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Friday April 20, 2007

Recording company making noise exposing Jewish musical secrets

by aron rivin
j. intern

In some of the very first recorded music, performers dressed up in derby hats, wore gigantic prosthetic noses and sang songs with titles like “Cohen Owes Me $97.”

No joke.

Few people are probably aware that black minstrel shows, in which performers wore “blackface” makeup and enacted overtly racist caricatures of African Americans, had a Jewish equivalent. Somehow that curiosity got buried in history.

But Reboot Stereophonic, a recording company dedicated to reviving some of these more obscure artifacts of Judaism’s past, aims to expose the phenomenon. The company recently released “Jewface,” an anthology of 15 Jewish minstrel songs recorded between 1905 and 1930. In the record label’s words, “the album reveals one of the dirty little secrets of American culture: some of the first hit records ever made were fiendishly catchy musical lampoons, created by Jews, for Jews, packed with stereotypes straight out of the anti-Semite’s playbook.”

Reboot Stereophonic has released other obscure — but historically significant — compilations as well. For example, “God is a Moog,” a double album by Moog synthesizer guru Gershon Kingsley, is intended to capture the interest of a generation drawn to cultural esoterica and forgotten (or ignored) aspects of history. Kingsley, a German-born Jew, was responsible for some of the earliest electronic pop music.

The not-for-profit record label is an outgrowth of Reboot, a Jewish think tank formed in 2003 when Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation joined with the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies to connect young, culturally-influential Jews. The goal was broad: to invigorate a fresh Jewish intellectual culture that had become stale through a general disenchantment with institutionalized religion.

“It started as an experiment,” said Jules Shell, creative director for Reboot. “The idea was that you can reinvent what’s come before you in a way that’s relevant to you now.”

Since its inception, Reboot has had a mix of functions and activities The name is used to describe the non-profit organization, headquartered in New York; the yearly Reboot summit held in Park City, Utah; and the cross-country network of artists, intellectuals and entrepreneurs who help develop the projects that give the movement national exposure.

In addition to the record label, Rebooters have published books, started the quarterly art and literature magazine “Guilt & Pleasure,” released several documentary films (including “The Tribe” and “Sons of Sakhnin”, planned research initiatives and started salons. Reboot nominates people for two-year fellowships, funded by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and other foundations. Here in the Bay Area, Rebooters have organized salons, potlucks and ritual study groups. David Katznelson, one of Reboot Stereophonic’s founders and a co-chair of the network’s San Francisco sector, says that being involved with a new wave of Jewish culture has been a process of renewal.

“For me, personally, I haven’t gotten more religious because I’m an agnostic,” he says. “[But] Judaism is definitely more a part of my life since Reboot.”

“We’re a generation of the Sunday school paradigm that started in the 1950s,” he said. “You went to Sunday school, you were bored with the way everything was taught — nothing seemed of interest.”

According to research, Katznelson wasn’t alone in feeling disenchanted. At the same time, recent surveys by researcher Anna Greenberg provide hope for Reboot’s cause of re-engaging them. In her Reboot-published report, “OMG! How Generation Y is Redefining Faith in the iPod Era,” Greenberg showed that while the vast majority of young Jews are not interested in organized religion, many voice a desire for Jewish meaning and identity.

At the annual Reboot summit in Park City, Utah, attendees seek to redefine Judaism’s role in contemporary society, discussing everything from social justice to dietary law, and toss around ideas for creative projects. Amid all the brainstorming and debate, however, one issue regularly creeps up: What exactly is this thing we are a part of?

As Reboot grows, its greatest accomplishment may be simply initiating that dialogue.

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