WEBVTT

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Mazel tov!

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There you are.

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You\'re sitting at a reception.

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You ordered fish

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and got chicken.

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Uh-oh.

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Look who just walked in.

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Oy!

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Who let Aunt Bunny
go to the bar...

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Two olives.

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Again?

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And then...

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it happens.

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(music playing)

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Something lights up in your DNA.

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You\'re pulled by this
ancient Jewy force

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to the dance floor.

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You\'re not alone.

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Everyone is willingly
leaving their dinner

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and moving, lemming-like,
into a circle.

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You\'re holding hands
with your stepmother.

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You, the curmudgeon, the one
with the half-empty glass,

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you\'re... you\'re rejoicing.

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What\'s up with this song?

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So kitschy and yet so profound.

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So happy and yet...

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It\'s Jewish!

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Is \"Hava Nagila\"
100 years old or 1,000?

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Did someone sit down
to write it,

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or did it come down from Sinai?

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And what\'s the deal
with the chair?

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(Hava Nagila playing)

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You tell me...
What is \"Hava Nagila?\"

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Um...

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I have no idea.

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It\'s some sort of
celebration song.

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Is it a dance, like the polka?

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♪ La la, la la la
la la... ♪

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They sang and danced it
at my bar mitzvah.

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But other than
that I\'m clueless.

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- What do you think
the words mean?

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I didn\'t even know
there were words.

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I thought it was \"La-la.\"

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See, you remember the words
and the dance at your bar mitzvah

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because you\'re sneaking drinks off the
tables while the parents are dancing.

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So you grab their whiskey sours
and stuff like that

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And grab a cigar off the tables
that they used to give out

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and go outside with your friends
and smoke and throw up!

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♪ Uru ahim be-lev sameah ♪

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Could be some kind of food?

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Nagila.

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That\'s what it is:
Nagila.

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Hava. Nagila.

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It\'s two words.

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(singing Hava Nagila)

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That much I know.

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Clearly when it comes to Hava,
we\'re completely clueless.

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There was just one thing to do.

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Call in an expert.

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Who buys it?

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- Jews.
- Only Jews?

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- Only the Jews.

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For me, \"Hava Nagila\"
is not just a song.

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It\'s an event.

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And it\'s an entire
cultural sensibility.

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It\'s a song that has
all of this baggage,

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that has all of this meaning.

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It is a song that screams,

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\"This is a Jewish song.\"

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Mazel Tov!

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How you react to that song then
says a lot about who you are.

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Alright, we got a question.

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What do you think\'s more Jewish,
gefilte fish or \"Hava Nagila?\"

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Oh, \"Hava Nagila.\"

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Why?

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Because that\'s been forever.

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You see that,
gefilte fish people?

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\"Hava Nagila\"
beats gefilte fish.

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Everything... in my opinion,
everything beats gefilte fish.

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That song is immediately
a connection back to tradition

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and community, one that just
takes me back to a sense of,

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\"Well, that\'s who I should be.\"

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Or, \"That\'s who I\'m
supposed to be.\"

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But then I have to ask
that next question...

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Like, \"Well, what does this
really mean?\"

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I\'ve always been confused.

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This is, like,
the ultimate Jewish song,

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and it\'s so happy.

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But for me, Jews aren\'t
really known for being happy.

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I\'m mean, Jews are known for...
you know, we critique,

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we complain, we analyze.

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Josh!

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Oh!

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You have wounded my heart!

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Who are the comedians?

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They make jokes
about how unhappy they are.

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You\'re wrong.

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Absolutely 100% wrong.

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We are a happy people.

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Don\'t listen to this guy, okay?

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Look at him.

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Does he look unhappy?

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Does he look unhappy?

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We invented therapy!

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So, Josh didn\'t have
all the answers.

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Maybe a musician could help.

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\"Hava Nagila\" is kind of like

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the kudzu of Jewish music.

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It\'s huge... it\'s huge,
it\'s huge, it\'s huge.

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♪ Hava Nagila... ♪

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♪ Hava Nagila... ♪

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It\'s relentless, it\'s resilient.

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But then again,
so are cockroaches, you know?

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I mean, they\'ll be here
after we\'re gone, you know?

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I mean...
(sighs)

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What\'s sad about it

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is that it represents,
for multitudes of people,

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Jewish music.

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And that\'s all
they will ever know.

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That\'s all they ever
want to know.

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For American Jews
who didn\'t want to be encumbered

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by deep knowledge and literacy,
this was perfectly fine.

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♪ Hava nagila
beer, wine, tequila. ♪

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I get this out of the way,

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I don\'t have to think about it
anymore.

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Pass the martinis.

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Ouch!

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Could a song be that bad?

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We had to ask someone else.

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\"Hava Nagila\"
is one of those songs that,

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I think, all scholars
of Jewish music love to hate.

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It\'s a song I grew up with...
Bar mitzvahs,

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family celebrations, weddings.

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And it\'s a song
that I just never liked.

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It was just too much
of a greasy cliché

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of Jewish music.

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But as I went into it
I began to discover that \"Hava\"

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actually has this incredible
history of its own

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which involves
not just the last layer

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of Mel Brooks
Jewish American kitsch...

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Does everybody want soup?

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But actually has
this amazing history involving

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the early years of Israel,
involving Eastern Europe,

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involving Hasidic music.

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Come on.

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\"Hava Nagila\"?

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Really?

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\"Hava\" is a portal
into a century and a half

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of Jewish history.

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You can see in its layers
the fundamental processes

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that transformed the Jews
from a people of the shtetl

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into a people of the city
and into an international

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mobile people connected
by popular culture.

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\"Hava\" seems to encapsulate
all those layers

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of Jewish history.

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Is \"Hava\" really
a portal to our past?

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Could we actually trace
the Jewish journey

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through this one song?

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There was only one way
to find out...

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A \"Hava\" quest.

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The journey to unlock
the history, mystery and meaning

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of \"Hava Nagila\" begins here,

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in that faraway garden spot
known as...

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Ukraine.

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(singing melody
of \"Hava Nagila\")

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That song was made right here
in Sadagora.

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You wouldn\'t know it today,

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but this village was once
a hotbed of Jewish life

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and culture.

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Five million Jews
lived in this area

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known as the Pale of Settlement.

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They were an oppressed
and mostly poor people,

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but they found ways
to celebrate.

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Music was kind of
the soundtrack to everything

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for Jewish life
in Eastern Europe in general.

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Music was just a constant part

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of the sort of tapestry
of everyday life...

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Songs people sang
as they worked,

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songs that people sang
to children,

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songs that people sang
during prayers.

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Song was everywhere.

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But there was one group of Jews
who put music

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at the center
of their way of life.

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In the Hasidic world,
music took on

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a heightened significance.

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Music was understood
to be something that had

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a kind of extra
magical power to it.

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Hasidism was an 18th century

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spiritual movement that exploded
in the Pale of Settlement

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and transformed Jewish life
down to the present day.

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It was a social revolution,

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because it literally
tipped the entire leadership

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of Judaism from an elite
sitting in yeshivas

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to a peddler and to a shoemaker
and to a housewife.

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To whoever it was whose heart
was willing and open.

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We went looking for some Jews
living in Sadagora today,

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and didn\'t have much luck.

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Then we found this place.

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In the mid-1800s,
Hasidic Jews from all over

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the Pale of Settlement
made pilgrimages here

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to see the charismatic rebbe
Israel Friedman.

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But not much here now.

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We were about to leave
when these tourists

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from England showed up.

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Hello.

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- Where are you from?
- Los Angeles.

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And what is your name?

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My name is Friedman.

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Friedman...
Are you a descendant

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of Rabbi Israel Friedman?
- Yes, I am.

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I\'m the great-great-great-
grandson.

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You\'re kidding.

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Great-great-grandson
of Rabbi Israel Friedman?

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You\'ve got to be kidding me.

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No, I\'m not kidding you.

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My name is Yisrael Friedman.

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This building
where we\'re standing in now

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is the great synagogue
which was built

00:11:24.351 --> 00:11:28.437
by the first Sadagora rebbe,
Rabbi Friedman.

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He was a very famous rabbi with
tens of thousands of followers.

00:11:36.572 --> 00:11:38.280
At the heart of Hasidic life

00:11:38.281 --> 00:11:41.117
was the wordless prayer
set to music,

00:11:41.118 --> 00:11:43.286
otherwise known as the nigun.

00:11:43.787 --> 00:11:46.582
(singing a nigun)

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It is without words because,
ultimately speaking,

00:11:50.001 --> 00:11:53.171
to reach God,
no words will suffice.

00:11:53.839 --> 00:11:55.923
And it\'s done
through the universal language,

00:11:55.924 --> 00:11:59.386
which, in Hasidic Judaism,
is music.

00:12:00.137 --> 00:12:03.558
There\'s ten levels of prayer,
and above them is music.

00:12:06.435 --> 00:12:08.936
The song that would
become \"Hava Nagila\"

00:12:08.937 --> 00:12:12.190
was sung here, in Sadagora,
as a nigun.

00:12:12.441 --> 00:12:15.067
It probably was
a simcha kind of song,

00:12:15.068 --> 00:12:17.486
a happy time kind of song.

00:12:17.487 --> 00:12:20.322
But there ain\'t no happy
in Judaism that\'s not connected

00:12:20.323 --> 00:12:21.603
with a little bitter aftertaste.

00:12:22.325 --> 00:12:25.663
There\'s hope, but there\'s
also... this is a bitter chord.

00:12:25.912 --> 00:12:28.206
(vocalizing melody)

00:12:28.666 --> 00:12:29.708
Life is beautiful.

00:12:29.709 --> 00:12:30.668
Isn\'t it beautiful?

00:12:30.668 --> 00:12:31.334
Isn\'t it sweet?

00:12:31.335 --> 00:12:32.669
Isn\'t it awesome?

00:12:32.670 --> 00:12:33.879
I\'m going to die tomorrow.

00:12:33.962 --> 00:12:38.425
It\'s this wonderful tension
between aspiration and reality.

00:12:39.426 --> 00:12:44.431
Uh, in, in my dreams, you don\'t
even know how high I can go.

00:12:45.516 --> 00:12:49.311
The reality is I\'m going to be
heartbroken thoroughly and completely

00:12:49.729 --> 00:12:54.983
right here on this earth and a beautiful
nigun manages to trace that distance.

00:13:01.364 --> 00:13:03.157
I\'ve read a few old newspapers

00:13:03.158 --> 00:13:05.075
from 150 years ago
that would report

00:13:05.076 --> 00:13:07.077
every time there was a pogrom
in the shtetl.

00:13:07.078 --> 00:13:08.580
20 reported killed.

00:13:08.581 --> 00:13:11.792
In that shtetl,
13 reported killed.

00:13:12.125 --> 00:13:14.670
There was a big one here...
18, 19!

00:13:17.214 --> 00:13:19.215
Yidden were downtrodden,
oppressed.

