Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood

Copyright

This book was funded in part by grants from: The Leonard Bernstein Family Foundation, Inc. The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. The Leonore and Ira Gershwin Trust for the Benefit of the Library of Congress For the Library of Congress W. Ralph Eubanks, Publisher Iris Newsom, Editor Stephen Kraft, Designer For SUNY Press Michael Haggett, production Fran Keneston, marketing SUNY series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture Sarah Blacher Cohen, editor Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gottlieb, Jack. Funny, it doesn’t sound Jewish : how Yiddish songs and synagogue melodies influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood / Jack Gottlieb p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0-8444-1130-2 1. Jews--United States--Music--History and criticism. 2. Popular music--United States--History and criticism. 3. Folk songs, Yiddish--History and criticism. I. Title. ML3776.G65 2004 781.64’089’924073--dc22 2003044257 Copyright ©2004 by Jack Gottlieb. All rights reserved. James Peltz, editor In loving memory of my father (1890-1957) Born Moshe ben Pesakh—“Moses, son of Pascal”—in Pinsk, Russia. Moses, meaning “drawn from the water,” was a harbinger of his future occupation as a small hand-laundry owner. He became Morris after his arrival at Ellis Island in 1909 via Rotterdam, Holland. Morris, meaning “moorish” or “swarthy,” was an unlikely symbolic change since he labored indoors from pre-dawn to after sundown. His greatest joy was to write Yiddish lyrics and sing them to his own mandolin playing. In my father’s youth, the following statement appeared in print: “If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of . . . His contribution to the world’s list of great names in literature, science , art and music, finance, medicine and obtuse learning are very out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.” —mark twain, “Concerning the Jews,” Harpers Magazine, September, 1899 ...