2008 Woodie Awards
Punk Rock and Orthodoxy
The Elusive Search for Authenticity
Mordechai Shinefield
Issue date: 5/16/05 Section: Arts & Culture
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Personal anecdote. I made up a niggun once in the Bais Medresh in Staten Island Yeshiva. Well, I didn't make it up myself. I borrowed the White Stripe's "Fell in Love With a Girl," slowed it down, and hummed it as I bowed and rocked over a Talmud. Not just any Talmud, mind you. I hummed The White Stripes over a Talmud from the widest and longest set of Talmuds in the entire hall. It took up the width of the table, and I sat in the back of the room, where anyone leaving and entering could see me. Conspicuous to say the least.
Another student, black hat and jacketed out and twirling his peyot like a baton, stopped by my table and clucked his tongue. "Goyish music while you learn?" he asked. "Avak Avodah Zarah." Which translates to: If you hum secular music while you learn, it's a "taste" of worshiping idols. I'm still unsure why that would be, but what fascinated me, the anti-authoritarian punk music lover, was why a frummie (translation: ultra-religious) student would know the tune to "Fell in Love with a Girl." Did he just recognize a secular tune when he heard one, or was he intimately familiar with the Garage Rock darlings of the modern rock radio station?
The song exploded onto the airwaves in 2001. Staind, Disturbed and the rest of the Nu-metal genre fell like dinosaurs before the onslaught of the White Stripes (and the Strokes). A dozen Linkin Park singles still rotated on the radio. One would think that punks, people who hated nu-metal almost as much as they hated the bombast of heavy metal, would flock to the White Stripes. Yet almost to a tee, the anti-establishment movement derided the White Stripes to the extent that my Yeshivish friend did. No matter what cultural purpose the band served, they weren't DIY and punk enough for the Alternative Press crowd. Just as no matter what holy purpose I leashed to the band to aid in Torah learning, they could never substitute for a good Avraham Fried song. If selling out is tantamount to worshiping the false idols of music, than both sides tugging at my arms called the White Stripes "Avak Avodah Zarah."
Another student, black hat and jacketed out and twirling his peyot like a baton, stopped by my table and clucked his tongue. "Goyish music while you learn?" he asked. "Avak Avodah Zarah." Which translates to: If you hum secular music while you learn, it's a "taste" of worshiping idols. I'm still unsure why that would be, but what fascinated me, the anti-authoritarian punk music lover, was why a frummie (translation: ultra-religious) student would know the tune to "Fell in Love with a Girl." Did he just recognize a secular tune when he heard one, or was he intimately familiar with the Garage Rock darlings of the modern rock radio station?
The song exploded onto the airwaves in 2001. Staind, Disturbed and the rest of the Nu-metal genre fell like dinosaurs before the onslaught of the White Stripes (and the Strokes). A dozen Linkin Park singles still rotated on the radio. One would think that punks, people who hated nu-metal almost as much as they hated the bombast of heavy metal, would flock to the White Stripes. Yet almost to a tee, the anti-establishment movement derided the White Stripes to the extent that my Yeshivish friend did. No matter what cultural purpose the band served, they weren't DIY and punk enough for the Alternative Press crowd. Just as no matter what holy purpose I leashed to the band to aid in Torah learning, they could never substitute for a good Avraham Fried song. If selling out is tantamount to worshiping the false idols of music, than both sides tugging at my arms called the White Stripes "Avak Avodah Zarah."
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mskiermd8
mskiermd8
posted 5/18/05 @ 4:10 PM EST
YU had its own Jewish Punk Rock group called Kabbalah, of which I was a founder. We played more than just punk, but I think we can safely lay claim to recording the first Jewish Punk tunes. (Continued…)
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