00:13:19.216 --> 00:13:21.217
They would come
to the rebbe\'s court,

00:13:21.218 --> 00:13:23.803
and the rebbe would remind them,
\"It\'s true we\'re downtrodden,

00:13:23.804 --> 00:13:25.471
\"but don\'t forget, we\'re yidden.

00:13:25.472 --> 00:13:26.473
Be happy!\"

00:13:27.933 --> 00:13:29.643
So they would break into song.

00:13:29.644 --> 00:13:31.477
And this became very much part

00:13:31.478 --> 00:13:33.522
of what the Hasidim
would come to the Rebbe for.

00:13:33.523 --> 00:13:37.400
Part of being uplifted
was the part of the nigun.

00:13:42.364 --> 00:13:44.365
One of the main principles

00:13:44.366 --> 00:13:45.366
that governed Hasidism

00:13:45.367 --> 00:13:49.538
was that not only can you
serve God with joy,

00:13:49.539 --> 00:13:52.708
but if you\'re bummed out,
you can\'t serve God.

00:13:53.041 --> 00:13:57.587
So Hasidism is resolute,
monomaniacal, about saying,

00:13:57.588 --> 00:14:01.049
\"You have to find a way to
access the joy that you have.\"

00:14:04.928 --> 00:14:06.930
Joy brings you close to God.

00:14:13.979 --> 00:14:17.314
In the early 1900s,
many Sadagora Hasidim

00:14:17.315 --> 00:14:20.986
left this area for a new life
in Palestine.

00:14:24.782 --> 00:14:27.743
They took their nigun with them.

00:14:36.251 --> 00:14:39.921
Here the humble melody
became the song we know today.

00:14:42.048 --> 00:14:43.718
But how?

00:14:44.594 --> 00:14:47.136
To find out,
we went to the mothership

00:14:47.137 --> 00:14:49.682
of Jewish musical research.

00:14:58.940 --> 00:15:03.235
What we really do here is
we preserve and document

00:15:03.236 --> 00:15:06.113
the musical memory of Israel

00:15:06.114 --> 00:15:08.450
and the Jewish world at large.

00:15:09.744 --> 00:15:13.412
Among the vast holdings of this
archive, we were searching for

00:15:13.413 --> 00:15:15.625
the earliest trace of \"Hava Nagila.\"

00:15:15.999 --> 00:15:18.668
The original
of the Hasidic is here.

00:15:18.669 --> 00:15:20.713
Sadigora-Kriolvitz.

00:15:23.256 --> 00:15:24.466
There was our nigun!

00:15:24.884 --> 00:15:27.052
Here it\'s just...
(vocalizing music)

00:15:27.469 --> 00:15:29.846
This book was one of ten volumes

00:15:29.847 --> 00:15:32.849
written by a guy named
A.Z. Idelsohn.

00:15:32.850 --> 00:15:35.977
Turns out he was a huge deal.

00:15:41.358 --> 00:15:44.486
To get the scoop on Idelsohn,
we went straight to the top.

00:15:48.783 --> 00:15:51.075
Idelsohn was trained
both as a cantor

00:15:51.076 --> 00:15:53.620
and as a musician.

00:15:53.621 --> 00:15:57.331
He came from the Baltic area
to study in Germany.

00:15:57.332 --> 00:16:02.796
He was a cantor in South Africa
around 1905, and then he had

00:16:02.797 --> 00:16:06.383
this vision of coming
to Palestine.

00:16:12.472 --> 00:16:15.432
If we were sitting
in Jerusalem in the year 1900,

00:16:15.433 --> 00:16:18.143
we would find
this incredibly diverse world

00:16:18.144 --> 00:16:21.230
of Jewish immigrants
who had settled there

00:16:21.231 --> 00:16:22.858
from all over the world.

00:16:23.483 --> 00:16:25.652
And if you were
to walk through the streets

00:16:25.653 --> 00:16:26.778
you would hear these melodies

00:16:26.779 --> 00:16:28.487
just wafting out.

00:16:28.488 --> 00:16:31.533
And in all likelihood,
when Avraham Zvi Idelsohn

00:16:31.534 --> 00:16:33.576
set foot there,
he just began to hear

00:16:33.577 --> 00:16:34.703
all these different melodies

00:16:34.704 --> 00:16:37.163
coming from all over the place.

00:16:48.341 --> 00:16:51.761
Idelsohn\'s dream
was to collect the entire canon

00:16:51.762 --> 00:16:55.181
of Jewish music... from Yemenite,
Moroccan and Greek Jews

00:16:56.016 --> 00:16:58.810
to the Hasidim
of Eastern Europe.

00:16:58.811 --> 00:17:02.104
He then added lyrics
to those melodies in Hebrew,

00:17:02.105 --> 00:17:05.442
which was being revived
as a modern spoken language.

00:17:06.694 --> 00:17:09.571
Five years into his stay
in Palestine,

00:17:09.572 --> 00:17:12.574
he produced the first songbook
for schools and kindergartens.

00:17:12.575 --> 00:17:15.827
And that was one of his
major accomplishments...

00:17:15.828 --> 00:17:21.040
To provide a repertoire which
will help build the nation.

00:17:21.041 --> 00:17:23.585
The children
that will sing those songs

00:17:23.586 --> 00:17:26.337
are the children
of the new nation.

00:17:32.427 --> 00:17:34.554
In 1918, World War I ended

00:17:34.555 --> 00:17:37.683
with the British
taking control of Palestine.

00:17:38.642 --> 00:17:41.020
Palestine has once again
become a country of ideas.

00:17:41.812 --> 00:17:44.189
Nationalism has
brought the Jews back

00:17:44.815 --> 00:17:47.317
and the Zionists have
built a new Jerusalem.

00:17:51.321 --> 00:17:53.782
With British support,
a Jewish state

00:17:53.783 --> 00:17:56.117
suddenly seemed within reach.

00:17:56.827 --> 00:17:58.285
Tasked with leading
a celebration concert

00:17:58.286 --> 00:18:01.539
in Jerusalem, Idelsohn
scoured his archive

00:18:01.540 --> 00:18:03.166
for the perfect song.

00:18:03.667 --> 00:18:06.376
One stood out...
A nigun he had collected

00:18:06.377 --> 00:18:10.381
from some Sadagora Hasidim
three years earlier.

00:18:13.301 --> 00:18:15.970
They were looking
for the special song to sing,

00:18:15.971 --> 00:18:18.641
and they came upon
\"Hava Nagila.\"

00:18:18.933 --> 00:18:21.893
My mother said
she was the sole singer,

00:18:21.894 --> 00:18:25.981
and she sang \"Hava Nagila\"
with the choir.

00:18:26.607 --> 00:18:28.609
The lyrics are here.

00:18:28.818 --> 00:18:32.029
♪ Hava Nagila... ♪

00:18:32.863 --> 00:18:35.322
For words,
to the best of our knowledge,

00:18:35.323 --> 00:18:38.868
he turns to Psalms
to find a short verse

00:18:38.869 --> 00:18:41.830
that will fit the melody
and convey something

00:18:41.831 --> 00:18:45.084
about joy and happiness
and rejoicing.

00:18:45.416 --> 00:18:48.293
Hava Nagila... \"Let us rejoice.\"

00:18:48.294 --> 00:18:53.132
Hava nagila v\'nismeha...
\"Let us rejoice and be happy.\"

00:18:53.133 --> 00:18:56.218
Uru means \"Awake, arise.\"

00:18:56.219 --> 00:18:58.428
Uru achim, \"Arise, oh brethren.\"

00:18:58.429 --> 00:19:02.141
Uru achim b\'lev sameach,
\"With a happy heart,

00:19:02.142 --> 00:19:03.350
with a joyful heart.\"

00:19:03.351 --> 00:19:05.938
So, \"Arise, oh brethren,
with a happy heart.\"

00:19:07.480 --> 00:19:08.398
From then on, it just kind of

00:19:08.399 --> 00:19:11.150
caught everybody\'s
imagination and attention,

00:19:11.151 --> 00:19:15.739
because it was a very joyful
piece of music.

00:19:17.282 --> 00:19:20.409
It was an absolutely
wonderful feeling

00:19:20.410 --> 00:19:23.747
to think that
your grandfather composed it.

00:19:25.916 --> 00:19:28.544
Well, not everyone
believes that.

00:19:32.297 --> 00:19:35.926
In Manhattan, another family
lays claim to \"Hava Nagila.\"

00:19:36.802 --> 00:19:40.346
♪ Hava nagila,
hava nagila ♪

00:19:41.557 --> 00:19:44.308
My father as a little boy
in Jerusalem

00:19:44.309 --> 00:19:47.021
really made that song.

00:19:47.771 --> 00:19:50.899
Moshe Nathanson
was a student of A.Z. Idelsohn

00:19:50.900 --> 00:19:52.026
in Jerusalem.

00:19:52.358 --> 00:19:53.944
According to
the Nathanson family,

00:19:54.737 --> 00:19:56.738
Moshe wrote the lyrics
to \"Hava Nagila\"

00:19:56.739 --> 00:20:00.075
when he was 12 years old
as part of a school assignment.

00:20:02.327 --> 00:20:05.789
It was a very slow
nigun, like this

00:20:06.414 --> 00:20:09.375
\"La, la...\"

00:20:10.002 --> 00:20:12.295
\"La, la, la...\"

00:20:12.462 --> 00:20:14.338
and the teacher\'s assignment was

00:20:14.339 --> 00:20:19.010
do something with this
nigun to make it more palatable,

00:20:19.011 --> 00:20:22.263
to make it more popular,
to make it able to be sung.

00:20:22.765 --> 00:20:24.767
And he wrote the words.

00:20:25.809 --> 00:20:27.560
I just somehow find it very
difficult to believe

00:20:27.561 --> 00:20:28.978
that that is the case,

00:20:28.979 --> 00:20:30.605
knowing that my
great-grandfather

00:20:30.606 --> 00:20:33.440
was such a great
ethnomusicologist.

00:20:33.441 --> 00:20:35.276
Why would he say he did it
if he didn\'t?

00:20:35.736 --> 00:20:38.947
It just seems so strange that
somebody should come out of

00:20:38.948 --> 00:20:40.658
the woodwork, so to speak.

00:20:40.950 --> 00:20:46.121
I have no idea what he\'s achieved in his
lifetime and why he should claim this.

00:20:47.539 --> 00:20:53.335
My father wrote hundreds of children\'s
melodies and hundreds of songs and

00:20:53.336 --> 00:20:56.256
\"Hava Nagila\" was just one of many.

00:20:57.382 --> 00:21:02.345
My mother and the two sisters were
receiving royalties for \"Hava Nagila\"

00:21:02.428 --> 00:21:08.060
and then it stopped when Nathanson
claimed that he was a composer of it.

00:21:08.686 --> 00:21:11.981
I want the world to know that my
grandfather had a part in this.

00:21:12.231 --> 00:21:13.899
I mean, I\'m proud of him.

