Remember the LGBT activist (truth is I thought he was a secular activist - I did not know he was an LGBT activist and openly homosexual until I just looked up some information about him) who was upset, just a few weeks ago, about Ishay Ribo's growing popularity and how frequently his songs, and other "faith music" songs, are being played on secular radio stations?

We all, me included, told him to "get outta town", so to speak. Don't like it, turn the station. Oh you cant, because his music is playing there as well? Put in a tape, or cd, or connect your phone Bluetooth and or mp3 player to the car radio and play what you want. If the people want Ishay Ribo's music, who is Gal Uchovsky to say Ishay Ribo does not deserve to be on the radio?

Well, it turns out, Uchovsky has good company. SOme haredim want him banned as well, from the Haredi community playlists.

According to a report on Actualic, a Baid Yaakov teacher in Modiin Ilit told the girls under her purview that they are not allowed to listen to songs by Meir Green in the school complex. She said his song, that a girl had been playing, is not appropriate for Bais Yaakov.

The teacher then went on to make an approved list of Jewish performers whose songs can be listened to an enjoyed. The limited list includes MBD, Avraham Fried, Yaakov Shwekey and Moti Steinmetz.

That's it. The girls can only listen to those four singers. Not Benny Friedman, not Ari Goldwag, not Mordechai Shapiro, not Simcha Leiner, not Yonatan Razel, not Shlomo Katz or Eitan Katz...and the list of banned singers goes on and on...

One of the students asked about Ishay Ribo. The teacher responded that Ribo's songs are full of good content and meaning, but they are not appropriate for the Haredi community.

birds of a feather. We laughed, or scoffed, at Uchovsky when he said it...

though I would like to know what the teacher meant. If the songs, in her opinion, are good content and full of meaning, why are they not appropriate for the Haredi community?

An article in Mako is complaining about hadata, or religious coercion, in the form of faith-based music.

The author has a problem that he turns on the radio in his car and hears two men singing a song being played about asking God to save us. And this is on Galgalatz, the IDF music station, not religious radio. He changes the station and hears two men singing a song about God. He switches to a third station and hears Neta Barzilai (the recent Israeli Eurovision winner with the chicken clucking song), Moshe Peretz and Omer Adam singing about the great God. He goes back to Galgalatz figuring the song will soon be over and something else will be playing, but the next song playing is also similar to those.

According to Gal Ochovsky, faith-based music is the hottest genre in Israel right now. Ishay Ribo is the hottest concert ticket in town. According to Ochovsky, Ishay Ribo consistently steps up the religious coercion in his songs, with his latest release being the ultimate in faith music, with the next step being separate-gender concerts and no female singers will be broadcast on the radio.

Ochovsky claims the religious are conquering the airwaves. He claims that the religious singers and performers, such as Ishay Ribo, Shuli Rand, Amir Benayoun, Hanan Ben Ari, and others, are trying to turn everyone religious through their music.

Ochovsky says that this is what the religious radio stations are for. Tefillot should not be on the general radio stations. He claims there is a direct line between these songs and Rav Firer's evening event that was cancelled and songs like Vetain Chelkainu that had only male performers participating about gemara-learning groups that only men learn in (I guess he has not heard about the women's daf yomi).

Ochovsky says this is not a musical trend, but it is a faith campaign. The music is not really music - all you need is a nice melody, a guitar and that everyone should realize the song is about God and we believe and thank Him, and nobody cares about production and quality and musical notes. He protests that stations like Galgalatz are in on that action.

While singers like Omer Adam and Eyal Golan and the like can get away with the occasional song like Modeh Ani and Mee Shemaamin lo Mefached and others like that because it is diversity in their repertoire, and they perform alongside women. There is a certain sense of the Middle Eastern tradition in this, and not something overtly religious.

Ishay Ribo can sing about whatever he wants, with whoever he wants. He can sit with Natan Goshen and cry out to God all day long to save them, but these are missionary type songs. Right now Ishay Ribo only performs separately once a year, but in a few years he will add more and more gender-separate concerts, and he'll start performing with singers like Yonatan and Ahron Razel who will request gender-segregation.

