QUESTION: A youngster in our community has brought an Israeli melody back from a visit to Israel . The words which usually accompany it are rather wild, but he has successfully set a portion of our liturgy to it and it has become popular with our young people. Should this adaption be permitted?(Lloyd Lehman, Los Angeles , California )"
ANSWER: The sources of Jewish music are varied. Some of our music can be traced to melodies used in the ancient Temple(E. Werner,“The Sacred Bridge: A Voice Still Heard”; A. Z. Idelsohn,“Jewish Music”). Other melodies were soon forgotten by the general public but continued in Jewish liturgical use.
There would be problems using the melody you have described in an Israeli setting. There, the association with the profane words would make it objectionable to those acquainted with the song. In our American setting the words are not known, so we are simply left with an appealing melody. The song will probably be quickly forgotten in Israel and its place taken by other pop tunes. It may, however, survive its American liturgical setting and so add to our musical heritage.