Marin’s trivia master takes a deep dive into the contributions of Jewish artists to the rock and pop music scene, creating a captivating community class curriculum from fascinating little-known facts.
Howard Rachelson, the Pacific Sun’s Trivia Café writer, designed his College of Marin community education class for music lovers of all backgrounds. The course, Journey Through Jewish Music: Pop and Rock Stars, 1950s to Today, focuses on recent genres, but Rachelson also touches on how they were influenced by immigration and Yiddish theater in America.
“Everybody likes rock ’n’ roll and pop music,” Rachelson said. “I thought this class would appeal to a lot of people, whether they’re Jewish or not. Not everyone knows that Pink is Jewish and that Neil Sedaka recorded in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Yiddish and Hebrew. There are so many interesting facts out there. And I tried to tell it as a story that you might see on TV.”
I took an abbreviated version of the multi-media class in Rachelson’s living room last weekend and was spellbound by the upbeat music, videos and trivia he shared. Now, it should be said that he has a liberal view on who is Jewish and who is not—if a musical artist has any Jewish ancestry, they qualify.
That definition includes Elvis Presley, whose mother has both a cross and Jewish star on her gravestone. And the King of Rock ’n’ Roll himself wore a chai, the Hebrew symbol for life, on a necklace.
Gene Simmons, the Israeli-born lead singer of the iconic rock band Kiss, changed his name from Chaim Witz when he got into the music business. The grandson of a rabbi, Leonard Cohen’s music incorporates religion, as evidenced by the hymn “Hallelujah” and “Who by Fire,” which evokes the theme of Yom Kippur.
The Jewish folk song, “Hava Nagila,” sung at almost every Jewish wedding, includes a rendition by Harry Belafonte. Yes, you guessed it—the Calypso King also has Jewish DNA through his grandfather on his father’s side, Rachelson said.
Before I give away all of Rachelson’s information cornucopia, let’s delve into why he developed the three-class program that starts this week at College of Marin. For years, he played the keyboard in an ensemble with two guitarists, performing all over the Bay Area in a show they called “Journey Through Jewish Music.” That gave him the idea to combine his love of music and trivia, giving birth to the fun class of the same name.
Rachelson’s rollicking rock and pop course is a subset of a much larger curriculum. Extensive research led him to the first example of Jewish music.
“I started with the earliest Jewish musician I could think of—King David, a singer-songwriter,” Rachelson said. “He played the lyre, which is a form of a harp. And he wrote lyrics. In fact, psalms are songs. ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ and so on.”
Jumping forward, Rachelson cites Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” as “the greatest song ever written.” A section of the class on Simon & Garfunkel highlights the duo’s beginning, when they performed as Tom & Jerry, and their subsequent conflicts and break-up.
Carol King’s vast songwriting and singing career makes its way into the curriculum, as does Billy Joel’s wildly successful music and Amy Winehouse’s unique sound. Call it a Jewish journey or a musical history; everyone will learn more than a few things of interest from Rachelson.
‘Journey Through Jewish Music’ has no prerequisites except a love for music. Class starts on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at College of Marin’s Kentfield campus. For more information and to register, visit marin.edu/communityed.
