Ocean State Libraries

"A comprehensive examination of Jewish influence and participation in the American popular music business, that weaves together cultural, political, musical and economic history."--

A guide to the history and appreciation of Jewish music. Includes simple arrangements for many of the songs discussed.

Klezmer is Yiddish music, the music of the Jews of Europe and America, music of laughter and tears, of weddings and festivals, of dancing and prayer. Born in the middle Ages, it came of age in the shtetl (the Eastern European Jewish country town), where "a wedding without klezmer is worse than a funeral without tears." Most of the European klezmorim (klezmer players) were murdered in the Holocaust; in the last 25 years, however, klezmer has been reborn,...

"The story of the world's most famous Jewish song, "Havah Nagilah," as told by the song herself."--