http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/20/wmord20.xml
תוקן על ידי - ekstein - 20/06/2004 8:26:11
He's the Jewish Michael Jackson - so why does a group of rabbis want to ban his concert?
By Elizabeth Day
(Filed: 20/06/2004)
Forget Madonna and her conical bras, or Eminem and his chainsaw: the latest American singer to arrive in Britain and create outrage is a 53-year-old Hassidic Jew who puts Biblical passages to music and is known as "the Michael Jackson of Jewish rock".
Mordechai Ben David
Britain's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has attacked the concert tonight in Manchester featuring Mordechai Ben David, from Brooklyn, New York. Orthodox rabbis have claimed that the event, dubbed "The Jerusalem Experience" and featuring popular songs with lyrics from the Torah such as Someday We Will All Be Together, is "immoral" and "a negative influence on young people".
Although the concert organisers have tried to appease the ultra-Orthodox by introducing separate entrances, seating arrangements and interval refreshments for men and women, eight rabbis from the Manchester area have signed a letter urging their congregations not to attend.
The rabbis claim that the concert would bring "a terrible negative influence" to bear on the minds of "young fans".
Ben David will sing with his son, Mendy, and son-in-law Yeedle
Mordechai Ben David is one of the world's most recognised Hassidic singers, with a career spanning 30 years and album sales in excess of one million, including the best-selling Jerusalem Is Not For Sale.
The Manchester concert, starting at 7pm - Ben David's first appearance in the city for more than 20 years - will also feature contributions from his son, Yeedle Werdyger, and son-in-law, Mendy Wald. An eye-catching publicity poster for the concert features a montage of the three singers in front of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, the holiest shrine of the Jewish world.
A share of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to Zaka, an organisation based in Israel that helps the victims of terrorist attacks.
Although Ben David's compositions are religiously inspired, the ultra-Orthodox community has condemned the singer for "polluting" the Torah with popular music.
One of the rabbis who signed the letter but refused to be named said: "We are becoming polluted with this popular sub-culture that is causing immorality. It is not true that this is 'religious' music as some people claim; this is a very different genre."
The rabbi added: "For us, this concert is not a good thing and is not in the spirit of our tradition. This notice is intended to warn the Orthodox people, [it is not intended] to oppress those who don't subscribe to our traditions.
"We simply have our own way, our own practices and we wanted to warn our people - people who do not even own a television or use the internet - that this concert would be unhelpful to the morals of our young people. We try to protect our children and this concert is not helpful to their education. We have a very strict code for the education of our children that goes back thousands of years and is all about a respect for the family."
David Holder, the
הטקסט שלך כאן
By Elizabeth Day
(Filed: 20/06/2004)
Forget Madonna and her conical bras, or Eminem and his chainsaw: the latest American singer to arrive in Britain and create outrage is a 53-year-old Hassidic Jew who puts Biblical passages to music and is known as "the Michael Jackson of Jewish rock".
Mordechai Ben David
Britain's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has attacked the concert tonight in Manchester featuring Mordechai Ben David, from Brooklyn, New York. Orthodox rabbis have claimed that the event, dubbed "The Jerusalem Experience" and featuring popular songs with lyrics from the Torah such as Someday We Will All Be Together, is "immoral" and "a negative influence on young people".
Although the concert organisers have tried to appease the ultra-Orthodox by introducing separate entrances, seating arrangements and interval refreshments for men and women, eight rabbis from the Manchester area have signed a letter urging their congregations not to attend.
The rabbis claim that the concert would bring "a terrible negative influence" to bear on the minds of "young fans".
Ben David will sing with his son, Mendy, and son-in-law Yeedle
Mordechai Ben David is one of the world's most recognised Hassidic singers, with a career spanning 30 years and album sales in excess of one million, including the best-selling Jerusalem Is Not For Sale.
The Manchester concert, starting at 7pm - Ben David's first appearance in the city for more than 20 years - will also feature contributions from his son, Yeedle Werdyger, and son-in-law, Mendy Wald. An eye-catching publicity poster for the concert features a montage of the three singers in front of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, the holiest shrine of the Jewish world.
A share of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to Zaka, an organisation based in Israel that helps the victims of terrorist attacks.
Although Ben David's compositions are religiously inspired, the ultra-Orthodox community has condemned the singer for "polluting" the Torah with popular music.
One of the rabbis who signed the letter but refused to be named said: "We are becoming polluted with this popular sub-culture that is causing immorality. It is not true that this is 'religious' music as some people claim; this is a very different genre."
The rabbi added: "For us, this concert is not a good thing and is not in the spirit of our tradition. This notice is intended to warn the Orthodox people, [it is not intended] to oppress those who don't subscribe to our traditions.
"We simply have our own way, our own practices and we wanted to warn our people - people who do not even own a television or use the internet - that this concert would be unhelpful to the morals of our young people. We try to protect our children and this concert is not helpful to their education. We have a very strict code for the education of our children that goes back thousands of years and is all about a respect for the family."
David Holder, the
הטקסט שלך כאן
תוקן על ידי - ekstein - 20/06/2004 8:26:11