of Cochin/Jews of Cochin
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Recently, we have had a series of very successful programs on KEEPER'S
OF THE SONGS : THE MUSICAL HERITAGE OF COCHIN. These events were
coordinated efforts of many organizations with the help of the Embassy
of India and the Embassy of Israel. If you would like to do this
program in your area, please contact Smita Jassal
[EMAIL PROTECTED] . The original proposal is below but does not list
the expenses.
South Indian Jewish Women*s Folksongs: New Life in the 21st Century
Proposal for a Symposium
FORMAT of the SYMPOSIUM:
A combined musical performance and academic panel will focus on
Malayalam-language Jewish folksongs from the *Cochin* Jews of Kerala
(South India) and Israel -- featuring Professors Scaria Zacharia and
Smita Jassal from India and Barbara C. Johnson from the US, with songs
and commentary by Cochini women from the *Nirit Singers* in Israel.
The symposium could be planned anytime between March 26-April 9th.
RATIONALE:
A cross-cultural and interdisciplinary presentation on this topic by
scholars and musicians from India, Israel and the US should appeal to a
diverse audience interested in Indian, Jewish and Israeli cultures, and
in issues of comparative music, folklore, gender, migration and ethnic
identity.
BACKGROUND:
The *Cochin* Jews of Kerala are a small but ancient community who
lived peacefully in South India for approximately 2000 years before
migrating to Israel beginning in the early 1950s. The women of the
community sang a wide variety of folk songs in Malayalam, the language
of Kerala. Performing without musical accompaniment, they sang in
public community events, in contrast to gender-secluded women*s
performances in many traditional Jewish and Indian communities.
Melodies varied from Kerala folk tunes to Hebrew devotional melodies,
and genres included wedding songs, stories of their community origins,
Biblical narratives, devotional songs and even a few 20th century
Zionist songs set to Indian cinema tunes. These literate women of Kerala
preserved their songs in hand-written notebooks, passing them on from
generation to generation in both written and oral form.
Now that the community has settled into Israeli life, only a few older
women continue to sing the songs, but a small group of them are engaged
in a performance revival which has captured the attention of Israeli
audiences inside and outside the *Cochini* community. The growing
21st century interest in these songs may be understood in light of
generational and ethnic change, the increasing popularity of Mizrachi
(*eastern*) Jewish music in Israel, and the renewal of political
and economic ties between India and Israel.
PARTICIPANTS:
Dr. Smita Jassal (anthropologist) will moderate the program, first
introducing the songs and the panel, and then concluding with a
comparison of the Kerala Jewish songs with women*s folksongs from
other parts of India. Author of Daughters of the Earth: Women and Land
(New Delhi 2001), she teaches Gender and Development at Columbia
University and Cross-Cultural Communication at American University. Her
recent manuscript based on songs and folk narratives of north India is
being prepared for publication.
Dr. Scaria Zacharia (linguist and literary scholar) will travel from
India to discuss the content and importance of Malayalam Jewish songs in
the context of Kerala folk literature and culture, also noting the
response by Kerala scholars to recent publications of these songs.
Zacharia is newly retired from his position as Professor and Chair of
Malayalam Language and Literature at Sree Sankaracharya University of
Sanskrit in Kalady, Kerala. A prolific scholar and compelling speaker,
he is co-author of Karkulali-Yefifiah-Gorgeous!: Jewish Women*s Songs
in Malayalam with Hebrew Translations (Jerusalem, 2005) and organizer of
an international conference in India on *the Jewish Heritage of
Kerala* (2006).
Dr. Barbara C. Johnson (anthropologist) will discuss the importance of
the Cochini women*s songs in understanding Jewish cultural diversity,
emphasizing the role of women in traditional Kerala culture and
including video images from her fieldwork in India and Israel. Recently
retired from Ithaca College, where she was Associate Professor of
Anthropology and Coordinator of Jewish Studies, Johnson has been engaged
in research on the Kerala Jews for more than 30 years and was a pioneer
in recording and collecting their songs. She edited the CD/book Oh,
Lovely Parrot: Jewish Women*s Songs from Kerala (Jerusalem 2004) and
co-authored Ruby of Cochin: An Indian Jewish Woman Remembers (1995) with
the late Cochini song expert Ruby Daniel.
Two (or three) members of the *Nirit Singers* in Israel will
perform a selection of Malayalam Jewish women*s songs. They will also
share some of their personal experiences with the music and insights
into the current revival of interest in the songs.
Galia Hacco from Tel Aviv was born in Kerala and emigrated to
Israel as a teenager in the 1950s. A retired social worker (MSW) she is
the organizer and leader of the *Nirit Singers* and also of a new
oral history project in Israel focused on lives of Cochini women. Her
creation of these projects was partly inspired by her graduate studies
at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem.
Zipporah (*Venus*) Lane of Tiberias comes from a family of
women who were acknowledged as experts in the Malayalam Jewish songs.
Born in Kerala, she received her college education there before
emigrating to Israel in the 1970s. A frequent soloist with the Nirit
Singers, she has also performed in the US. Venus is now collaborating
with Johnson to edit and expand the song translations begun by her aunt,
the late Ruby Daniel.
[Simcha Yosef from Ramat Eliyahu, active member and soloist with
the Nirit singers, takes inspiration from the memory of her late mother
Rachel Nehemiah, also an expert in the Malayalam Jewish songs. Born and
educated in Kerala, she emigrated in the 1950s and worked for many years
as a midwife in Israel.]
Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
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