00:21:14.566 --> 00:21:17.695
And he isn\'t here
to speak for himself.

00:21:17.778 --> 00:21:19.570
- Is it upsetting to
the two of you?

00:21:19.571 --> 00:21:21.240
Yes, of course.

00:21:21.489 --> 00:21:24.200
I don\'t want to take away
from who Idelson was

00:21:24.201 --> 00:21:27.579
because he, he was
really a remarkable man.

00:21:27.788 --> 00:21:29.248
I almost look at it like

00:21:29.665 --> 00:21:33.668
when you read about
Rodin the sculptor,

00:21:33.669 --> 00:21:35.795
the huge pieces that he did

00:21:35.796 --> 00:21:39.258
oftentimes the hands and
the feet were done by his students,

00:21:39.382 --> 00:21:40.675
his proteges.

00:21:40.676 --> 00:21:42.136
They were not done by Rodin.

00:21:42.427 --> 00:21:44.470
But he didn\'t put down

00:21:44.680 --> 00:21:45.848
\"Louis did the foot\"

00:21:47.891 --> 00:21:50.476
Basically it\'s
a Rodin sculpture.

00:21:50.853 --> 00:21:53.187
Could young Moshe Nathanson,

00:21:53.188 --> 00:21:55.189
who later became
a prolific composer

00:21:55.190 --> 00:21:58.569
and beloved cantor in New York,
have written the lyrics?

00:21:59.319 --> 00:22:01.612
It\'s entirely possible
that a 12-year-old kid

00:22:01.613 --> 00:22:02.697
could do it.

00:22:02.698 --> 00:22:04.700
But I\'ve never seen
convincing evidence

00:22:04.867 --> 00:22:08.202
that it was definitely Nathanson
who stitched together

00:22:08.203 --> 00:22:09.747
the words and the melody.

00:22:09.913 --> 00:22:10.706
I don\'t know.

00:22:10.707 --> 00:22:13.082
I think the whole
chronology of that

00:22:13.083 --> 00:22:14.835
is a little strange.

00:22:15.544 --> 00:22:16.712
I don\'t know.

00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:21.008
Perhaps it\'s better
to leave it as is.

00:22:22.176 --> 00:22:24.762
Among the families,
the debate continues.

00:22:25.679 --> 00:22:27.514
Nonetheless, by the 1920s

00:22:27.681 --> 00:22:31.101
most people thought \"Hava\" was
an old anonymous folk song,

00:22:31.351 --> 00:22:34.688
a folk song that was about
to meet it\'s soulmate.

00:22:40.027 --> 00:22:43.279
Step, cross,
swing your head, swing.

00:22:43.280 --> 00:22:46.115
Step, cross, swing, and swing.

00:22:46.116 --> 00:22:48.952
The hora is a circle dance.

00:22:50.996 --> 00:22:53.373
A universal formation.

00:22:54.792 --> 00:22:59.671
It came to Palestine from the Balkan
countries, Romania and from the Hasidim.

00:23:01.422 --> 00:23:05.844
I have a book here from
1929 and we have \"Hava Nagila.\"

00:23:05.928 --> 00:23:08.639
And at the end, this is what is said.

00:23:08.847 --> 00:23:11.933
\"It is to this music
that the chalutz\"...

00:23:11.934 --> 00:23:13.601
The chalutz is the pioneer...

00:23:13.602 --> 00:23:16.146
\"most often dances the hora.\"

00:23:16.855 --> 00:23:19.399
It starts with moving
from side to side.

00:23:19.650 --> 00:23:27.650
♪ Hava nagila, hava nagila,
hava nagila ve-nismeha ♪

00:23:27.658 --> 00:23:32.996
♪ Hava nagila, hava nagila
ve-nismeha ♪

00:23:33.247 --> 00:23:36.749
♪ Hava neranenah,
Hava neranenah ♪

00:23:36.750 --> 00:23:39.837
♪ Hava neranenah,
ve-nismeha ♪

00:23:40.254 --> 00:23:43.756
♪ Hava neranenah,
Hava neranenah ♪

00:23:43.757 --> 00:23:46.844
♪ Hava neranenah,
ve-nismeha ♪

00:23:47.136 --> 00:23:51.974
♪ Uru, uru ahim,
uru ahim be-lev sameah ♪

00:23:52.057 --> 00:23:54.393
♪ Uru ahim, be-lev sameah
uru ahim, be-lev sameah ♪

00:23:54.560 --> 00:24:00.732
♪ Uru ahim, uru ahim
be-lev sameah. ♪

00:24:00.858 --> 00:24:01.858
Ah!

00:24:07.239 --> 00:24:08.407
Oh, uh,

00:24:09.575 --> 00:24:12.703
(singing)

00:24:16.790 --> 00:24:19.918
(singing)

00:24:21.336 --> 00:24:24.464
(singing)

00:24:29.803 --> 00:24:33.515
The stories they used to tell me about
the first pioneers in the kibbutz

00:24:33.807 --> 00:24:36.268
and they got together after work.

00:24:36.602 --> 00:24:38.103
Hard work of all day.

00:24:39.062 --> 00:24:40.063
A guy got up

00:24:40.439 --> 00:24:42.733
and want to express himself.

00:24:43.108 --> 00:24:46.236
(singing)

00:24:46.612 --> 00:24:47.613
So he yelled

00:24:47.821 --> 00:24:48.821
to his friends.

00:24:48.864 --> 00:24:51.283
So a friend comes and he puts
his hand on the shoulders,

00:24:51.533 --> 00:24:52.868
put your hand on my shoulder

00:24:53.410 --> 00:24:55.412
and they start swaying.

00:24:55.579 --> 00:24:56.955
Not yet dancing.

00:24:58.207 --> 00:24:59.208
Others got into it

00:24:59.249 --> 00:25:00.542
and they got to excitement.

00:25:01.126 --> 00:25:04.462
And the spirit was high
about what they\'re doing.

00:25:04.463 --> 00:25:06.089
The building of a new nation.

00:25:10.010 --> 00:25:14.138
The hora was the one that gave
this feeling of togetherness,

00:25:14.139 --> 00:25:15.640
of closeness,

00:25:15.641 --> 00:25:18.852
of having equality
between men and women.

00:25:20.103 --> 00:25:22.523
For the kibbutzim,
that was terribly important.

00:25:23.065 --> 00:25:25.983
Not to be an individual,
not to be even in a family.

00:25:25.984 --> 00:25:27.986
To be altogether.

00:25:30.197 --> 00:25:32.991
Just as Idelsohn
believed in the power of song,

00:25:33.492 --> 00:25:35.701
Ayala Goren\'s mother,
Gurit Kadman,

00:25:35.702 --> 00:25:38.497
believed in the
unifying power of dance.

00:25:39.998 --> 00:25:42.792
Considered the mother
of Israeli folk dance,

00:25:42.793 --> 00:25:45.795
Gurit Kadman created
and taught the pioneers

00:25:45.796 --> 00:25:47.713
what would become
the folk dances

00:25:47.714 --> 00:25:49.258
of the new nation.

00:25:59.726 --> 00:26:03.437
By 1944, the staggering news
of the mass murder

00:26:03.438 --> 00:26:06.608
of the Jews of Europe
had reached Palestine.

00:26:10.946 --> 00:26:13.824
In response,
and to the shock of many,

00:26:14.324 --> 00:26:18.203
Gurit decided to stage
a national dance festival.

00:26:21.748 --> 00:26:24.292
People told my mother,
\"You\'re crazy.

00:26:24.293 --> 00:26:27.379
\"How can you dance
when you know what happened?

00:26:28.046 --> 00:26:30.965
\"It\'s the most horrible thing
that happened in the world

00:26:30.966 --> 00:26:32.467
and to the Jewish people.\"

00:26:32.634 --> 00:26:34.468
And she says, \"Davka.\"

00:26:34.469 --> 00:26:35.887
\"In spite of.\"

00:26:37.055 --> 00:26:41.143
Because this happened,
you cannot stop living,

00:26:41.310 --> 00:26:43.729
you cannot stop
being a full person

00:26:43.979 --> 00:26:47.316
with culture, with song,
music and dance.

00:26:48.859 --> 00:26:52.154
And they call it
the Festival of the Davka.

00:26:55.490 --> 00:27:00.621
Finally, in 1948,
there was a reason to celebrate.

00:27:02.122 --> 00:27:05.417
Over all this land
hung an air of expectancy.

00:27:05.917 --> 00:27:08.210
The representatives of
the Jews of Palestine

00:27:08.211 --> 00:27:10.421
and of the world were announcing

00:27:10.422 --> 00:27:13.008
the fulfillment of an age old dream.

00:27:16.554 --> 00:27:19.805
\"We hereby proclaim
the establishment

00:27:19.806 --> 00:27:24.144
of the Jewish State in Palestine
to be called Medinat Yisrael.\"

00:27:28.815 --> 00:27:31.442
That night, when the declaration was

00:27:31.443 --> 00:27:34.780
the entire country went
outside to the streets.

00:27:38.618 --> 00:27:39.618
All night

00:27:39.785 --> 00:27:41.995
people did actually the hora.

00:27:42.788 --> 00:27:45.123
Everybody dance all night.

00:27:45.207 --> 00:27:46.833
And that was a good night

00:27:47.167 --> 00:27:49.002
and the happiest night
in my life.

00:27:53.340 --> 00:27:54.340
I was in Tel-Aviv

00:27:54.466 --> 00:27:56.926
I went to the central
theater in Tel-Aviv

00:27:56.927 --> 00:27:58.596
a big square around it.

00:27:59.304 --> 00:28:02.891
And there was a hora,
the like of which I never saw.

00:28:06.019 --> 00:28:08.188
And \"Hava Nagila\" was there.

00:28:11.149 --> 00:28:13.527
♪ Now that those
in Palestine ♪

00:28:13.528 --> 00:28:16.238
♪ No longer are depressed ♪

00:28:16.614 --> 00:28:23.954
♪ We would like to dedicate this
if we may suggest ♪

00:28:24.705 --> 00:28:26.415
♪ Sing, Israel... ♪

00:28:26.498 --> 00:28:28.040
Thousands of miles away,

00:28:28.041 --> 00:28:30.209
\"Hava Nagila\" and the hora
were about to make their mark

00:28:30.210 --> 00:28:32.295
in the other Promised Land.

00:28:32.379 --> 00:28:35.549
♪ Now that you are free
you\'re no more DP ♪

00:28:35.550 --> 00:28:39.428
♪ Thanks to all the courage
you have shown... ♪

00:28:39.970 --> 00:28:47.686
♪ Hava nagila, hava nagila,
hava nagila ve-nismeha ♪

00:28:47.687 --> 00:28:51.189
♪ Hava nagila, hava nagila... ♪

00:28:53.024 --> 00:28:57.194
In the 1930s and forties, the vast
majority of American Jews

00:28:57.195 --> 00:29:00.072
knew the lyrics to
\"Take Me Out To The Ball Game\"

00:29:00.073 --> 00:29:01.992
rather than Hebrew folk songs.

