itourist?

interesting snippet from a review of hip-hop hassid, matisyahu’s gig at the hammersmith palais: ‘the combination of his unique voice, rocky guitar riffs and throbbing dub bass lines kept the crowd moving, although a few tracks had an air of lazily catchy commercial reggae…nonetheless, some people just didn’t get it. ‘he doesn’t sound jewish at all!’ complained one woman to her husband who was dancing intensely, his hand periodically darting up to his head to prevent his traditional skullcap falling off.’

chris elwell-sutton, ‘hassidic star whose reggae is anything but orthodox’, evening standard, 23.05.06 pp19

same day, anne karpf writing in the guardian: ‘katherine klinger, 47, education officer at the wiener library and daughter of jewish refugees…set up the second generation trust to organise meetings and conferences between the children of refugees and (holocaust) survivors and the children of (nazi) perpetrators…strongest criticism of the project came not from refugee families…but from anglo-jews without first-hand experience of the holocaust. they would say, ‘don’t you think it’s time to put all that stuff behind us?’ and ‘isn’t it a bit early to meet with the other side?’ and not see a contradiction between the two. they seem to want to hang on to a more frozen relationship with germany – to be forever the victim…’

‘freezing our relationship with germany in the nazi era hinders rather than helps us understand the past: it’s the difference between grievance and grieving. anti-german grievance is louder, more petulant and self-serving; authentic grief about the holocaust is quieter and less showy. similarly demanding guilt from the germans isn’t the same as wanting remorse, an emotion that can be put to more productive use such as various kinds of reparation.’

anne karpf, ‘time to move on’, the guardian, 23.05.06, pp12-15