{"id":4720,"date":"2013-01-08T19:33:43","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T01:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=4720"},"modified":"2013-01-10T11:35:57","modified_gmt":"2013-01-10T17:35:57","slug":"hava-nagila-film-chronicles-songs-journey-from-shtetl-to-cliche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/hava-nagila-film-chronicles-songs-journey-from-shtetl-to-cliche\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Hava Nagila&#8217; film chronicles song&#8217;s journey from shtetl to cliche"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By CHAVIE LIEBER<\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK (JTA) &#8212; You&#8217;re at a wedding or bar mitzvah, mingling at the bar or catching up with a distant relative, when you hear it &#8212; the opening notes of a familiar tune that as if by some invisible force carries you and other guests to the dance floor for the rousing dance circle ritual.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4754\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Hava-Nagila.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4754\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4754 lazyload\" title=\"Hava Nagila\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Hava-Nagila-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Hava-Nagila-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Hava-Nagila-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4754\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4754 \" title=\"Hava Nagila\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Hava-Nagila-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Hava-Nagila-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Hava-Nagila-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-4754\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&quot;Hava Nagila (The Movie)&quot; portrays the classic Jewish tune as a porthole into 200 years of Judaism\u2019s culture and spirituality. (Courtesy &quot;Have Nagila The Movie&quot;)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Does \u201cHava Nagila\u201d work this kind of magic because it was handed down at Sinai and thus encoded in the Jewish DNA? Or is it a tale from the European shtetl, albeit one with a timeless message and an irrepressible melody?<\/p>\n<p>It is these questions that Roberta Grossman addresses in her new film, \u201cHava Nagila (The Movie),\u201d which will screen at the upcoming New York Jewish Film Festival before hitting theaters nationwide in March. The film, three years in the making, explores the phenomenon behind the iconic folk song and seeks to explain why the melody has been so beloved over the years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I first started doing research for the film, people thought I was crazy and I was worried I wouldn\u2019t find anything substantial enough,\u201d Grossman told JTA. \u201cBut what I really found was that this song is a porthole into 200 years of Judaism\u2019s culture and spirituality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grossman\u2019s inspiration for the film came from memories of dancing to the song at family affairs. A product of what she calls a \u201creligiously assimilated but culturally affiliated\u201d background, Grossman said twirling with family members while &#8220;Hava Nagila&#8221; blared in the background was a tribal moment with spiritual resonance. Part of a generation raised on the 1971 film adaption of \u201cFiddler on the Roof,\u201d she knew the song cold but understood little about its origins.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4755\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Roberta-Grossman.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4755\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4755 lazyload\" title=\"Roberta Grossman\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Roberta-Grossman-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Roberta-Grossman-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Roberta-Grossman-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4755\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4755 \" title=\"Roberta Grossman\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Roberta-Grossman-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Roberta-Grossman-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Roberta-Grossman-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-4755\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">California filmmaker Roberta Grossman, who was inspired to make &quot;Hava Nagila (The Movie)&quot; by cherished memories of dancing to the tune at family affairs, spent three years researching the song&#39;s history. (Courtesy &quot;Have Nagila The Movie&quot;)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Turns out, it doesn&#8217;t go back nearly as far as Sinai. The song was first sung as a Chasidic niggun, or wordless melody, in the court of the the Ruzhiner rebbe, Israel Friedman, who lived in the Ukrainian town of Sadagora in the 18th century.<\/p>\n<p>A Jewish shtetl in the Pale of Settlement, Sadagora often was subjected to pogroms, and Chasidic leaders encouraged music as a way to combat the tragedies of everyday life. When a wave of European immigrants moved to Israel in the early 1900s, they took their niggun with them, where it later became representative of Zionist culture.<\/p>\n<p>In 1915, the prominent musicologist Abraham Zevi Idelsohn adapted the song with Hebrew lyrics. Three years later he unveiled his new variation at a Jerusalem concert. \u201cHava Nagila,\u201d literally \u201clet us rejoice,\u201d went on to hit its peak popularity in the 1950s and &#8217;60s, and became a favorite pop tune for American Jews.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s unclear if Idelsohn really knew the extent of how far his song would go, but after that concert celebrating the British victory in Palestine, the streets of Jerusalem erupted and the song took off,\u201d said Mark Kligman, a professor of Jewish musicology at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIsrael was a vacuum at that point, with immigrants from all over who had very little in common. They were dealing with their identity, and the need for music, and this song unified them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Decades later, the same is true. The song is widely covered &#8212; Bob Dylan, Ben Folds and Regina Spektor have performed it. Last summer it was the soundtrack for U.S. Olympian Ally Raisman&#8217;s gold medal-winning performance in the floor exercise at the London Games. And though The Wall Street Journal noted recently that some see it as cliche and avoid having it played it at their affairs &#8212; Grossman refers to these folks as \u201cHava haters\u201d &#8212; it may be the most popular Jewish song on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>In the film, which includes a hora dancing tutorial, Grossman journeys to Sadagora as well as other obscure places where the song hit. The film notes how popular \u201cHava Nagila\u201d became with non-Jewish music lovers and features musicians such as Lena Horne, the Cuban-American salsa performer Celia Cruz and the pop singer Connie Francis.<\/p>\n<p>Grossman skillfully portrays &#8220;Hava Nagila&#8221; as a symbol of American Jewish identity and postulates that future generations will continue to see the song as iconic &#8212; with or without the eye rolls. Through the film, she seeks to give the song some depth beyond the overplayed ditty at bar mitzvahs. Viewers must decide if the song can still be redeemed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I believe that Hava has actually accrued a great deal of meaning and depth on its long journey from Ukraine to YouTube,&#8221; Grossman said. &#8220;Hava&#8217;s journey is our journey. By understanding where Hava has come from, we understand where we have come from and more.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"%27Hava%20Nagila%27%20film%20chronicles%20song%27s%20journey%20from%20shtetl%20to%20cliche\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1705,440,1704,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4720"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4756,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4720\/revisions\/4756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}