Sing me a song...

I was in the elevator just yesterday when suddenly the individual standing next to me whips out a business card and hands it to me, saying that if I like Jewish music I should check it out.

http://www.rossmlevy.com/

Now, to make things weirder, not only had I heard of this person, but tomorrow night he's performing at the congregation where I had my Bar Mitzvah and Confirmation!

I think this small incident potentially raises an interesting set of questions. First, would he have handed me the card if I'd looked less Jewish? Can someone really look Jewish? I say yes, they can, and support that with recognition that Jews are a well defined ethnic group, relatively inbred, with a limited genetic repertoire, and thus there are most certainly physical characteristics that will be more common in Jews than in Gentiles. With that said, obviously the right of someone to choose to enter or leave the religion, genetic variation, and intermarriage all have made this "Jewish look" progressively less definitive, but I suspect a guy that looks like me in New York talking about med school is probably still a safe bet.

Secondly, what constitutes "Jewish music?" If simply having a Jewish singer/songwriter is required, then there's been some very popular Jewish music (e.g. Billy Joel). However, I suspect Mr. Levy was referring to music that, for one, was partially in Hebrew, and two, was tightly linked with Jewish culture and religious observance. Certainly the examples on the website support that.

This raises the final question - what role does Jewish music play in the larger contexts of Jewish worship, Jewish culture, and Jewish community? I am by no means an expert on sociology, but I can say that I truly believe that music is an intergral part of every culture, and as I've continued to argue that Judaism is a culture and community above all, I must obviously recognize the role of music in that.

So many thanks to Ross M. Levy for giving me something to yap about today.