00:29:03.326 --> 00:29:05.746
Statehood changed all that.

00:29:07.914 --> 00:29:10.166
People are curious
about the new sounds

00:29:10.167 --> 00:29:12.502
of the homeland
that is being reborn.

00:29:12.503 --> 00:29:14.087
They are curious
about Israeli culture.

00:29:19.968 --> 00:29:22.344
They\'re seeing
some newsreel footage.

00:29:22.345 --> 00:29:24.682
They\'re seeing people
dancing these horas.

00:29:26.183 --> 00:29:28.560
Klezmer bands
in New York and elsewhere

00:29:28.561 --> 00:29:30.102
in big Jewish centers
begin to incorporate

00:29:30.103 --> 00:29:33.565
more and more of these
Palestinian or Hebrew elements

00:29:33.566 --> 00:29:38.987
into their standard, old time,
klezmer folk-dance medleys.

00:29:43.158 --> 00:29:44.785
I grew up in a very musical situation.

00:29:45.202 --> 00:29:48.706
A lot of cousins and uncles
were klezmer musicians.

00:29:48.955 --> 00:29:51.457
And for a little while
I studied music

00:29:51.458 --> 00:29:53.459
because of the
family kind of tradition.

00:29:53.460 --> 00:29:55.921
I also sang in choirs
and synagogues.

00:29:56.421 --> 00:29:59.758
There are two Hebrew
language experiences

00:29:59.759 --> 00:30:01.091
that I remember specifically,

00:30:01.092 --> 00:30:03.428
the one being
the blessing of the kohanim,

00:30:04.137 --> 00:30:05.639
the members of
the priestly tribe

00:30:05.640 --> 00:30:07.139
when they bless
the congregation,

00:30:07.140 --> 00:30:09.540
and they use that gesture,
which I introduced into Star Trek.

00:30:09.685 --> 00:30:10.936
Live long and prosper.

00:30:11.102 --> 00:30:12.182
And the \"Hava Nagila\" song.

00:30:14.105 --> 00:30:17.400
A lot of the Jewish folk music
is very nostalgic and very sad.

00:30:17.859 --> 00:30:19.193
\"Where is the little village
that I came from?

00:30:19.194 --> 00:30:21.071
\"Where is the little girl
that I used to love?

00:30:21.656 --> 00:30:22.947
\"Where is the street
that I used to walk on?

00:30:22.948 --> 00:30:24.115
It\'s gone, it\'s gone.\"

00:30:24.324 --> 00:30:28.118
And this one, \"Hava Nagila,\"
is very much about now, today,

00:30:28.119 --> 00:30:30.038
here, tonight,
let\'s have a good time.

00:30:33.458 --> 00:30:34.876
One, two, three.

00:30:36.712 --> 00:30:40.089
\"Hava Nagila\" represented
a movement in repertoire

00:30:40.090 --> 00:30:43.300
away from the old klezmer
into something

00:30:43.301 --> 00:30:47.096
much, much simpler and easier
for the assimilated

00:30:47.097 --> 00:30:49.642
Jewish audience to understand.

00:30:50.518 --> 00:30:52.394
They wanted to
forget about the war.

00:30:52.645 --> 00:30:54.689
They wanted to forget
about the Holocaust.

00:30:55.313 --> 00:30:59.776
They equated the klezmer music
with European Jewry.

00:30:59.777 --> 00:31:02.237
And European Jewry
had just been wiped out.

00:31:02.697 --> 00:31:03.864
It was painful.
It hurt.

00:31:04.072 --> 00:31:06.534
Growing up as a child
of Holocaust survivors,

00:31:06.576 --> 00:31:09.829
There was a real, um, there
was a real Scarlet letter.

00:31:10.830 --> 00:31:12.247
People were shamed.

00:31:12.790 --> 00:31:15.333
They couldn\'t deal with it
because they were horrified.

00:31:15.500 --> 00:31:16.918
And they didn\'t know
what to do with it.

00:31:17.002 --> 00:31:18.546
So the idea of saying, \"Okay,

00:31:18.629 --> 00:31:20.756
Reboot.\"
It\'s a cultural reboot.

00:31:21.841 --> 00:31:22.841
Thank you, Julia.

00:31:23.425 --> 00:31:25.051
You know, I went
to Israel this summer

00:31:25.511 --> 00:31:26.637
and here you see me

00:31:26.721 --> 00:31:28.597
overlooking the
town of Bethlehem

00:31:28.598 --> 00:31:30.015
and now the camera\'s
panning there,

00:31:30.056 --> 00:31:32.560
we\'re coming into old Jerusalem.

00:31:33.435 --> 00:31:34.435
And here, of course,

00:31:34.854 --> 00:31:36.689
The great moment
with meeting Ben Gurion.

00:31:38.566 --> 00:31:41.611
I promised the American audiences
we\'d bring to our stage

00:31:42.235 --> 00:31:43.654
such Israeli artists as

00:31:44.070 --> 00:31:47.490
Yona Cohan and Miran Paskovsky.

00:31:49.492 --> 00:31:50.911
(singing)

00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:02.757
You think back to those days
when people said,

00:32:02.882 --> 00:32:04.049
\"Eretz, Israel!\"

00:32:04.299 --> 00:32:05.300
\"Eretz, Israel!\"

00:32:05.425 --> 00:32:06.134
Oh my God.

00:32:06.259 --> 00:32:07.595
They couldn\'t do enough!

00:32:08.386 --> 00:32:12.641
\"Hava Nagila\" represented
the music of a new, hopeful,

00:32:12.642 --> 00:32:16.812
oh, positive,
very optimistic people.

00:32:18.021 --> 00:32:20.189
Whether it was denial or Davka,

00:32:20.190 --> 00:32:22.609
many postwar Jews
seemed in the mood

00:32:22.610 --> 00:32:23.903
for something new.

00:32:29.825 --> 00:32:30.825
Mambo!

00:32:31.076 --> 00:32:32.202
Yeah! Come on!

00:32:33.244 --> 00:32:35.664
Particularly in New York
in the 1940s and \'50s,

00:32:35.665 --> 00:32:37.498
Latin music
was all over the Catskills,

00:32:37.499 --> 00:32:40.670
Jews were doing Latin records,
Jews were taking mambo classes.

00:32:40.795 --> 00:32:42.086
There was all of this
back and forth.

00:32:42.087 --> 00:32:45.423
And \"Hava Nagila\" was a key song
in that repertoire.

00:32:47.300 --> 00:32:49.176
There was a Jewish performer,
Irving Fields,

00:32:49.177 --> 00:32:51.555
who turned \"Hava Nagila\"
into \"Havana Nagila.\"

00:32:52.515 --> 00:32:56.058
It starts as a dance
that starts slow.

00:32:56.059 --> 00:32:58.562
(vocalizing melody)

00:32:59.312 --> 00:33:02.107
And it suddenly gets faster.

00:33:02.273 --> 00:33:03.441
(vocalizing melody)

00:33:04.568 --> 00:33:07.530
And people get more excited
and more excited.

00:33:07.613 --> 00:33:08.697
Build, build.

00:33:08.698 --> 00:33:10.782
We\'re going to start soft,
and we\'re going to go

00:33:10.783 --> 00:33:12.409
up a mountain, all right?

00:33:32.513 --> 00:33:33.889
In post-war America,

00:33:34.264 --> 00:33:37.182
Thousands of Jews left the city
and the old neighborhood

00:33:37.183 --> 00:33:39.854
for the space
and splendor of suburbia.

00:33:45.108 --> 00:33:48.236
What was going on
with this mid-century Exodus?

00:33:48.821 --> 00:33:51.406
To find out we went...
where else?

00:33:52.282 --> 00:33:53.282
To Philly.

00:34:01.792 --> 00:34:04.837
At this museum, we met a
really smart historian.

00:34:07.882 --> 00:34:12.426
American Jews moved more rapidly
than any other white, ethnic or

00:34:12.427 --> 00:34:13.846
religious group to the suburbs.

00:34:14.054 --> 00:34:16.849
They embraced the suburbs
for what they offered.

00:34:17.140 --> 00:34:20.977
For the fact that this
could give them a real grounding

00:34:20.978 --> 00:34:23.480
in American middle class life.

00:34:24.439 --> 00:34:26.483
♪ Here\'s to the crab grass ♪

00:34:26.525 --> 00:34:28.026
♪ Here\'s to the mortgage ♪

00:34:28.027 --> 00:34:31.445
♪ In fact, here\'s to suburbia ♪

00:34:31.446 --> 00:34:35.241
♪ Lay down your briefcase,
far from the rat race ♪

00:34:35.325 --> 00:34:38.244
♪ where nothing can be disturbya ♪

00:34:38.621 --> 00:34:43.042
The same time when American Jews left
cities, they did not do so easily.

00:34:43.500 --> 00:34:46.169
There was a lot of tension,
a lot of ambivalence.

00:34:46.461 --> 00:34:49.379
What will it mean
in terms of Jews\' politics,

00:34:49.380 --> 00:34:52.008
in terms of their spiritual
sense of themselves,

00:34:52.009 --> 00:34:55.012
their aesthetic sense of themselves
as a cosmopolitan people?

00:34:55.763 --> 00:34:58.933
How do you keep being
Jewish in the suburbs?

00:35:02.393 --> 00:35:04.395
How to be Jewish in the Suburbs

00:35:04.730 --> 00:35:07.148
Step one, be happy.

00:35:08.316 --> 00:35:11.110
In the 1950s, there were a lot of
records that started coming out

00:35:11.111 --> 00:35:12.403
that were about
Jewish happiness.

00:35:16.033 --> 00:35:17.743
About Jews, Okay.

00:35:17.827 --> 00:35:18.827
We\'ve got the Holocaust.

00:35:18.828 --> 00:35:19.828
This happened.

00:35:20.203 --> 00:35:22.372
And now how do we move forward?

00:35:23.666 --> 00:35:25.834
We\'re in this new land,
we\'re in the U.S.

00:35:25.835 --> 00:35:27.334
We\'ve got some social mobility.

00:35:27.335 --> 00:35:29.379
We got, maybe we got
the GI bill on our side.

00:35:29.839 --> 00:35:33.382
We have a nice two bedroom home with
a little yard and a barbecue

00:35:33.383 --> 00:35:36.218
and a Hi-Fi and
maybe things aren\'t so bad.

00:35:36.219 --> 00:35:37.219
And maybe let\'s, um,

00:35:37.387 --> 00:35:38.387
let\'s be happy.

00:35:42.935 --> 00:35:47.565
Step Two.
Build a really big synagogue.

00:35:48.691 --> 00:35:51.317
The synagogue became,
in the suburbs,

00:35:52.235 --> 00:35:55.822
more of a Jewish center, really,
than had been in the city.

00:35:55.823 --> 00:35:59.618
In the suburbs, the synagogue buildings,
first of all, become bigger.

