Manya Bernbaum paper

POPULAR MIZRAHI MUSIC IN ISRAEL

A.Z. Idelsohn, the father of Jewish Musicology underscored that “the Jewish people have created a special type of music, which is an interpretation of its spiritual and social life, of its ideals and emotions” (Idelsohn, 1932). This statement still rings true, although the Jewish people have been through many spiritual and social changes since 1932, the most dramatic of those changes being the Holocaust along with the formation of large American Jewish communities and most notably, the creation of the State of Israel. In 1948, with the influx of European Holocaust survivors and of Jews from neighbouring Arab countries, Israel became a mosaic of cultures. Israel is still very culturally unique and pluralistic, the result of the direct confrontation of different Jewish communities, characterized by diverse social backgrounds and interpretations of Judaism. Thus, the forces that shape the culture of Israeli Jews are different than those that have shaped the culture of Jews in other lands. Nowadays, analyzing music in Israel, as in any other society, reveals the interplay of forces that exist between various ethnic groups and the dynamics that mould ethnic and national identities (Saada-Ophir, 2007). This paper focuses primarily on one of these various ethnic styles – Mizrahi music – and the recent shifts in the discourse surrounding this type of popular music in Israel today all the while exploring some of the reasons behind these shifts.

Mizrahi Music is a contemporary hybrid music genre created by Mizrahim, Jews from Islamic countries. Mizrahi literally means “Eastern” in Hebrew. Middle Eastern and North African Jews arrived in Israel in 1948 with their rich musical history from countries such as Morocco, Yemen, Iraq and Egypt. Mizrahi music was generally associated with low-status Middle Eastern and North African groups who were on the fringes of the dominant European-based Israeli culture and not played on the national radio. Initially, after 1948, their music wasn’t popular, the genre was labelled “culturally inferior” and “too Arabic” by many Ashkenazi (Jewish of European descent) radio editors, record companies, and listeners (Horowitz, 1999). The style of Mizrahi music was initially very similar to Arab music from the countries that the Mizrahim had immigrated from. In June 2010, Jewish Federation of North America interviewed Shoshana Gabay, co-creator of a documentary on Mizrahi music called "Yam Shel D'Maot" (Sea of Tears). In the article, Gabay explained the Mizrahi music phenomenon as a new interpretive mix of music: "They had all these parties, and at those parties they took what they had learned in school -- Russian-inspired Israeli songs, some Chasidic songs -- and made them Oriental sounding. They blended these songs with popular Arabic songs and traditional Yemenite songs and made a mix out of them. They were making an interpretation, their own interpretation."

Typical Middle Eastern music characteristics like ornamented vibrato of the vocal line, quartertones, and the maqam scale pattern were used. ‘Muzika Mizrahit’ combined eastern and western elements: the ensembles included Middle Eastern instruments, such as the oud, the kanun, the Arabic violin, the darbouka and the Greek bouzouki, alongside electric and acoustic guitars, pianos and other western instruments.

Mizrahi music became increasingly popular with the Ashkenazim beginning in the 1960s. Only in the 1970s, with the rise of a second generation of Mizrahi Israelis did public expressions of Mizrahi Jewish culture begin to emerge (Halper et al., 1989). By this point however, the new generation had become more “Israelised” and were starting to become more alienated from their own ethnic roots. The most popular Mizrahi singer of the 1980s was Zohar Argov, the first Mizrahi superstar, who had a humble start coming from a poor Yemenite family. The first tape he recorded ended up selling hundreds of thousands of copies. He was among the first singers to achieve commercial and countrywide success in the sphere of Mizrahi style music. This was despite the fact that his music was not mainstream at the time, and radio stations gave predominance to pop music from overseas (Horowitz, 1999). His music still sounds very “Arabic”, because he improvises a mawwal at the beginning of many of his songs, and a lot of his songs use Arabic maqamat( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lGLGv47gpA). Other Yemenite Mizrahi superstars of the 1970s like Chaim Moshe became most famous in Arab countries, not in Israel ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VubZt2A8E0c ).

In the 21st century, gradual homogenization of the population in Israel via intermarriage and assimilation has decreased segregation between the Mizrahi and Ashkenazi immigrants, but the Ashkenazi and Mizrahi music genres still exist. Mizrahi music has become very popular in Israel today. To gain a greater understanding of these changes through time, it is important to compare and contrast previous Mizrahi musicians. By analyzing three of the most popular female Mizrahi musicians since 1990, each from a different heritage, answers to the following questions can be found: Has mainstream Mizrahi music of today retained any similarities from the past (1960s/1970s), including any of the same Arabic characteristics? Is there any commonality in the upbringing of these Mizrahi musicians? Has Mizrahi music affected the tastes of the wider public in Israel? Does the popularity of Mizrahi music signify a convergence of Middle Eastern and Western cultures in Israel? Or does Mizrahi music remain confined to one social category (cultural pluralism in Israel still exists)?

SARIT HADAD: Sarit Hadad, now 29, was born to a large traditional Jewish family of Azerbaijani origin and was identified as the ‘princess of Eastern music’ at the start of her career in 1995, according to her website (http://www.sarit-hadad.com/english.html). Interestingly, her website doesn’t mention her Azerbaijani origins. Hadad found her way into the Israeli mainstream and became a highly decorated pop star. She sang in the Eurovision contest in 2002, and has recorded 15 albums. In 1997, A Jordanian director saw Sarit perform in Israel and was impressed with her voice and invited her to record in Jordan. Because of the sensitivity of the Israel-Jordan relations, Sarit had to travel there incognito. There she recorded an album all in Arabic, which became a hit in both countries. She has also performed at Moroccan music festivals in Eilat, Israel. On the Israeli radio website Galgalatz (http://www.gglz.net/), her style is referred to as “light-Mizrahi”. Her voice is very strong and her singing style uses lots of vibrato and ornamentation, comparable to Lebanese pop singers, like Nancy Ajram. From the comments on her youtube video “Karusela” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dxyypKVU70 ) many Arabs from Iran and Iraq like her music, as well as Israelis. There is also an interesting video where she sings in Kurdish with one of Turkey’s big Kurdish pop stars, Ibrahim Tatlises (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anmdca9oLww&feature=related).