According to ochovsky this faith-music industry is an attempt to subvert the secular character of the State and turn it more religious.

Personally I doubt Ishay Ribo is attacking anything and trying to change the country, but I really know nothing about his inner feelings and motivations. I do see how Gal Ochovsky is worried and feels threatened by the success of singers like Ishay Ribo, because extremism is regularly spreading, as we saw by the Rav Firer event (in the sense that suddenly an event with secular performers in front of a secular audience was justified for excluding women).

I get that Ochovsky sees a trend that he does not like, but this is the free market. People like Ishay Ribo's music and the radio stations play it because it brings in the listeners and therefore the advertising revenue. Ishay Ribo is not banning women - he is a lone singer who sometimes collaborates with other singers but he performs before mixed crowds. Assuming he wont in two or three years is just an assumption. He should not be banned from the radio waves just because Gal Ochovsky is making an assumption about something that might or might not happen. I can understand the secular radio stations not playing Mordechai Ben David and Motti Steinmetz music, should they choose not to, as a way of taking a stand, because those types of performers do behave in ways that the secular community eschews, and those performers eschew the secular community, so I can understand not giving them a platform. Banning Ishay Ribo and others like him seems to me to be an overstep.

this gemach notice appeared in a local ad booklet..

HatTip to Shui Haber

this raises a number of questions in my mind..
1. what is an amber gemach - what is amber, and how does it prevent jaundice?
2. Let's make a deal - isnt giving out 9000 frum songs for free stealing? Are the various artists getting paid for this music? Have they all agreed for their music to be distributed free of charge for this lofty purpose?
3. does it matter how many non-Jewish music files I have? if I delete 10 songs, will I still get 9000 frum songs or is it on some weighted scale?
4. what does "also applicable if you own only Jewish music" mean? - what am I supposed to delete to get the 9000 frum songs? delete all my Avraham Fried songs to get them back plus more?

I heard on the radio last night in the name of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe that the tune for the song Hava Nagila was originally a holy hassidic tune that was later appropriated by the Zionists.

I see the Hebrew wikipedia page does say that the tune was originally of Hassidic origin, originating from the Chernobler sect but commonly used in a number of sects including Belz, Chabad, Rozhyn, Karlin and others. It also says the tune is commonly played at the 7th circuit on Simchas Torah and also by some sects at the simchas beis hashoeva. The Vizhnitzer Rebbe told his hassidim in 2015 to sing the tune, without the words, at the simchas beis hashoeva, as it is a holy tune taken by the zionists and it is their responsibility to bring it back to its holy source. It only became a "Zionist" song in 1917 when Avraham Tzvi Edelsohn composed it to celebrate Allenby's arrival in Jerusalem, which many saw at the time as a precursor to the arrival of mashiach.

I never knew this. Fascinating.

I really enjoyed this clip...


This video is a project that I've been super excited to create for sometime and eternally grateful to all those who came together to bring it to life. The purpose of this video is to pay tribute to the singers and performers from the 20th century until today highlighting well known songs, concerts and music videos.
So get ready to dance, sing along and enjoy this nostalgic journey through the evoluton of Jewish music.

and now I just found out about Michoel Streicher's Kol D'Ovid Rachmana.. originally a song by Boney M called Rasputin...

what particularly draws me into this one is the similarity in style (not the music but the costumes and dancing) to the Ghenghis Khan video MBD took a song from... the 70s were really insane...

Michoel Streicher's..


Rasputin: (tzniyus alert)


Ghenghis Khan:

Radio Kol Berama has started a new radio station that is 'all Jewish music, all the time". You can find it at 96.3 on the FM dial. It is very nice and literally plays music all the time.

I have yet to hear even a single word outside of music - no intros, no talk programs, no news, no traffic, no advertising, no nothing. If you stumbled across the station and listened to it all day long you very well might never even know who is behind it - they don't even mention Kol Berama's name.

And I think it is, unfortunately, destined to fail. Probably within a few short weeks.

Radio Kol Hai tried such a station a little while back and after two weeks they shut it down and converted it to just another frequency broadcast of their regular station. The reasoning given at the time was the obvious - they could not afford to keep it open, as their was no advertising funding it.

