In another "coincidence" that appears to be part of life, in the aftermath of my "Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas in August", I read last week about the passing of Mary Ellin Barrett, the daughter of Irving Berlin.
I have found that more often than naught, a person's talents can be used for purposes which that person never fully anticipated or understood. I have also found that more often than naught, those purposes are for the good.
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
Peace,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California
August 30, 2022
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Sent: Sun, Aug 7, 2022 4:01 am
Subject: Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas in August
On Tuesday, August 2, 2022, during my pilgrimage to see the reliquary of Saint Bernadette at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, I made a number of purchases at the Cathedral gift shop. One of the purchases is the book entitled The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel. This 1941 novel became the basis for the 1943 Academy Award winning film of the same name. On the back cover of the book is a brief explanation of the book and an introduction to the author. The cover states,
"This classic story, recounting the miraculous apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France, is one of the greatest historical novels of simple and triumphant religious faith published in the twentieth century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikkun_olam
"Franz Werfel, the Jewish author, was a highly respected literary figure in Vienna and an outspoken critic of Hitler when the Nazis occupied Austria in 1938. He escaped to France and found solace and help in the town of Lourdes, where he learned about Bernadette and the 1858 apparitions. When the Nazis invaded France and began deporting Jews to death camps, he was forced to flee again. As he narrowly escaped, he promised God that if he made it safely to America he would "sing the song" of Bernadette. He kept his promise, and his novel became an international best seller and an Academy Award winning movie."
The next day, after returning home to Fairfield, I started playing a song written by Jennifer Warnes and Leonard Cohen, the legendary Canadian Jewish poet and songwriter, while they were on tour in the South of France near Lourdes. The song is entitled "Song of Bernadette" and it is a beautiful song for the contemplation of life.
Seeing the connection of Werfel and Cohen, two Jews, to the creation of the stories around the beloved Bernadette led me to finally getting around to a PBS program that I taped way back in December 2021, The program is entitled "Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas" and it details the rather extensive list of Christmas songs which were created by Jews, some of which are the best loved Christmas songs.
Not only the best selling song of all-time which was written by a Jew, Irving Berlin, who lost a child on Christmas and would spend the day remembering her at her gravesite
but also the sentimental song written by the Jew, Mel Torme, and sung by a black man, Nat King Cole, which became a much listened to staple in the still largely segregated America.
Indeed, some of the Christmas songs had some important metaphorical meanings. For instance, I never realized that Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer was actually a musical metaphor for the Jewish immigrant experience in America and that Rudolph's distinctive red nose was a reference to the need for acceptance of Jews who have large distinctive noses.
But most importantly, there are some songs that were written to achieve a form of world healing
as is indicative of the song "Do You Hear What I Hear?"
which was written by a woman who was a neighbor of John F. Kennedy and who hoped that it would serve as a message of hope in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Given all the turmoil in the country, the war in Ukraine, and the escalating tensions in the South China Sea, I hope I am not faulted too greatly in Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas now.
Peace,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
The Soul of S.O.U.L.
No comments:
Post a Comment