BLOG: Music bridges gaps among the Jewish diaspora

Conventional wisdom argues that music is a universal language.

That music presents an opportunity to bridge people together from all over the world despite linguistic and cultural gaps. Additionally, music also provides a creative safe space for people in cultural diasporas to experiment with the sounds, rhythms, chants, instruments and language of their ancestors.

A band that knows this practice best is the Jewish-American band Nefesh Mountain — which translate from hebrew to Soul Mountain. The husband-and-wife duo Eric Lindberg and Doni Zasloff sing bluegrass music with numerous covers and spins on Hebrew chants and prayers — from Oseh Shalom to to Shalom Aleichem to L'dor V'dor.

Similarly, many popular Jewish-American artists including Bob Dylan, Barbara Streisand and the late Leondard Cohen as well as many more blended Jewish languages, sounds and core values into their music.

While many in the diaspora have infused their cultural heritage into their music; on the flip side, modern Israeli music also heavily relies on Western music genres as well as the english language.

Israeli pop music which is called Mizrahit (מזרחית) — meaning Eastern in Hebrew — is a fusion genre with influences from European and American pop beats with the rhythm and soul of the Middle East. One of Israel’s most popular Mizrahit artist, American-born Omer Adam, uses a lot of English in his music. It is guaranteed that you will hear Israeli's singing and dancing to one of his many hits in the clubs, bars and night-life of Israel.

But, Mizrahit is far from the only genre that exists in Israel.

For example, one of Israel’s most popular indie rock bands is Jane Bordeaux. In their own words, they “are a band from Tel-Aviv, making Live n’ kickin’ American folk-country style music in Hebrew.” The group can be found in small, hip venues as well as larger stages throughout the country performing their soulful tunes about love and happiness, drinking and sadness and just about everything in between.

The Jewish diaspora is a testament to the notion that music is a universal language. The overlap and inspiration from one another has manifested new modern music genres and sub-genres, despite being dispersed and separated from each other all around the world.

Cover image from Malte Wingen/Unsplash