September 2011 - Jewish Federation of New Mexico

September 2011 A Service of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico The New Mexico Jewish Link 3
Matisyahu Looks to Bridge the Jewish Gap
By Sam Sokolove
If you publish a Jewish newspaper
and someone asks you to interview
their friend’s son because he’s
doing work that may be “interesting”
to Jewish readers, responding with a
noncommittal nod may be the wise
move.
Regardless, thanks to the efforts
of Link advertising manager, Anne
Grollman, last month I spent a few
minutes chatting with the young man
Anne knows as Matthew Paul Miller,
a friend’s son who over the last few
years has transformed himself into
Matisyahu, the Hassidic reggae singer
and cultural phenomenon known to
millions for his tireless touring and
electrifying appearances on Late
Night with David Letterman and
Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Since 2004, Matisyahu has
released three studio albums, two
live albums, two remix CDs and two
DVDs of live concerts. Named by the
Forward as one of the 50 most influential
Jews in the world for “a following
that stretches all the way from Crown
Heights to the pages of the ‘beer and
babes’ magazine FHM,” the peyos
By Janet Yagoda Shagam
The faces were familiar. Among
them, I could see a cousin’s nose,
my daughter’s profile, an old
friend’s smile and even the rainbow
hat my son wore as a young child.
All of these faces – and the hat too,
belong to Russian Jews now living
in Germany.
A Sunday afternoon garden
party at Congregation Bet Shalom,
located in Göttingen, Germany provides
a snapshot of the challenges
of maintaining a Jewish identity in
this small city. Göttingen is home to
Georg-August University. Founded
in 1737, the university boasts of
having an association with over 45
Nobel Prize winners.
In the 1930s, the university became
the focal point for what the
Nazis called “Jewish physics.” As a
result, many Jewish scientists such
as Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and
Max Born fled Göttingen for the
United States and other nations.
Those who did not leave in time
were killed.
Today, Göttingen’s small Jewish
community is helping recent
Russian Jewish immigrants adapt to
life in Germany and rekindle Jewish
traditions. Till Baeckmann, the congregation’s
vice-president, says that
it is often the little things such as
enjoying Shabbos coffee and cake
together, that make the biggest difference
for these congregants.
The Sunday afternoon garden
party is a well-attended gathering.
It is a time to share food, memories
and sing Yiddish and Hebrew
songs. As a way of breaking into this
cohesive group, I announced that
and kippahdonning
singer
has
seen his
profile
rise from
curiosity
to a Matisyahu
musician
who has earned the respect of
rappers like Shyne, Waleed Shabazz
and legendary record producers Bill
Laswell and Sly and Robbie.
My seven-year-old daughter,
however, knows Matisyahu as the
cool guy who beat-boxed “Hava
Nagilah” to Oscar the Grouch’s
Israeli doppelganger, Moishe Oofnik,
on Shalom Sesame.
Speaking a week before Matisyahu
was scheduled to headline
the Taos Mountain Music Festival,
I asked the soft-spoken, 32-year-old
father of three from White Plains,
N.Y. if being labeled a Jewish icon
at such a young stage of his career
was difficult to handle.
“I guess I don’t think about it in
terms of a burden, really,” he demurs.
“It’s a bit of an opportunity.”
Asked if he foresees his lyrics,
which are rooted in Torah-true
themes like injustice, self-determination
and spiritual liberation, getting
into more specific areas such as the
Israeli-Palestine conflict and anti-
Semitism, he doesn’t see that happening.
“I’m politicized in the sense
that’s who I am, and if anyone did the
work to check out my beliefs, they
would probably figure it out.”
“It’s not my purpose,” he continues.
“I have a way of doing what
I’m doing, and it’s not by attacking
politics head-on. It would be ridiculous
for me to do something like that.
What I’m doing is so much bigger
and more important than that, influencing
or affecting people’s feelings
about Jews and Israel in a way that
actually works.”
He’s less interested in carrying
the banners of others or the workings
of communal politics than following
his unique charge; he admittedly
has no interest in the contemporary
Jewish music scene populated
by performers like Craig Taubman
and Rick Recht, and had nothing to
say regarding the heavily publicized
my father was from Zambrov. A few
women looked up from their dinner
plates and said, “Ah, Polski.” Then
in unison, they continued, “Essen.”
