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Women's Voice and Song February_shma.qxd:Layout 1 1/22/07 12:48 PM Page 10 Aharon, defines itself a priori as the most modernity to some degree, different camps religiously stringent and uncompromisingly arise. This multi-vocality reflects the complex - committed to halakhah. A hierarchical struc - ity of the ultra-Orthodox society, demonstrat - ture, therefore, develops according to the de - ing that different camps — even in the most gree of commitment to tradition and extreme groups — exist, and that even they halakhah each group displays. Since the mem - are not invulnerable to the influence of bers of Toldot Aharon inevitably adapt to modern society. Women’s Voice and Song Asya Vaisman n a Sunday two years ago, I set out for the though women do sing during all-female gath - Oneighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn erings — for example, at a party for a bride to record Hasidic women singing Yiddish songs. the weekend before her wedding. Women My first appointment was with Mrs. F., who had seem to sing most when they are school-age told me on the telephone that she knew a num - and when they have small children. As they ber of Yiddish songs but did not have a good get older, women generally sing less, to the voice. As part of the interview, I asked her about point where many of the women interviewed the songs. “I’m not into singing,” she replied, who were in their sixties claimed to have for - insisting that she never sings. When I reminded gotten all the songs they knew for lack of occa - her of our earlier conversation, she reluctantly sions to sing. There are, of course, many conceded that she did know a few songs. When exceptions, such as women who run daycare she began singing, it turned out that one of the centers or teach small children. songs was actually a lengthy ballad to which she Most of the songs I’ve collected have some knew all of the words. This pattern was repeated religious content — songs about Jewish holi - during many of my interviews: women would days, faith, and the role of God in the life of deny knowing or singing songs and would then Hasidim. There are also historical songs, proceed to sing extensively. mostly about the Holocaust, as well as lullabies At the end of the interview, Mrs. F. took and songs with stories from the Torah. The me to several of her neighbors’ apartments, songs about the Holocaust are particularly in - from which I acquired a large repertoire of teresting and disproportionately popular in songs — Sabbath songs, children’s songs the community. These songs struggle with dif - about biblical figures, elaborate songs from ficult theological questions, such as how far a musicals, and some original compositions. Jew can go to save his life. The responsibility to The material I collected is mostly unknown make a decision between pikuach nefesh (saving to people outside the Hasidic community. Kol one’s life) and kiddush haShem (dying for one’s isha, the halakhic regulation of a woman’s faith) lay on the shoulders of ordinary people, Asya Vaisman was born voice, forbids Hasidic women from performing not wise rabbis with years of halakhic training. in Chernovtsy, Ukraine. publicly or recording songs; additionally, the In one song, for example, a mother is forced She is a PhD student insular nature of Hasidic communities makes to leave her child with non-Jews to protect studying Yiddish at this material almost inaccessible. The inter - him, and she warns the child: “Don’t speak an - Harvard University, views I conducted with women from Satmar, other Yiddish word, don’t sing another Yid - working on Yiddish Ger, Bobov, and Tolner Hasidic communities dish song, but remember in your heart that songs and singing prac - provide rich insights into the role that songs you are a Jew.” In another song, a woman sings tices of Hasidic women. and singing play in a Hasidic woman’s life. a lullaby to a child she had adopted whose She is also a Yiddish mother had been killed by the Nazis. singer and songwriter. The Yiddish songs I heard were learned (http://www.people.fas.h by the women primarily in one of four ways: While the melodies of most songs are orig - arvard.edu/~vaisman/s at music classes in all-girls’ schools, at all-girls’ inal, some children’s songs are sung to non- ongs/) camps, at home, or from tapes. Generally, the Jewish melodies — like a song about body girls are given photocopied booklets with song parts sung to the tune of “Frère Jacques” and lyrics, and they learn the melodies to the a Rosh Hashanah song to the tune of “Oh My February 2007 Adar 5767 songs by ear. They almost always sing in Darling Clementine.” Women usually do not To subscribe: 877-568-SHMA groups or choirs, and this affects their style of seem to be aware that these melodies origi - www.shma.com singing. Singing at home is less frequent, al - nate from outside their community. 