00:35:59.952 --> 00:36:01.161
Not just the sanctuaries,

00:36:01.787 --> 00:36:04.539
but the social halls,
and the social hall

00:36:04.540 --> 00:36:06.958
was the center of a kind of

00:36:06.959 --> 00:36:09.587
celebration-oriented Jewish life.

00:36:11.797 --> 00:36:12.797
Step three.

00:36:13.090 --> 00:36:14.090
Throw a party!

00:36:15.009 --> 00:36:16.426
(Fun music)

00:36:23.642 --> 00:36:25.936
The bar mitzvah was never this

00:36:26.103 --> 00:36:30.941
orgy of food and
celebration and adulation.

00:36:31.357 --> 00:36:35.779
The bar mitzvah was always a much
more simple, less important part of

00:36:35.821 --> 00:36:37.740
traditional Jewish life in Eastern Europe.

00:36:38.489 --> 00:36:42.202
As Jews begin to move into a
middle class and move into the suburbs,

00:36:42.661 --> 00:36:44.580
and become more
established in America,

00:36:44.705 --> 00:36:47.123
we find this
incredible phenomenon

00:36:47.124 --> 00:36:48.833
that the bar mitzvah turns into

00:36:48.834 --> 00:36:50.169
almost like the second wedding.

00:36:54.882 --> 00:36:59.384
It becomes this coming out party for
not just the lucky bar mitzvah boy,

00:36:59.385 --> 00:37:01.972
but for the whole family to show
that they\'ve made it in America.

00:37:03.140 --> 00:37:04.892
And with that you see
more and more

00:37:05.350 --> 00:37:06.936
the elaborate dinners

00:37:11.732 --> 00:37:13.274
and the elaborate parties.

00:37:15.069 --> 00:37:20.115
And you see elaborate kinds of dancing,
as had taken place at weddings, appearing.

00:37:20.448 --> 00:37:25.788
This is the world in which Hava really
comes to flourish in American Jewish life.

00:37:26.664 --> 00:37:29.707
All bar mitzvah bands have
to figure out that strategy.

00:37:29.708 --> 00:37:31.334
Like, \"When do we
drop the bomb?\"

00:37:31.710 --> 00:37:32.961
You know, \"When do we?\"

00:37:32.962 --> 00:37:34.754
And it\'s usually probably like,
\"Okay, we\'re losing them!

00:37:34.755 --> 00:37:35.380
We\'re losing them!

00:37:35.589 --> 00:37:36.840
Hava Nagila!
Wheel it out!\"

00:37:38.926 --> 00:37:40.301
It\'s going to get everybody
on the dance floor.

00:37:40.343 --> 00:37:42.972
And it will be that moment of
bringing everybody together.

00:37:43.806 --> 00:37:46.975
It\'s a song that simultaneously
evokes the old world

00:37:46.976 --> 00:37:49.310
and the lyrics sound like

00:37:49.477 --> 00:37:52.354
the sound of the modern
pioneers in the land of Israel,

00:37:52.355 --> 00:37:54.482
singing their songs and
building up Hebrew culture.

00:37:54.942 --> 00:37:59.487
And Hava seems to combine those things
in the fifties for American Jews.

00:38:07.788 --> 00:38:11.041
After the Holocaust, especially,

00:38:11.208 --> 00:38:17.379
any opportunity to focus
on new life, and light, and joy

00:38:17.380 --> 00:38:21.010
is no longer just
a personal joyous thing,

00:38:21.260 --> 00:38:26.015
but it represents the existence and
the resurrection of the Jewish people.

00:38:27.141 --> 00:38:30.019
It\'s nothing more than
that ancient request,

00:38:30.519 --> 00:38:32.312
\"May we all
dance at the wedding.\"

00:38:32.646 --> 00:38:35.523
No matter how dark and
how long the night was

00:38:35.524 --> 00:38:38.110
tomorrow we\'ll dance
\"Hava Nagila\" again.

00:38:38.736 --> 00:38:41.822
We\'ll experience
that unrestrained joy.

00:38:46.827 --> 00:38:50.873
\"Hava Nagila\" had become Jewish Americans\'
unofficial theme song.

00:38:51.957 --> 00:38:53.875
The story could have
ended there,

00:38:53.876 --> 00:38:57.378
but \"Hava\" was about to meet
its greatest ambassador.

00:39:01.592 --> 00:39:04.011
Back in the dawning of
the folk culture

00:39:04.261 --> 00:39:07.180
emerging as America\'s
popular culture,

00:39:07.181 --> 00:39:09.641
I came down to
Greenwich village.

00:39:10.225 --> 00:39:14.395
Where Pete Seeger and all
sorts of folk types hung out.

00:39:15.147 --> 00:39:17.816
And we did \"hootenannies\"
as we used to call them.

00:39:19.068 --> 00:39:22.613
At the hootenannies we sang songs from
everywhere in the world.

00:39:24.073 --> 00:39:29.203
And the first time I heard \"Hava Nagila\"
was with a group of folk singers.

00:39:31.412 --> 00:39:34.666
That was a time of great hope,
great expectation.

00:39:35.375 --> 00:39:39.296
The war was over in Germany,
we defeated the fascists.

00:39:39.797 --> 00:39:42.382
The world was on
the way to a new order.

00:39:43.842 --> 00:39:45.969
I sang \"Hava Nagila\"
here at the Vanguard,

00:39:46.427 --> 00:39:48.971
and it was here that I really knew
that it was going to become

00:39:48.972 --> 00:39:51.308
a significant part
of my repertoire.

00:39:51.934 --> 00:39:55.729
♪ Day-o, day-o. ♪

00:39:56.146 --> 00:39:58.231
When I went
anywhere in the world,

00:39:58.232 --> 00:39:59.941
there were two songs
that stood out.

00:39:59.942 --> 00:40:03.695
One was \"The Banana Boat Song
(Day-O),\" and \"Hava Nagila.\"

00:40:04.571 --> 00:40:07.073
Especially when I sang
at large Jewish affairs

00:40:07.074 --> 00:40:10.952
out in Brooklyn,
or I\'d go do a bar mitzvah,

00:40:10.953 --> 00:40:14.790
or I\'d go sing
in some place down in Miami.

00:40:15.207 --> 00:40:17.960
The minute I got to
\"Hava Nagila,\" forget it.

00:40:20.087 --> 00:40:23.382
These audiences, they got up
and they began to do the hora.

00:40:23.674 --> 00:40:25.091
And they began to dance around.

00:40:25.092 --> 00:40:27.219
And husbands
used to cross the table

00:40:27.427 --> 00:40:28.594
and kiss their wives!

00:40:28.595 --> 00:40:30.639
And guys held the kids up!

00:40:30.931 --> 00:40:32.307
It was, just, it\'s a....

00:40:33.642 --> 00:40:35.017
\"Hava Nagila\" is a ritual

00:40:35.018 --> 00:40:36.018
unlike any other song.

00:40:45.529 --> 00:40:47.197
- Danny.
- We got to do this again.

00:40:47.531 --> 00:40:49.741
Listen, you know what
I want very much to do.

00:40:50.033 --> 00:40:52.618
I want to sing with you one
of the most exciting songs

00:40:52.619 --> 00:40:53.779
I have ever heard in my life.

00:40:54.079 --> 00:40:54.454
Which one?

00:40:54.746 --> 00:40:55.746
\"Hava Nagila.\"

00:40:56.456 --> 00:40:56.748
Okay.

00:40:56.790 --> 00:40:57.790
All right.

00:41:09.344 --> 00:41:11.221
You know this is from
the wrong country.

00:41:11.471 --> 00:41:12.931
(laughter)

00:41:13.140 --> 00:41:14.600
Yeah, but it feels good.

00:41:14.766 --> 00:41:15.976
(laughter)

00:41:17.352 --> 00:41:23.191
♪ Hava nagila,
hava nagila ♪

00:41:23.192 --> 00:41:28.030
♪ Hava nagila ve-nismeha... ♪

00:41:28.488 --> 00:41:34.327
♪ Hava nagila,
hava nagila ♪

00:41:34.328 --> 00:41:39.166
♪ Hava nagila ve-nismeha... ♪

00:41:39.541 --> 00:41:44.670
Of all the art forms,
the easiest to communicate with

00:41:44.671 --> 00:41:45.671
is the human voice.

00:41:45.923 --> 00:41:49.801
♪ Hava neranenah
ve-nismeha. ♪

00:41:50.344 --> 00:41:54.764
In song, I think
all humanity finds a place

00:41:54.765 --> 00:41:58.977
in which to reside
where there is no fear.

00:41:59.686 --> 00:42:07.027
♪ Uru, uru ahim... ♪

00:42:07.945 --> 00:42:11.155
In song, there\'s
something that touches

00:42:11.156 --> 00:42:14.826
the best in the sensibility
of the human family.

00:42:15.118 --> 00:42:20.332
♪ Uru ahim, uru ahim,
be-lev samayah... ♪

00:42:20.541 --> 00:42:24.669
The most moving experience
I\'ve ever had

00:42:24.670 --> 00:42:27.297
singing \"Hava Nagila\"
was in Germany.

00:42:28.715 --> 00:42:31.385
I was somewhat reluctant
to even go there.

00:42:32.344 --> 00:42:35.555
It was the middle of the 1950s,
not too long after the war

00:42:35.556 --> 00:42:37.140
had ended.

00:42:38.392 --> 00:42:40.520
And when I got to
\"Hava Nagila\"...

00:42:40.686 --> 00:42:42.522
(singing)

00:42:43.313 --> 00:42:45.525
all these kids started to sing.

00:42:46.400 --> 00:42:47.776
It hit me kind of hard

00:42:48.569 --> 00:42:49.987
that here I was,

00:42:50.487 --> 00:42:52.072
an African American,

00:42:52.948 --> 00:42:54.282
an American,

00:42:54.283 --> 00:42:57.034
standing in Germany,
a place where just

00:42:57.035 --> 00:42:59.870
a decade earlier
had been responsible

00:42:59.871 --> 00:43:03.207
for one of the greatest
mass murders the world

00:43:03.208 --> 00:43:04.544
had ever known.

00:43:06.128 --> 00:43:08.129
And here were
these young German kids

00:43:08.130 --> 00:43:11.174
singing this song,

00:43:11.466 --> 00:43:13.343
this Hebrew song of rejoicing.

00:43:13.885 --> 00:43:15.303
\"Let us have peace.

00:43:15.304 --> 00:43:16.513
Let us rejoice.\"

00:43:16.514 --> 00:43:18.974
And I got very emotional.

00:43:19.182 --> 00:43:22.936
(singing)

00:43:23.563 --> 00:43:25.271
When Belafonte
sings \"Hava Nagila\"

00:43:25.272 --> 00:43:27.607
on stage at Carnegie Hall
in the 1950s,

00:43:27.608 --> 00:43:30.860
it pushes the song
into American pop culture

00:43:30.861 --> 00:43:36.198
and makes it kind of okay
for anyone to take a crack

00:43:36.199 --> 00:43:37.199
at \"Hava Nagila.\"

00:43:37.826 --> 00:43:39.410
It was like this
\"Hava\" domino effect

00:43:39.411 --> 00:43:42.497
of everybody wanting
to record this song.

