You’re not going to get away from Jewish stuff for a while because, as someone posted on Facebook, “The more you hate us, the Jewisher we get.” Well, reader Debra Coplan sent me the first video below of “The Shvesters” (Yiddish for “The Sisters”), who aren’t real sisters but sing acapella in a jazz-infused Yiddish. There’s a short collection of their songs on Instagram. Debra said this:
I just love the Yiddish singing of the Shvester Sisters. The song below is sad but so beautiful. They sing old Yiddish songs my grandmother sang so it brings lovely memories. But even without my memories, these songs have so much feeling.
When I added that most of my Jewish relatives live around Pittsburgh, Debra added, “Mention that my grandmother Rose sang Yiddish on WAMO Radio Station in Pittsburgh. She also was the singer on WAMO for the Manischewitz Chicken Soup ad.”
And again, this is music new to me that I actually like. But of course I’m genetically predisposed to like it! Here are two of the 38 songs on their site, and I haven’t heard them all.
This first one is sad and not jazzed up; the description is above:
The Jewish Journal has an article about the Sisters, whose real names are Polina Fradkin and Chava Levi. An excerpt:
“We want to create, and to bring back Yiddish Jazz” says Chava, as we are wrapping up our conversation. “It has definitely been lacking. When I listen to contemporary Yiddish music, I can’t help but think ‘oh what I wish I could change to make it feel more like you want to dance to it.’” The Shvesters do not just make us want to move our feet to Yiddish; their music makes us long for Yiddish. In an age when social media and fast-moving content flushes out connection to culture and to our ancestors, we all crave an opportunity to be back, at nine years old, in the kitchen at Pesach. It warms our hearts, it links us to our loved ones, and it inspires us to keep being Jewish. “We’re taking something that is dying to be back into the mainstream,” says Polina, “and bringing it into the light in a new, sophisticated, and exciting way.”
Something jazzier, with some scatting:
One more:
h/t: Debra
I didn’t realize they weren’t sisters! The songs are just so moving.
I liked all three songs, a music I haven’t heard before, and the singers are so good looking too. 🙂
Wow, that is such beautiful singing! Thanks for sharing.
I must becoming Jewish too. Quite a feat for an atheist. I loved their singing. Thanks for the inspiration.
Makes me want to be Jewish.
Speaking of Yiddish music, do you know the Jewish US comedian-musician Mickey Katz (1909–1985)? If not, I recommend the wonderful album Strictly Kosher: The Singles Collection 1950-1962, which is freely available at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KrQz2h0oNE&list=OLAK5uy_k3rakLsnj_gxXYD8X8sDOy_Xbmhpv6364&index=2
One of my favorites is “Nudnik the Flying Schissel”:
Nice! When my grandparents—particularly on my mother’s side—didn’t want the grandchildren to know what they were talking about, they said it in Yiddish. Even my parents did this on rare occasions, but they were born in the U.S. and only knew a few words of Yiddish, so I always knew what they were talking about even if they didn’t want me to!
If you want to hear Yiddish & see a good movie, watch Menashe (2017) by Joshua Z. Weinstein! Here’s the trailer:
and here the original (I suppose):
Thank goodness! Finally!
Here I am wasting my money and time on all that dead white male insulin and everything – when actually prayer circles and chanting and indigenous knowledge was what I needed all along! Sheesh!
THANKS JOE!
If the other side weren’t so deeply, profoundly retarded I’d not vote D. anymore.
D.A.
(thin white male diabetic who reads actual real science)
NYC