10 February_shma.qxd:Layout 1 1/22/07 12:48 PM Page 11 Most of the Yiddish songs that I have col - ings, they do not sing these songs as often. lected are sung regularly only by women. Men Much can be learned about Hasidic generally sing niggunim , songs without words, or culture by examining the songs of Hasidic songs in Hebrew, rather than in Yiddish. While women, speaking to the women who sing women know the men’s songs from hearing them, and learning about their singing their husbands singing and from public gather - practices. Shas: A Religious Response to Cultural Distress Avi Picard or more than fifteen years, ultra-Ortho - cess in the 1996 elections, for instance, to the Fdox political representors in Israel’s Knes - distribution of amulets by the kabbalist Rabbi set have come from a group whose own Kadouri. They explained the large turnout in standing in ultra-Orthodox society is second - 1999 as a protest vote against the indictment ary, namely Sephardic Haredim. The ultra- of Shas leader Aryeh Deri and the 2006 vote as Orthodox worldview, of course, developed a protest against the economic policies of among Eastern European Jews struggling to then-Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. define themselves against the Haskalah, Jew - But these explanations can be easily re - ish Enlightenment, and Zionism. In Israel, futed, and the need for a different explana - likewise, ultra-Orthodox society is essentially tion for each election suggests that something Ashkenazi; those who refuse to use Hebrew as deeper is at work. a mundane language speak instead the lan - Social activists, meanwhile, ascribe Shas’s guage of Ashkenazi Jews, Yiddish. How, then, success to the social services it provides, from has it happened that the principal ultra-Or - formal and informal education to hot meals thodox representation in the Knesset belongs for the poor. But a statistical study would show to a small, marginal group of ultra-Orthodox that the number of those who benefit from Sephardim? Shas’s social services is smaller than the num - The Shas movement was founded with the ber of its voters and therefore cannot explain support of an Ashkenazi scholar, Rav Eliezer the dimensions of Shas support. Movements Shach, who led the Lithuanian branch of ultra- that have offered services far more broadly, Orthodoxy. In his battle for the spiritual lead - moreover (the Labor Party, for instance, by ership of Agudat Yisrael, Shach harnessed the means of the Histadrut), have not always suc - sense of discrimination that the Sephardim ceeded in persuading those who received felt. Since its founding, not only has Shas freed their services to vote for the movements that Dr. Avi Picard, a visit - itself (to a large degree) from the patronage provided them. ing professor for Israel Studies at the University of Agudat Yisrael, but it has in fact become Another explanation for Shas’s support of Maryland, researches among non-ultra-Orthodox voters looks at how twice as powerful, with twice as many seats in the Israeli society with a the 2006 election. The reason for this success the movement tried to rectify what had been specialty in ethnic rela - lies in the fact that a majority of people who for years the Israeli classification of the cul - tions. He lives in the de - voted for this ultra-Orthodox Sephardic party tures and traditions of Jewish immigrants from velopment town of were not themselves ultra-Orthodox — at least Islamic countries as second-class. In order to Yerucham and is one of not according to the standard Israeli definition integrate into Israeli society, Jews from Muslim the founders of Midreshet of the term. These were voters who work for a countries were required to shed their culture BeYachad-Yerucham, an living, serve in the army, identify with the state and undergo “modernization.” Those who educational center ad - of Israel, and live in mixed neighborhoods. In - clung to the traditional cultural patterns com - dressing Israeli social deed, a not insignificant number of Shas voters prised the lower rungs of Israeli society, what problems and solutions. are not observant, defining themselves as tradi - would come to be called “the second Israel.” Translated by Benjamin Balint. tional, or even secular. Many of those whose parents had emi - So how can we explain their vote? In try - grated from Muslim countries in the 1950s February 2007 ing to solve this puzzle, political analysts have thus inherited a condescension toward their Adar 5767 tended to focus on circumstantial explana - parents’ culture. While the social parties — To subscribe: 877-568-SHMA tions.
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