It’s All About the Music

By Rachel Pollack
Columbia/JTS

As the ennui of the last week of a seemingly endless winter break settled over me, I tuned into a new reality show, called "The Surreal Life," in which six celebrities live together in a garish house for a number of weeks. Vanilla Ice, a former rap star, is one of the personalities featured. When asked about his old career, he said "it’s all about the music," and not about his old image, which he actually hates, indicated by the graffiti he painted all over his portrait. (The portraits of each of the houseguests grace one wall of the living room.) In a sense, while I may not have appreciated his defacement of the house, the theory of creation he espoused while in the Jacuzzi with his housemates, nor his spontaneous colorful language while buying groceries, his comment about music was quite perceptive.

Music draws people together. The audience at any concert you may attend will probably contain an array of people, a diverse crowd brought together by a common love for a particular sound. When people come together to listen to music -- or to sing music -- it does become "all about the music" and individual differences seem to evaporate. While some people may gravitate toward James Taylor or Aerosmith, Jewish a cappella has a particular attraction for an increasing number of Jews.

Jewish music has a way of attracting Jews from all backgrounds. Pizmon, the Jewish a cappella group of Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, is comprised of a diverse group of Jewish students who run the gamut on the religious spectrum. For some, music is the only way to relate to Judaism, from the ancient traditional liturgical melodies themselves, to the Hebrew words of modern Israeli rock songs.

I have always been drawn to all types of music and to Jewish music in particular. While music is not my only tie to my Jewish identity, it has been an integral one, from my early years in elementary school choruses, to chamber choirs to Pizmon. Our repertoire includes a wide selection of pieces including anything from psalms set to music, to purely secular Hebrew rock. Each piece, because of its Jewish character, be it cultural or religious, allows me to strengthen my connection to my Jewish identity.

One thing that makes Pizmon special, is its ability to connect other Jews equally well to their Judaism, even those who are not musically inclined. We hope to inspire every person we reach with our music. Whether we sing for fifth graders in a Los Angeles day school or a Sunday school class in Norfolk or even in a synagogue in Buenos Aires, we see our own love of Jewish music reflected back at us in our audiences.

[Posted 1/22/04]