00:43:46.460 --> 00:43:52.632
♪ Hava nagila, hava nagila
hava nagila ve-nismeha... ♪

00:43:52.633 --> 00:43:57.596
♪ Uru, uru ahim
uru ahim be-lev sameah ♪

00:43:57.597 --> 00:44:00.600
♪ Uru ahim
be-lev sameah... ♪

00:44:00.724 --> 00:44:02.308
Well, some might say
the top selling

00:44:02.309 --> 00:44:05.394
Jewish music album of all time
was actually not recorded

00:44:05.395 --> 00:44:08.357
by a Jew but by
an Italian American,

00:44:08.398 --> 00:44:09.441
Connie Francis.

00:44:09.858 --> 00:44:14.403
Jewish life
and tradition and culture

00:44:14.404 --> 00:44:16.740
became a part of my life
from the age of five on.

00:44:19.076 --> 00:44:22.244
I probably know more Yiddish
than all the bar mitzvah boys

00:44:22.245 --> 00:44:23.246
I ever dated.

00:44:23.955 --> 00:44:26.415
As much as Italian
was a part of my life,

00:44:26.416 --> 00:44:28.418
so was Jewish culture
a part of my life.

00:44:29.836 --> 00:44:35.341
It was my dad\'s idea in 1960 to
record an album of Jewish songs.

00:44:35.342 --> 00:44:38.386
I had just had
a tremendous amount of success

00:44:38.387 --> 00:44:40.305
with my first Italian album.

00:44:41.431 --> 00:44:44.810
So I went to the rabbi and I
said, tell me about the songs.

00:44:45.102 --> 00:44:46.769
And they gave me
\"Oifen Pripetchik,\"

00:44:46.770 --> 00:44:47.937
and \"Belz, Mein Shtetele Belz,\"

00:44:47.938 --> 00:44:49.606
and all of the Jewish songs.

00:44:49.607 --> 00:44:52.651
And because of Rabbi Goldman
and of all of his relatives,

00:44:52.652 --> 00:44:54.068
that\'s the way I chose

00:44:54.069 --> 00:44:55.069
the songs for my Jewish album.

00:44:55.070 --> 00:44:57.364
And, of course, \"Hava Nagila\"
was the number one song,

00:44:57.573 --> 00:44:59.241
the first song on the album.

00:45:00.117 --> 00:45:03.621
People would say, \"Do you
have any Jewish blood in you?\"

00:45:03.787 --> 00:45:05.454
And I\'d say, \"Yes,
I\'m ten percent Jewish

00:45:05.455 --> 00:45:06.748
on my manager\'s side.\"

00:45:10.670 --> 00:45:12.421
I just wanted you to
know that I\'m a Jew.

00:45:13.338 --> 00:45:14.715
This is my country.

00:45:15.841 --> 00:45:23.841
♪ This land is mine... ♪

00:45:24.474 --> 00:45:26.350
The first time
I really made \"Hava Nagila\"

00:45:26.351 --> 00:45:29.770
part of every show
was when I combined \"Exodus\"

00:45:29.771 --> 00:45:33.065
and \"Hava Nagila\" together
in a medley which is

00:45:33.066 --> 00:45:35.026
a very, very
stirring arrangement.

00:45:37.028 --> 00:45:40.532
I wanted to combine
something as serious as \"Exodus\"

00:45:40.533 --> 00:45:45.245
with something as lighthearted
and gay as \"Hava Nagila.\"

00:45:45.621 --> 00:45:52.587
♪ Hava nagila, hava nagila
hava nagila ve-nismeha... ♪

00:45:52.712 --> 00:45:54.337
(vocalizing melody)

00:45:54.755 --> 00:45:58.257
By the 1960s, Hava had
taken on a life of its own

00:45:58.258 --> 00:46:00.844
popping up in unexpected places.

00:46:01.094 --> 00:46:04.931
♪ Now is the moment... ♪

00:46:05.182 --> 00:46:08.561
Lena Horne recorded a song
in 1963 called \"Now.\"

00:46:08.686 --> 00:46:11.646
The lyrics were written by
Adolph Green and Betty Comden,

00:46:11.647 --> 00:46:13.524
legendary Jewish
Broadway songwriters.

00:46:14.316 --> 00:46:17.276
Very detailed
and very angry lyrics

00:46:17.277 --> 00:46:21.031
about abuses on black bodies
in the United States

00:46:21.782 --> 00:46:24.535
and about calls
for social justice

00:46:24.744 --> 00:46:26.286
and action and revolution.

00:46:26.453 --> 00:46:31.626
♪ Now is the time,
now is the time... ♪

00:46:32.585 --> 00:46:34.711
Jule Styne,
who\'s responsible for the music,

00:46:34.712 --> 00:46:36.128
reads these lyrics and decides,

00:46:36.129 --> 00:46:37.729
\"I\'m going to set them
to \'Hava Nagila.\'\"

00:46:38.006 --> 00:46:40.592
And so \"Now\" is a song,
when you listen to it,

00:46:40.593 --> 00:46:42.259
that is this
incredibly politically charged

00:46:42.260 --> 00:46:45.806
civil rights anthem but set
to the tune of \"Hava Nagila.\"

00:46:47.224 --> 00:46:48.558
For me that song\'s
a great example of the way

00:46:48.559 --> 00:46:50.476
that black and Jewish
sensibilities have connected

00:46:50.477 --> 00:46:51.978
over the years.

00:46:53.146 --> 00:46:55.856
I mean to kill you
in one minute, Ned.

00:46:55.857 --> 00:46:58.193
I call that bold talk
for a one-eyed fat man.

00:47:01.363 --> 00:47:04.241
Glen Campbell did a great
version of \"Hava Nagila\"

00:47:04.282 --> 00:47:07.662
that was the A-side of a single,
that included \"True Grit,\"

00:47:07.745 --> 00:47:09.871
which was his song for the Western.

00:47:09.996 --> 00:47:12.165
That\'s...
this is \"Hava Nagila.\"

00:47:12.999 --> 00:47:14.668
That was on the back
of \"True Grit.\"

00:47:14.669 --> 00:47:15.335
I\'ll be dadgum.

00:47:15.545 --> 00:47:19.673
That was one of those things
that... it was a song

00:47:19.674 --> 00:47:21.049
that would run through my head.

00:47:22.593 --> 00:47:25.721
Because everybody
and his dog knows it.

00:47:26.054 --> 00:47:28.640
When I was doing
bar mitzvahs and stuff like that

00:47:28.641 --> 00:47:30.349
when I first got out to L.A.

00:47:30.350 --> 00:47:32.853
And I learned that one
real quick because, you know,

00:47:33.395 --> 00:47:35.480
you could get some
more weddings that way.

00:47:47.702 --> 00:47:50.830
\"Hava\" had made it in America.

00:47:51.246 --> 00:47:53.206
Even Elvis sang it.

00:47:53.373 --> 00:47:56.752
♪ Hava nagila... ♪

00:47:57.043 --> 00:47:59.420
The song had
crossed over and assimilated

00:47:59.421 --> 00:48:00.964
like many of us.

00:48:02.758 --> 00:48:06.052
New names, new noses,
shiksa wives.

00:48:07.638 --> 00:48:09.180
Lenny!

00:48:13.686 --> 00:48:15.477
But something else
happened to \"Hava\"

00:48:15.478 --> 00:48:17.981
as it made its splash
in mainstream society.

00:48:18.273 --> 00:48:23.068
♪ Hava nagila,
have two nagila ♪

00:48:23.069 --> 00:48:27.908
♪ Have three nagila,
they\'re pretty small. ♪

00:48:33.706 --> 00:48:36.834
♪ Hello mudda
hello fadda... ♪

00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:40.378
Alan Sherman enters the picture
at a moment in which

00:48:40.671 --> 00:48:43.423
Jewish culture can laugh
at itself in a new way.

00:48:44.049 --> 00:48:49.137
And in fact, wants to laugh at itself
as a sign of how far it\'s come.

00:48:49.346 --> 00:48:52.807
♪ Harvey and Sheila,
Harvey and Sheila ♪

00:48:52.808 --> 00:48:56.436
♪ Harvey and Sheila
move to West L.A... ♪

00:48:56.854 --> 00:48:59.229
And of course he has
his version of \"Hava Nagila\"

00:48:59.230 --> 00:49:00.857
which he pays tribute to it

00:49:00.858 --> 00:49:02.359
even as he kinda mocks it.

00:49:02.693 --> 00:49:04.736
♪ Harvey and Sheila
flew TWA ♪

00:49:04.737 --> 00:49:08.281
♪ They bought a house one day
financed by FHA ♪

00:49:08.323 --> 00:49:11.493
♪ It had a swimming pool
full of H2O ♪

00:49:12.118 --> 00:49:16.246
♪ Traded their used MG
for a new XKE ♪

00:49:16.247 --> 00:49:19.752
♪ Switched to the GOP
that\'s the way things go ♪

00:49:20.293 --> 00:49:24.507
♪ Oh.. that.. Harvey he was
really smart ♪

00:49:24.548 --> 00:49:25.590
♪ He used his noodle ♪

00:49:25.591 --> 00:49:27.843
♪ Sheila bought
a white French poodle ♪

00:49:27.885 --> 00:49:29.511
♪ Went to Europe with a visa ♪

00:49:29.512 --> 00:49:31.846
♪ Harvey\'s rich,
they say that he\'s a ♪

00:49:31.847 --> 00:49:35.433
♪ VIP!
This could be... ♪

00:49:36.142 --> 00:49:41.147
♪ only in the USA ♪

00:49:54.244 --> 00:49:57.204
Another dynamic happening
in the 1960s, of course,

00:49:57.205 --> 00:49:59.498
is you have the children of
the 1950s growing up

00:49:59.499 --> 00:50:02.837
and coming into their own
sort of political consciousness.

00:50:03.128 --> 00:50:06.089
So for baby boomers who
grew up in the suburbs

00:50:06.131 --> 00:50:09.092
and they grew up in
these huge synagogues,

00:50:09.300 --> 00:50:13.388
they come to feel that that was all
totally inauthentic, completely fake.

00:50:13.639 --> 00:50:14.931
What were their parents doing?

00:50:14.932 --> 00:50:16.057
What were they thinking?

00:50:16.266 --> 00:50:17.746
They weren\'t involved
in the struggle.

00:50:17.852 --> 00:50:20.144
♪ Johnny\'s in the basement,
mixing up the medicine ♪

00:50:20.145 --> 00:50:22.479
♪ I\'m on the pavement
thinking about the government ♪

00:50:22.480 --> 00:50:24.734
♪ The man in the trench coat
badge out, laid off ♪

00:50:25.483 --> 00:50:26.860
What\'s the soundtrack of that?