ZEHAVA BEN: Zehava was born in Beer Sheva, the capital city of the Negev desert in Southern Israel, to a Moroccan Jewish family. She was born in a poverty, crime and drug struck neighborhood. Zehava is very proud of her Moroccan heritage, and most of her music is quite distinctive of that, singing both in Hebrew and Arabic. She was one of the most popular Israeli female vocalists to sing Mizrahi music, dominating Israeli radio in the 1990s and still performing today. On her website (http://212.68.147.44/Zehava-ben/index.html), she describes her style as a mix of Middle Eastern, North African, Arabic, Turkish, and Greek melodies, rhythms and a style of singing combined with western pop harmonies and instrumentation. She was heavily influenced by Umm Kulthuum reflected in the similar ornamental qualities that their voices share. It is also interesting to note that Zehava tends to use more Arabic instrumentation than Western. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYkYr_4MPgI&feature=related).

OFRA HAZA: Born in 1957, she was the youngest of 9 children, her parents were from Yemen and they lived in a poor neighborhood in Tel-Aviv. She had a childhood filled with music and singing and a passion for traditional Yemenite songs, picked up from her mother. She was discovered at 12 years old for her exceptional singing talent in musical theatre. Many of the songs she sang in her early years were characterized by lyrics that protested the discrimination Yemeni Jews and other immigrants from Arab countries faced when in Israel (Brennan, 2007). At 19 years old, she was Israel's first "pop princess", aka "The Madonna of the East" - she had a mezzo-soprano voice of near-flawless tonal quality. Her first #1 hit in 1980 was Shir Ha-frecha, the Bimbo song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqAr-tfjwJY). Her style is much like other pop music from the 1980s. In 1983 she came in second at the Eurovision song contest with her song “Chai” which means “alive”. She released an album of Yemenite folk songs in December 1984 and it was the turning point of her career, when she really started to embrace her Yemeni music roots. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrREcQD24qY&feature=related). Her first major international success came from her rendition of the traditional song “Im Nin Alu” in 1989 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzk-hnlTSoQ&feature=related), which fused elements of Eastern and Western instruments. In the early 90s she released three albums of her renditions of well known Israeli folk songs, which in their original music, were not Mizrahi sounding, but the arrangements she made have a tinge of Mizrahi style. By the mid-1990s, Haza was a genuine celebrity in the Middle East. Both Israeli and Palestinian teens bought her records, and she was hailed as a positive role model. After a 1993 peace accord between Palestine and Israel--who had fought bitterly for decades over territory that both considered their ancient homelands--the signers of the pact were awarded the Nobel Prize for peace. One of the three recipients, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, invited Haza to perform at the ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Her later music including her self-titled album released in 1997 is a good example of Middle Eastern textures combined with European dance music. Ofra Haza died at age 42 in 2000 of AIDS related organ failure (Brennan, 2007).

In conclusion, Mizrahi music is a major form of cultural expression in Israel. What makes Mizrahi a unique form of popular music is the use of stereotypical Middle Eastern musical elements - which identify the Mizrahi style but don’t associate it with any particular ethnic group. I find that Hadad, Ben, and Haza whose ethnic roots are respectively from Azerbaijan, Morocco, and Yemen all have a very similar style, which can be defined as Mizrahi. Their Mizrahi style is a product of their familial ties, and also their upbringing in Israel. All three artists also have similar upbringings; they came from poor families living in poorer areas of Israel populated by other Mizrahim from all over North Africa and the Middle East. Comparing Mizrahi music from the 1960s to Mizrahi music today, you can tell that the music has evolved and in a way become more separated from its roots. Some artists like Sarit Hadad are even described as “light Mizrahi”. They have become less Arabic to appeal to a larger audience in Israel and in the West, whose audiences find it hard to appreciate all Arabic music with its quartertones.

These Mizrahi artists also play important socio-political roles in Arab-Jewish relations, for example Ofra Haza’s singing at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. With their music, the artists try to show that peace between the two people is possible. Such acts show that different religious backgrounds can overcome their negative differences by appreciating the music they both embrace.

Mizrahi music today is a major force in Israeli music and culture. It has influenced Israeli pop and rock greatly and shaped the face of Israeli music. I believe that the popularity of Mizrahi music in Israel signifies a convergence of Middle Eastern and Western cultures in Israel and no longer an Ashkenazi cultural hegemony. Israeli music is a patchwork of genres, and it is this that makes it so unique. Mizrahi music has grown so popular in Israel that it no longer is the exclusive domain of mom-and-pop cassette shops like mentioned in the article by Khazzoom (2010) but is sold even at Israel's Tower Records outlets. Barak Itzkovitz, musical editor of Galgalatz, Israel's popular army music radio station says, "Today, there is a lot of consciousness about this music, and it's one of the most popular musical genres."

This paper only explored Israeli Jewish Mizrahi singers, even though it is important to note that there are many Arabs living in Israel whose musical style is similar to Mizrahi style. It may be possible to differentiate “Arab music” as distinct from “Mizrahi music”. In some cases Arab Jews, from big cities such as Baghdad, trained in the mainstream art traditions of their regions, then came to Israel in 1948 and their style is directly taken from their country. In other cases they may have been living in neighbourhoods in Israel with distinctively Mizrahi Jewish traditions of music and may have blended in with these traditions.

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