Twas The Night Before Hanukkah: Jewish Songwriters And The Christmas Songbook

Thursday, December 06, 2012

Cover of "Twas The Night Before Hanukkah"

It's December, and that means that the airwaves are full of holiday music -- well, Christmas music. But when was the last time you heard a Hanukkah song on the radio or at the mall? Now, a new compilation from the archivists at the Idelsohn society, Twas The Night Before Hanukkah: The Musical Battle Between Christmas And The Festival Of Lights, explores both the musical history of Hanukkah in the U.S., as well as the influence of Jewish songwriters and singers on America's Christmas songbook.

"This battle is everywhere" says music preservationist and Idelsohn society member Josh Kun, who first intended to create a musical history of Hanukkah. But when he started digging deeper, he says, "We started realizing, wait a minute, the most Jewish of holiday music just may be all of the Christmas songs written and performed by Jews."

The battle has also been the process of assimilation, and over Jewish identity."These songs are the soundtrack to the internal battle that so many American Jews have been having since the late 19th century when both of these songbooks began to take shape," Kun explains.

This is the main concern of a 1967 song included in the collection by Ray Brenner and Barry E. Blitzer, "The Problem": "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells / If Santa Claus is true / His joy is fun for everyone / But what's a Jew to do?"

We hear how Jewish-American songwriters worked to make Hanukkah a more prominent holiday -- and Christmas a more secular one.

Guests:

Josh Kun

Comments [2]

alanwright

Great program - especially for agnostics like me who don't wish to be imposed on by Christmas or Chanukah traditions, much less holiday music.

In December, that's simply impossible though. The 'holidays' are pervasive at home, in the public realm (light displays, at city hall, at libraries, in the highway traffic, etc), on radio, on television, in stores. There's no escape. You must enjoy the holidays, and you must be happy, whether you're happy or not!

I simply cannot imagine Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist holidays become as secular and pervasive as Christmas has. That process has required a great deal of syncretism, given that Jesus was not born in December, his birth was not a miracle (his conception is said to be so and birth is merely a natural result of that), and Christmas recognizes a Dutch tradition of gift-giving from a 5th Century Greco-Turkish saint.

Well at the very least, modern Christmas music has become secularized by Irving Berlin, Felix Bernard, Mel Tormé, Sammy Cahn, etc. While that may make Christmas music more tolerable and marketable, it has probably helped make both the music and the holiday more pervasive and more secular too.

I'm not certain that's a good result, because even as the Christian holiday of Christmas became more secular in the 20th Century, it's influence as an national institution has grown. It is a holiday which is often for consumption and family - rather like Thanksgiving - than whatever were its Christian and Pagan roots.

Had Jewish musicians not secularized Christmas tunes as "holiday" music, would the holiday be as pervasive now? Probably. Enterprising capitalists and marketers would probably have found another way to sell it.

Dec. 10 2012 01:47 PM

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Sheryl from Queens, NY

I am VERY disappointed that the ONLY Chanukah music you will cover this Chanukah season just had to include Christmas music. OK that is what this CD is-but you did NOT have to choose THIS CD as the one you covered for your show!

Does WNYC just have to cover Christmas when doing a show about Chanukah?? Isn't there enough coverage of Christmas and Christmas music on the air, in the stores, everywhere you turn?

How nice it would have been to play a pod cast for my children to actually hear Chanukah music on the radio.

Shame on you! Happy Chanukah!

Dec. 06 2012 09:23 PM

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