00:50:26.861 --> 00:50:28.111
What represents that?

00:50:28.278 --> 00:50:31.071
You think of the song
that was pumping through

00:50:31.072 --> 00:50:34.242
those brand new PA systems
in the sparkling social halls.

00:50:34.618 --> 00:50:36.161
Right?
It was \"Hava Nagila.\"

00:50:36.411 --> 00:50:38.705
It was the song that
they had to dance to

00:50:38.706 --> 00:50:40.666
when they were
awkward 13 year olds.

00:50:43.418 --> 00:50:45.796
Here\'s a foreign song I learned in Utah.

00:50:48.089 --> 00:50:49.089
♪ Ha ♪

00:50:52.343 --> 00:50:53.343
♪ va ♪

00:50:53.679 --> 00:50:54.679
♪ Hava ♪

00:50:55.931 --> 00:50:56.931
♪ na ♪

00:50:57.683 --> 00:50:58.683
♪ Ha Va Na ♪

00:50:59.894 --> 00:51:01.520
♪ Ha Va Na Gee ♪

00:51:02.270 --> 00:51:04.856
Bob Dylan butchers it,
just butchers it.

00:51:04.857 --> 00:51:07.817
I mean, it\'s a performance
of \"Hava Nagila\" that is meant

00:51:07.818 --> 00:51:09.193
to not perform \"Hava Nagila,\"

00:51:09.194 --> 00:51:11.571
which ultimately, is
a performance of \"Hava Nagila,\"

00:51:11.572 --> 00:51:12.812
which is why I kind of like it.

00:51:12.907 --> 00:51:16.117
(yodeling)

00:51:23.333 --> 00:51:25.293
That, to me, is The Jewish Song.

00:51:25.544 --> 00:51:28.378
Nothing is more Jewish
than that performance

00:51:28.379 --> 00:51:31.550
precisely because it is both
an embrace and a refusal.

00:51:32.258 --> 00:51:35.971
It\'s the smartest song about
Jewish identity I\'ve ever heard,

00:51:36.346 --> 00:51:38.264
and it only lasts 30 seconds.

00:51:39.642 --> 00:51:42.728
It\'s tricky,
this whole identity business.

00:51:42.895 --> 00:51:45.480
In the 60\'s, we weren\'t
just making fun of \"Hava.\"

00:51:49.234 --> 00:51:51.319
We were poking fun at
all things Jewish.

00:51:52.530 --> 00:51:53.850
Do you have brothers and sisters?

00:51:54.405 --> 00:51:55.866
- Yeah, three brothers.
- Oh!

00:51:56.075 --> 00:51:57.701
- Buch, Boojie, and Sol.

00:51:58.077 --> 00:51:59.078
(laughter)

00:51:59.703 --> 00:52:01.539
- It\'s \"Buuuch.\"
- Buuch?

00:52:01.705 --> 00:52:03.541
- No. \"Bu-uch.\"
- Buuch?

00:52:03.624 --> 00:52:04.917
Ooh! I\'m sorry!

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:06.001
(laughter)

00:52:06.334 --> 00:52:09.672
Curiously enough, if we weren\'t
making fun of ourselves...

00:52:10.965 --> 00:52:14.009
♪ Tradition, tradition... ♪

00:52:15.135 --> 00:52:18.681
we were lining up for a nostalgic
rendering of our imagined past.

00:52:19.765 --> 00:52:22.100
\"Hava\" comes to be part
of an emerging

00:52:22.101 --> 00:52:24.770
kind of Jewish, ethnic culture
that\'s very sentimental.

00:52:25.311 --> 00:52:27.773
The same ethos that gives us
\"Fiddler on the Roof.\"

00:52:29.608 --> 00:52:34.863
By the late sixties, many American
Jews forget that \"Hava Nagila\"

00:52:34.864 --> 00:52:37.616
has these Zionist resonances to it.

00:52:39.367 --> 00:52:41.871
♪ Sunrise, Sunset... ♪

00:52:42.580 --> 00:52:47.001
It\'s much more about those
journeys of ethnic reclamation.

00:52:47.835 --> 00:52:51.504
You reclaim your ethnic roots
in that old world of the shtetl

00:52:51.505 --> 00:52:53.256
and of \"Fiddler on the Roof.\"

00:52:53.757 --> 00:52:56.886
And that\'s where you go, and
that\'s where the song brings them.

00:53:00.931 --> 00:53:05.102
But while many of us were channeling,
our inner Tevye\'s and Golda\'s

00:53:05.310 --> 00:53:09.439
\"Hava\" was on a collision course
with its greatest adversary yet.

00:53:16.404 --> 00:53:18.866
In the late 70s and early 80s,

00:53:18.949 --> 00:53:22.786
what people thought of as Jewish music
was music that came from Israel.

00:53:23.162 --> 00:53:27.290
So people started questioning,
\"Well, where is my music?

00:53:27.498 --> 00:53:29.333
I\'m not,
I don\'t come from Israel.

00:53:29.334 --> 00:53:31.086
My family comes
from Eastern Europe.\"

00:53:33.254 --> 00:53:34.339
Uh, what\'s the

00:53:40.261 --> 00:53:42.722
There was enough distance
from the Holocaust

00:53:42.723 --> 00:53:44.390
that people could
actually consider

00:53:45.017 --> 00:53:48.979
you know, what was my
heritage that wasn\'t Israel?

00:53:54.068 --> 00:53:57.613
So at that point, Jewish
American culture was adrift.

00:53:58.321 --> 00:54:00.783
There was no,
there was no real continuity.

00:54:01.533 --> 00:54:04.745
(singing in Yiddish)

00:54:08.414 --> 00:54:11.210
The lack of cultural literacy on
the part of the musicians

00:54:11.292 --> 00:54:13.086
and on the part
of the Jewish community

00:54:13.087 --> 00:54:16.338
was sufficiently low
that everyone was sated

00:54:16.339 --> 00:54:18.341
merely with \"Hava Nagila.\"

00:54:23.180 --> 00:54:27.266
I did my first field work in
Mount Eerie, North Carolina,

00:54:27.267 --> 00:54:31.396
with Tommy Gerald, who was a
tremendous fiddle and banjo player.

00:54:31.605 --> 00:54:35.441
♪ Corn whiskey and pretty women,
they\'ve been my downfall ♪

00:54:36.068 --> 00:54:39.571
Tommy was a magnet.
Jews from New York,

00:54:39.655 --> 00:54:42.741
they were coming down, they were
flocking to him, and he couldn\'t,

00:54:43.200 --> 00:54:44.618
he couldn\'t understand it.

00:54:45.536 --> 00:54:48.998
He asked me he was like, \"Hank, don\'t
your people got none of your own music?\"

00:54:49.289 --> 00:54:51.709
♪ Carry two guns every day ♪

00:54:52.167 --> 00:54:53.167
It was stunning.

00:54:53.293 --> 00:54:56.880
I didn\'t even know the
word klezmer at that time.

00:54:57.214 --> 00:54:58.756
You know,
it\'s like you have this dream...

00:54:58.757 --> 00:55:00.550
You ever have this dream?
You\'re in your house

00:55:00.551 --> 00:55:03.428
and then suddenly you see
there\'s a door to a room.

00:55:03.469 --> 00:55:05.972
You say, \"I didn\'t notice that
door before.\" You open it up.

00:55:05.973 --> 00:55:08.183
And here\'s this room full of stuff.

00:55:08.308 --> 00:55:09.727
I didn\'t know I had this stuff.

00:55:17.526 --> 00:55:20.821
Those of us who were
involved with the klezmer revival

00:55:20.904 --> 00:55:25.407
were looking to play the music and learn
the music that would have been heard

00:55:25.408 --> 00:55:29.038
and danced to, and used
for celebrations of our grandparents.

00:55:29.955 --> 00:55:33.876
The music that they heard when
they were in, in my case, in Ukraine.

00:55:37.046 --> 00:55:38.046
Okay.

00:55:38.338 --> 00:55:40.423
But what does this have
to do with \"Hava?\"

00:55:40.591 --> 00:55:42.634
Its arrival in the United States

00:55:42.801 --> 00:55:45.554
was the cultural equivalent
of an invasive species.

00:55:45.929 --> 00:55:51.268
It choked out every other
species because it was heartier.

00:55:51.476 --> 00:55:52.603
It was simpler.

00:55:52.853 --> 00:55:54.897
It was a place where people

00:55:55.147 --> 00:55:59.318
ceased looking into a
deeper place for Jewish music.

00:56:01.945 --> 00:56:03.322
It was never a gateway.

00:56:03.614 --> 00:56:05.447
It was always a \"No Exit.\"

00:56:05.448 --> 00:56:06.448
It was a cul-de-sac.

00:56:18.879 --> 00:56:23.674
I developed Klezcamp to create
a much more dynamic

00:56:23.675 --> 00:56:26.512
access to Yiddish
popular and folk culture.

00:56:31.850 --> 00:56:33.685
This event, Klezcamp,

00:56:33.852 --> 00:56:36.313
this is the place where
\"Hava Nagila\" dies.

00:56:36.396 --> 00:56:40.441
This is the place where it is buried,
and we dance on its grave.

00:56:41.026 --> 00:56:42.986
But not so fast!

00:56:46.031 --> 00:56:48.367
The \"Hava Haters\" may have
tried to contain it.

00:56:48.992 --> 00:56:52.246
But by then,
\"Hava\" was unstoppable.

00:56:52.329 --> 00:56:55.207
Don\'t you people know any songs
that we would like to hear?

00:56:55.332 --> 00:56:57.334
What about \"Hava Nagila?\"

00:56:57.543 --> 00:56:58.168
Ha-what?

00:56:58.293 --> 00:57:01.046
(playing Hava Nagila)

00:57:01.672 --> 00:57:05.591
♪ Have a nice Christmas,
have a nice Christmas ♪

00:57:05.592 --> 00:57:07.261
♪ Non-Christian friend. ♪

00:57:07.594 --> 00:57:10.305
- ♪ Hava Nagila, Hava Nagila ♪
- Shhh!

00:57:10.931 --> 00:57:12.599
♪ Hava Naranan.. ♪

00:57:13.934 --> 00:57:16.519
I think it\'s a great example
of a song

00:57:16.520 --> 00:57:18.271
that started off being...

00:57:18.272 --> 00:57:19.592
meaning something
very specific...

00:57:19.648 --> 00:57:22.233
About tradition and ritual
and religion

00:57:22.234 --> 00:57:25.529
and quickly is transformed
into a modern creation...

00:57:27.781 --> 00:57:29.032
Mmm. Cell phone.

00:57:29.950 --> 00:57:31.868
That is stripped of
its religious meaning,

00:57:31.869 --> 00:57:34.245
stripped of its
political meaning,

00:57:34.246 --> 00:57:36.623
and just becomes a kind
of happy singalong,

00:57:37.082 --> 00:57:38.749
that yes, it\'s Jewish,

00:57:38.750 --> 00:57:42.253
but really it\'s a great melody
and a great lyrics that

00:57:42.254 --> 00:57:44.006
anyone can sing and be happy to.