Radio Kol Berama is probably heading towards the same conclusion.

If they would look around at all the other "all music" radio stations they would see that none of them function in this manner - they all have all music with breaks for advertising, and the regular mention of the name of the station. Some also have combinations of news headlines at the top of the hour, traffic reports, and weather flashes... but they all have the name of the station mentioned regularly along with regular advertising. Without it, the station has only expenses and no revenue, and no station can function like that. The money behind it only goes so far when no new money is coming in...

It seems strange to say this, but please - whether Kol Beraama or anybody else who tries to start such a station - put the normal amount of advertising in to the music broadcasts. If not, the station will be short-lived...

Radio Kol Hai's Menachem Toker has opened a front against Lipa Shmelzer.

Lipa's newest song, Buha Buha, which is not yet on Youtube but can be heard in this Kikar article, is creating quote a stir.

The song describes first how Lipa went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky for a bracha. Rav Kanievsky said "buha buha". Lipa asked the gabbai what buha buha means, and the gabbai explained it is an abbreviation of "bracha vhatzlacha" - בו"ה, and that Rav Kanievsky does not say the entire set of words out because he is busy learning and saying these words is bittul torah, so he minimizes his words. Lipa goes on to say how great it is that Rav kanievsky is so involved in his learning that even that little bit bothers him, yet he still sees and blesses all these people so they would not get insulted.

In the second part of the song, Lipa goes on to relate a story when he went t visit the Tosher Rebbe. After waiting for a long time, all night long, and it was about to be his turn, the gabbai came out and said the rebbe has to go eat before dawn.

Toker decided that this song is seriously disrespectful to the gedolim and he refuses to play it. Radio Kol Hai has reportedly backed him and gave instructions to all their show hosts to not play this song.

When I first listened to it, it truthfully sounded strange and disrespectful. As I listened though and paid attention to the words, it seemed to me to be very respectful and even expressed admiration - at least in the story with Rav Chaim Kanievsky. I still do not understand the point of the story with the Tosher Rebbe.

Lipa is a strange bird in general and seems to enjoy pushing the envelope...

What do you think about this song - is it respectful or disrespectful?

Something interesting started happening a few years ago. At first I thought it was just some cute marketing ploy to draw in more people.

What I am referring to is "Hassidic singers", even superstars of the Jewish music world, arranging concerts to sing with Israeli singers. At first it was off to a slow start. It only happened once in a while. Now, it seems every other concert has such an arrangement. You'll have Yaakov Shweckey singing with Rami Kleinstein this week. Last week Avraham Fried sang with Yehoram Gaon. Yonatan Razel has sung with a number of different Israeli performers. Both Shweckey and Fried have done this before with other Israeli singers. There have probably been others as well.

These singers do not have any real overlap. Israelis who listen to singers like Gaon, Kleinstein, Shlomi Shabbat and others, don't listen much to hassidic pop stars like Fried and Shweckey. and fans and followers of Fried, Shweckey and other Hassidic pop stars generally do not follow Israeli music and mostly don't even know who people like Kleinstein, Gaon and Shabbat are. So, doing this is really new exposure. It is exposing the singers to a new crowd, and it is exposing the crowd to new singers, of an entirely different genre.

I don't know what the purpose of it is. I don't know what the goal is. Do they want the frum crowd to start appreciating Israeli music more? Do they want the Israeli singers to sing with a bit more Jewish flavor, as they likely adjust for the frum crowd? Something else?

I dont know the answer. I suspect it has something to do with the realization that Israel is the future of the Jewish people, and this is a natural integration for the music crowd into a more Israeli culture.

Any thoughts?

interesting project

While driving last night I heard something interesting on the radio.

Radio Kol Hai was hosting some singers, and one mentioned that the famous song "Channukah, Oh Channukah" was really originally a hassidic tune. He said that many kids have said that their grandmother composed it, but it is true for this one kid (I dont remember the name). He claimed it was a lady who composed it - a Ger Hassid (Hassida?) - in Tel Aviv. This lady taught it to her students and then it just spread and was translated to different languages.