Conversation was difficult, but
nonetheless, there was a wonderful
homey feel to the afternoon.
The Russian Jews aren’t the only
new arrivals in Göttingen. Similar to
the community that prays within its
walls, the synagogue is also a new
émigré. Built in 1825, the synagogue
was located in the nearby
village of Bodenfelder. However, in
1937, in an effort to hide the synagogue
from the Nazis, the building
became a barn.
The synagogue located in Göttingen
itself was destroyed during
Kristallnacht on November 8, 1938,
along with so many others.
More than 10 years ago, the Göttingen
Jewish community decided
to build a new synagogue to replace
the one the Nazis destroyed. Their
goal was to consecrate the new
building on the 70th anniversary
of the Night of Broken Glass. After
some discussion, they decided that
giving a new life to the Bodenfelder
barn was a more meaningful solution.
The Synagogue Project began
in 1998. Under the leadership of
Jacqueline Jürgenliemk, a local psychotherapist,
the group raised funds
to bring the small cross-timbered
building to Göttingen. The farmer
willingly sold the barn for a symbolic
fee of a few Euros.
However, dismantling, moving
and reassembling the synagogue
in downtown Göttingen cost more
than 500,000 Euros. To fund the
project, the group received reparation
monies from the German
government as well as donations
from private contributors and the
Evangelical Lutheran and Catholic
churches.
Today, Bet Shalom stands in an
older neighborhood near the center
of town. Baeckmann proudly states
the synagogue has a membership
of more than 170 families, an itinerant
rabbi, weekly congregationrun
services and an active Chevra
Kadisha.
However, as the majority of
members are elderly Russians, he
is worried about the congregation’s
future. While Baeckmann hopes the
establishment of a religious school
will attract younger families, he bemoans
that the lack of a local source
demise of his first label, the Jewish
media start-up J-Dub. Rather, his
interests are focused on a scene that
he largely created single-handedly.
For some academics, Matisyahu
has come to personify the comfort
and openness young American Jews
feel in expressing their Jewishness in
all sectors of their life, something that
would have been unimaginable even
two decades ago.
Asked whether he thought Jewish
denominations actually mattered in
the open and fluid world of American
Jewry, he responds, “There’s a
pretty big difference between Reform
and Orthodox Judaism philosophically,
so there I would say yes. In the
old days, within Orthodoxy you were
either one or the other, a Maggid
or a Hassid, and they were pretty
opposed to each other. I don’t think
that really exists so much today, (that)
the denominations within Orthodoxy
are as clear cut. I think there’s more
a scope of influence.”
“I personally don’t feel it’s really
necessary,” he elaborates. “I’m
not opposed to it either, if it makes
people really identify strongly with
one group, I don’t see why that’s a
Lost and Found: A Trip to Gottingen
Singing Yiddish and Hebrew songs at a summer garden party for members
of Bet Shalom in Gottingen, Germany. Photo courtesy of Janet Yagoda
Shagam.
of kosher meat makes him and other
congregants de facto vegetarians.
For me, the Bet Shalom synagogue
takes on considerable personal
meaning. For the past eight
years, I have taught a writing workshop
at the Max Planck Institute,
which shares a close association
with Georg-August University. I appreciate
my affiliation with these
prestigious institutions and enjoy
working with their enthusiastic students.
However, I have often wondered,
“Why me and why here?”
Now, knowing that people who
could be part of my family have
found a safe and welcoming home
in this city gives a deeper context to
my journey.
problem. But I did notice a tendency
in general -- not just in Judaism, but in
life -- to identify solely with one thing,
to box yourself into one specific way
a life. For me personally, I don’t see
that as a good thing.”
As for the impression that his
music was being welcomed by
Jews across the spectrum of observance
and identification, Matisyahu
expresses his belief that, “The gap is
becoming closer.”
“Especially in Israel, there are a
lot of artists, performers that were
very secular that recently became
ba’al teshuvah he says, citing Israeli
orthodox Jazz saxophonist Daniel
Zamir as an example. “There are
a lot of people out there who are
showing that the gap is not so
drastic, that you can be religious
and an artist or musician and show
how religion and art in general are
not at odds with each other. You are
starting to see a lot more acceptance
from the secular community towards
religion.”
Matisyahu concedes that he has
played a role in this shift. “But I don’t
need to hear it,” he insists. “That’s
what I am. That’s who I am.”
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