00:57:44.423 --> 00:57:49.803
(playing Hava Nagila)

00:58:54.535 --> 00:58:57.955
So now that \"Hava\"
belongs to the world

00:58:58.539 --> 00:59:01.250
is it still even a Jewish song?

00:59:01.458 --> 00:59:07.631
By now, to Israelis, \"Hava Nagila\"
may be like a song of the diaspora.

00:59:08.423 --> 00:59:11.385
It\'s much more famous
among American Jews

00:59:12.219 --> 00:59:13.804
than among Israelis.

00:59:14.179 --> 00:59:16.014
I go to many weddings in Israel.

00:59:16.765 --> 00:59:18.267
It\'s not the most played song.

00:59:19.142 --> 00:59:20.352
What is the hora today?

00:59:21.019 --> 00:59:22.479
People don\'t dance the Hora.

00:59:23.105 --> 00:59:26.775
We have about 5,000
or 4,000 Israeli dances.

00:59:27.317 --> 00:59:27.943
They want

00:59:28.277 --> 00:59:29.611
to be up to date.

00:59:29.820 --> 00:59:31.070
They want new things.

00:59:31.071 --> 00:59:34.783
They want new songs,
new rhythms.

00:59:37.202 --> 00:59:40.956
Killed off in Ukraine,
dismissed in Israel.

00:59:41.541 --> 00:59:43.500
\"Hava Nagila\" seems
to have lost its way.

00:59:43.959 --> 00:59:45.085
Even in America.

00:59:45.919 --> 00:59:47.462
\"Hava Nagila\" was played
at my bar mitzvah.

00:59:47.505 --> 00:59:49.185
It was definitely not
played at my wedding.

00:59:49.464 --> 00:59:50.464
I really hate it.

00:59:50.632 --> 00:59:51.800
I can\'t stand hearing it.

00:59:52.092 --> 00:59:57.139
I understand that there\'s a certain
kind of a cliche feeling about it.

00:59:57.723 --> 00:59:58.974
Like \"You Are My Sunshine.\"

01:00:00.100 --> 01:00:03.020
♪ Hava nagila, hava nagila ♪

01:00:03.478 --> 01:00:05.772
So \"Hava,\" is this the end?

01:00:06.440 --> 01:00:09.192
Are you just another jingle
in the global jukebox?

01:00:10.152 --> 01:00:13.363
Are you a symbol of how much we\'ve
lost on our climb to success?

01:00:14.615 --> 01:00:16.658
On our assimilation
into American life?

01:00:16.867 --> 01:00:20.329
♪ They\'re coming to America... ♪

01:00:20.662 --> 01:00:22.788
♪ Hava nagila, hava... ♪

01:00:22.789 --> 01:00:25.917
♪ ..nagila hava nagila... ♪

01:00:26.418 --> 01:00:32.966
(playing Hava Nagila)

01:00:34.092 --> 01:00:36.470
Lost in the desert of YouTube,

01:00:36.928 --> 01:00:39.348
wandering through
a wasteland of clips...

01:00:40.807 --> 01:00:42.184
Techno \"Hava,\"

01:00:43.561 --> 01:00:45.145
death metal \"Hava,\"

01:00:48.106 --> 01:00:49.567
Real Housewives \"Hava,\"

01:00:52.778 --> 01:00:54.363
and whatever this is,

01:00:55.322 --> 01:00:58.241
we had to find out
if \"Hava\" still had a soul.

01:00:59.701 --> 01:01:02.161
So for the last stop
on our \"Hava\" journey,

01:01:02.162 --> 01:01:03.955
we went to the
top of the mountain

01:01:05.332 --> 01:01:06.332
to Boulder.

01:01:09.336 --> 01:01:13.423
When I want to teach people
about the use of a nigun,

01:01:14.424 --> 01:01:16.926
and I know I can
count on \"Hava Nagila.\"

01:01:16.927 --> 01:01:19.136
That they would know the melody.

01:01:19.137 --> 01:01:21.390
Then I say,
\"Would you do me a favor?

01:01:21.723 --> 01:01:25.894
We\'re going to change the rhythm and
no words, and let\'s sing it with me now.\"

01:01:26.562 --> 01:01:34.562
(vocalizing melody)

01:01:41.868 --> 01:01:45.872
At this point, people get a sense
of the longing that\'s in there.

01:01:46.415 --> 01:01:50.043
Obviously when you sing it
fast and you build it up,

01:01:50.377 --> 01:01:52.129
with rhythm, it\'s different.

01:01:52.421 --> 01:01:53.505
But when you go...

01:01:53.506 --> 01:02:01.506
(vocalizing melody)

01:02:04.517 --> 01:02:05.976
So you can hear the prayer.

01:02:06.644 --> 01:02:09.062
What does the prayer try to say?

01:02:10.272 --> 01:02:13.023
\"I\'m longing for the light,
I\'m longing for you, God,

01:02:13.024 --> 01:02:16.945
\"I\'m longing for redemption,
I\'m longing for joy,

01:02:17.362 --> 01:02:19.947
\"and I\'m not in
such a good place right now.

01:02:19.948 --> 01:02:23.325
\"And let this wordless prayer
express more than

01:02:23.326 --> 01:02:25.203
whatever I can say with words.\"

01:02:25.538 --> 01:02:28.414
Because words can only say
one thing at a time,

01:02:28.415 --> 01:02:31.586
but a melody can express
a whole lot more.

01:02:35.172 --> 01:02:39.968
Maybe in the confusion of our overly-
saturated, pop culture \"Hava\" Fest,

01:02:40.511 --> 01:02:42.345
we lost sight of the big picture.

01:02:43.013 --> 01:02:47.685
Maybe to someone, somewhere,
\"Hava\" still has meaning.

01:02:48.728 --> 01:02:51.855
We asked Soviet-born musician,
Regina Spektor.

01:02:53.733 --> 01:02:58.861
I definitely was living in a time when
it was kind of taboo to be Jewish

01:02:58.862 --> 01:03:01.656
and to say that you\'re Jewish.
People were always amazed

01:03:01.657 --> 01:03:04.200
How is it that Soviet Jews
remained Jews?

01:03:04.201 --> 01:03:06.161
Because there\'s really,
there\'s no religion.

01:03:06.453 --> 01:03:08.996
There\'s no customs,
really, being practiced.

01:03:08.997 --> 01:03:13.544
There\'s nothing really to keep
them together in this giant country.

01:03:14.836 --> 01:03:18.758
Soviet Jews were always kind
of like searching for scraps.

01:03:19.007 --> 01:03:23.135
So anything that would come into your
field of vision that had anything

01:03:23.136 --> 01:03:29.099
to do with tradition or a connection
to other Jews or your history or

01:03:29.100 --> 01:03:32.979
people outside of the Soviet union
was really an exciting thing.

01:03:33.980 --> 01:03:35.482
\"Hava Nagila\" was that thing.

01:03:37.484 --> 01:03:42.740
♪ Things I have loved
I\'m allowed to keep ♪

01:03:45.367 --> 01:03:49.246
My mom was a conservatory professor
in Russia, and she plays piano.

01:03:49.705 --> 01:03:51.873
At all of the family gatherings,

01:03:51.957 --> 01:03:53.958
somebody who knew
how to play, like my mom,

01:03:53.959 --> 01:03:57.044
would sit down to the piano
and she would play \"Hava Nagila\"

01:03:57.045 --> 01:03:58.922
definitely it was
part of the repertoire.

01:03:59.799 --> 01:04:05.095
It could be used as a little piece of
resistance as something to fan the flame.

01:04:06.221 --> 01:04:10.183
If you\'re touched by something at a
certain time and in a certain age,

01:04:11.644 --> 01:04:14.564
they\'re, they\'re part of you
and then you want to pass them on.

01:04:16.314 --> 01:04:21.571
♪ Ba ba ba ba
Na na na na na ♪

01:04:26.867 --> 01:04:30.077
You know, I have a song
called \"The Flowers\"

01:04:30.078 --> 01:04:32.205
on a record of mine
called \"Soviet Kitsch\"

01:04:33.666 --> 01:04:36.042
Years later,
after performing it forever,

01:04:36.334 --> 01:04:38.295
somebody said,
\"Well, that \'Hava\' part

01:04:38.546 --> 01:04:40.506
of your song,
the \'Hava Nagila\' part.\"

01:04:41.172 --> 01:04:42.340
And I said, \"What?\"

01:04:42.800 --> 01:04:45.511
And as soon as they said it, I
knew exactly what they meant.

01:05:00.358 --> 01:05:03.613
It\'s been a long, strange
journey from Ukraine to YouTube.

01:05:07.032 --> 01:05:10.952
Turns out \"Hava\" isn\'t
a cul-de-sac, a no-exit.

01:05:13.873 --> 01:05:15.957
Instead it is a gateway,

01:05:16.792 --> 01:05:20.253
a door to the room in our house
we didn\'t know was there.

01:05:21.046 --> 01:05:23.758
Filled with Hasids and pioneers...

01:05:24.925 --> 01:05:27.469
suburbia and the Holocaust...

01:05:29.095 --> 01:05:32.642
the stuff of our
collective memory.

01:05:33.475 --> 01:05:38.063
Our central musical motif,

01:05:38.564 --> 01:05:40.690
of all the melodies
you could pick,

01:05:40.691 --> 01:05:45.236
is a melody that evokes
new life and hope and joy.

01:05:46.321 --> 01:05:50.491
And that\'s a wonderful symbol
for the Jewish people to have.

01:05:50.492 --> 01:05:54.162
And for the rest of the world to
think of as being a Jewish symbol.

01:05:55.997 --> 01:05:59.751
So much of the power
of black spiritual music

01:05:59.752 --> 01:06:04.130
is about hope, it\'s about
a sense of liberation.

01:06:05.173 --> 01:06:07.092
Not all those songs endure,

01:06:07.635 --> 01:06:11.387
but the ones that do endure
in part endure

01:06:11.388 --> 01:06:13.641
because of their
deep spiritual resonance.

01:06:14.432 --> 01:06:17.018
I think the same is true
about \"Hava Nagila\".

01:06:18.562 --> 01:06:20.939
When I sang it
I think people everywhere

01:06:20.940 --> 01:06:25.026
get a sense that we are
at our best at this moment.

01:06:26.737 --> 01:06:29.155
(applause)

01:06:49.175 --> 01:06:52.513
Maybe it\'s these moments that
make \"Hava Nagila\" what it is.

01:06:55.558 --> 01:06:58.435
A song of joy in spite of loss,

01:07:00.730 --> 01:07:03.481
a song of hope in spite of fear,

01:07:05.818 --> 01:07:08.236
a song that lifts us up
and carries us

01:07:08.904 --> 01:07:12.323
from one blessing to the next.

01:09:05.020 --> 01:09:06.020
Yeah!