He went on to sing it without the words as if it would be sung as a Hassidic melody.

I thought that was on the one hand cool, and on the other hand a bit suspicious. When I got home I did a search to see if it is really true or not. It seems, at least according to Wikipedia, that the originals of this song pre-date the Ger Hassid community of Tel Aviv. It has been traced back to at least 1909, and the origin was in Yiddish...

That does not mean the composer was not a Ger Hassida, but it was not a Ger Hassida from Tel Aviv in the 1950s or 1960s....

anybody have more knowledge on this?

I personally eschew any form of Jewish celebration or enjoyment in non-Jewish religious holidays. I really eschew any involvement in non-Jewish religious events or locations. Meaning, I will not visit churches or mosques, or the like, I will not reminisce about all the great and emotional Christmas music I might have heard on the radio growing up in the USA, or the shows and culture I might have seen on television and movies growing up in the USA. I will not reminisce about the lights and trees and nativity scenes I used to see on neighbors lawns and miss oh so terribly . 

My form of Jewish pride is pride in being Jewish and not looking to the non-Jewish holidays and culture to make me feel good. That is for them, and this is for us. I admit, I am sure my lifestyle includes plenty of non-Jewish culture that I ingested as a child in America, but I will not spend time and energy pining for their religious holidays and surrounding culture.

This introduction to the post is more than just a comment on the report that will be below. It is also a rejection of the common trend I have seen in the past few years, but much more so this year, of Jews, even frum Jews, posting on Facebook and Twitter and other places, about how much they miss the holidays, or they post their Christmas memories, or what they miss most about Christmas now that they are in Israel, etc. Chrsitmas is out of bounds for me - not because I ban it, but because as a Jew I don't see Christmas, or other religious holidays and church culture, as being relevant to me, even if as a young man and child I did enjoy the tv shows or music of the holiday.

That is also true of the following report on bechadrei. The Beit Jimal monastery held Christmas services last night. it seems there was a significant group of Jewish spectators, mostly out of curiosity I imagine, from Bet Shemesh. Among the group of spectators were also religious and even haredi people.

According to the report, these frum spectators in a church at a religious holiday service, were shocked, SHOCKED, to suddenly hear as part of the service, a popular Jewish religious song. The song they heard sung by the nuns of Beit Jimal was the song "Avinu Av HaRachaman" written about 30 years ago by R' Chaim Bennet for the Seret-Vishnitz rebbe.

If you listen to the song in the video below (decide for yourself on kol isha relevance), you will notice that they sang a beautiful rendition of the song, but they garbled some of the words - specifically every time it mentions "Torah"


אבינו אב הרחמן של ר' חיים בנט במיסת חג המולד בבית גמאל from bhol on Vimeo.

The article expresses the shock and anger of these spectators, and eventually of the original composer after he was told of what was witnessed, that this song written by a God-fearing Jew for holy purposes could be used by the church in this way, sung by nuns for their own holy day. Bennet himself, the composer, sounded hurt when he heard how his song was being used.

I am not sure why the issue being made is of the church using a Jewish song in their services, albeit with slight changes. The real issue should be is why Jews, even frum Jews, are going to a non-Jewish religious service in a church. They claim curiosity, even knowing it is prohibited, is what drew them to attend the services. It seems to me that religious Jews going to a church on a religious holiday for services is much more shocking and troubling than nuns singing a Jewish song.

And furthermore, to the reported issue itself, should it really be shocking that they used one of our songs? Does it affect the holiness or spirituality of the original music (if there is any) just because someone else chose to sing it? Is there really any reason to care what they sing? And looking at it objectively, we do exactly the same thing so often - how many Jewish songs were originally non-Jewish songs? How many Polish marches were converted  into hassidic nigunim? Is it ok to take their music for our needs, but not for them to take our music for their needs?

The entire episode is shocking, but more so that frum Jews are actively involving themselves in celebrations of a Christian holiday.

If you feel you need to clean out your ears and head after hearing the nuns sing for their religious services, feel free to listen to a Jewish rendition of the original song, with all the words...

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