THE HEIMISHE GOYIM

Since I started spending a good deal of my free time surfing YouTube for klezmer music, I’ve been surprised that so much of the best stuff is performed by Gentiles.

Take my recent discovery of the Klezmer Kollectiv, a Wales-based outfit:



Or the Dublin-based North Strand Klezmer Band:



These heimishe goyim made me realize that non-Jews may actually have a huge advantage when playing the klezmer standards. Unencumbered by nostalgia, tribal pieties or suburban torpor, they’re able to see that this music rocks—and they play it accordingly.

I’ve heard “Misirlou” performed by countless cheesy Jewish bands over the years. No wedding or bar mitzvah is complete without it, putting it just below “Hava Nagila” in the cliché ranking. I’d be embarrassed to play it anywhere I might run the risk of being heard.

Members of the Klezmer Kollectiv, however, never found themselves snoring through the second hour of an awful party, during which the song comes on, and the women assemble themselves for that distinctive, lethargic circle dance. These Welsh lads can see something in the tune that’s long been lacquered over. And the results are marvelous.

While there are a number of outstanding Jewish musical groups out there carrying the torch, aesthetic abominations such as the following have been not only permitted, but encouraged:



Maybe outsourcing some of our music-making wouldn’t be such a terrible idea.