to read my obituary post.) According to J., Kliman's mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit earlier this month seeking "damages from the building owner, manager and elevator company."

I never met Kliman, but our correspondence and his e-mails to VeggieJews continue to play a major role in how I view "the contradictions in [people's] lives" and strive to "to pursue every one of those paths with total integrity," as one person eulogized about Kliman at his funeral. This is evident in my "The Use of Animal Products in Jewish Ritual Objects" speech, which I posted on heebnvegan on Sunday. If you read that speech as well as the obituary and eulogy posts I just linked to, it's obvious how Kliman's example continues to inspire and guide me.

Natalie Portman and Brothers
Natalie Portman's new film, Brothers, came out earlier this month. In 2008, I noted that Portman had gone vegan while making the movie with vegan co-star Tobey Maguire. My best guess is that it didn't last because, more recently, she credited Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals with getting her to go vegan.

Nevertheless, earlier this month, The PETA Files noted that Maguire brought his own vegan chef to the set and made it easy for Portman to eat vegan food there. PETA's blog quoted Portman as saying, "I was like, 'Um, could you make two of those?' And I'd make a cute face, and they'd roll their eyes and give me another falafel." As much as I'm trying to cut back on fried food, I must say that it appears Portman and I share a fondness for falafel.

Monkey Breeding and Anti-Semitism in Puerto Rico
Earlier this month YNet reported, "Anti-Semitism has been injected into a public debate over a proposed monkey-breeding facility in Puerto Rico, with some opponents accusing 'Jewish economic interests' of attempting to destroy the island’s environment, the Anti-Defamation League said last week." I have concerns about the facility, but it's unfortunate that anti-Semitism has become part of this debate. An alert on PETA's Web site explains:

PETA is joining animal protection groups around the world in opposing the construction of a monkey-breeding facility in Puerto Rico. Bioculture, a company that sells primates to laboratories, reportedly wants to capture monkeys from their natural homes in Mauritius, imprison them in Puerto Rico, and sell their babies for use in experiments.

The U.S., which uses more monkeys for research than any other nation, imprisons tens of thousands of imported monkeys in laboratories, where they lead lives of deprivation, loneliness, pain, and misery.

Recommended Reading

• "The First Six Months of Tav HaYosher" (The Jew & The Carrot, Dec. 17)
• "Yidcore Does Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song" (Teruah, Dec. 13)
• "Let the Vegan Latkes Roll In This Hanukkah" (Examiner.com, Dec. 11)
• "A Chat With Frank Bruni and Jonathan Safran Foer" (Serious Eats: New York, Dec. 8)
• "Ag Professor: Animal Rights Advocates Using Religion" (Journal Star, Dec. 1)
• "Salon: The End of American Foie Gras and Unintended Consequences" (Fork in the Road, Nov. 30)
• "Empire's Kosher Beef Production Shut Down by Court Order" (Failed Messiah, Nov. 12)
• "Battle of the Milk Alternatives" (The Jew & The Carrot, Nov. 11)