Path to Confirmation

Dear parents of Path to Confirmation students:

Last night we finished our unit on Diversity (for now), this time focusing on music. We talked again about the diverse makeup of people in Israel and how they each brought with them from their various lands their liturgies, their foods, their languages, and their own traditions: all “spiced up” with that land’s traditions. This is similar to the situation here in North America, where we have people who have immigrated here from all over the world and created the mosaic/melting pot of what we call American culture.
 

I played some samples of Jewish liturgy in different styles for the students to hear, identifying them as Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi. Then I taught them all a modern (from the 70s) song sung by Arik Einstein, called “Ma Iti,” “What’s with me?”
 

Then I played a Mizrahi style version of the same song, sung by Kobi Oz. This was just a small example of how the Mizrahi culture has influenced modern Israeli music, and sometimes can even improve a beloved classic song, like the right spice can improve food.

In case you are curious, videos of the two versions of the song can be found here http://makomisrael.org/blog/musical-blog-west-east/, narrated by my friend and mentor Robbie Gringras. Your teen may enjoy these videos, since we only saw part of one in class.
 

We also discussed the holidays of Novy God (Russian) and Sigd (Ethiopian Jewish), which have now been accepted in Israel as holidays, and are examples of immigrant culture influencing the dominant culture.
 

After dinner, we met with Ed Ginsburg on the “hot topic” of climate change and Jewish approaches to the environment. I had to leave in the middle to run another session, but I hope your teen enjoyed the discussion. Later, we played gaga as part of the CJL Winter Maccabiah.
 

Here’s wishing you a safe and pleasant two weeks with your teen, until we meet back on January 2. I will be sending you a summary of what we have done so far this year and my plan for Jan-May 2019.
 

Kol tuv, Judy