Podcast Summary: “Christmastime for the Jews” (Identity/Crisis – Re-Release)

Podcast: Identity/Crisis
Host: Shalom Hartman Institute (Yehuda Kurtzer)
Guest: Rob Kapilow (conductor, composer, music commentator)
Date: December 16, 2025 (recorded: December 17, 2024)
Award: Bronze Signal Award for Best Podcast in Religion & Spirituality

Main Theme and Purpose

This episode explores the deep, sometimes ironic, and often formative relationship between Jewish identity and Christmas music in America. Host Yehuda Kurtzer and guest Rob Kapilow discuss how Jewish composers significantly shaped the American Christmas canon, how these songs reflect broader questions of assimilation, nostalgia, and American identity, and how Hanukkah finds its own, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, space within the holiday pop (and commercial) landscape. Through analysis, musical dissection, and historical context, the episode unpacks Jewish complicity in—and transformation of—the Christmas soundtrack.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Irony in Jewish Holiday Music

• Kurtzer opens by reflecting on Jewish music for Hanukkah, specifically Maoz Tzur (“Rock of Ages”):
  • The song, rooted in medieval anti-Christian polemic, is sung to a melody that “appears to be a piece originally of German folk music that was quickly adapted for Protestant use,” highlighting the irony of cultural intermingling ([03:45]).
  • “A Jewish anti-Christian polemic emerges in musical conversation with the Christians of the time.” – Yehuda Kurtzer ([05:31])
• Music’s broader theme of being more than meets the eye—contradictory emotions, history, and adopted melodies.

2. Jewish Composers & The Invention of Secular Christmas Music

• Kapilow and Kurtzer discuss the outsized role of Jewish immigrants in creating “secular” Christmas music:
  • “The most famous pieces…are written by Jews.” – Kapilow ([13:22])
• Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”:
  • Origins as a song tied to American myth, not religious Christmas; written by Berlin, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, yearning for belonging ([13:51]–[15:25]).
  • “It became the piece that was played the first winter that the GIs were away from home…a why-we-fight anthem.” – Kapilow ([17:16])
  • The “wish to belong” is embedded in the harmony and musical choices Berlin makes.
  • “Every extra note is what he’s trying to contribute to the American soundtrack.” – Kapilow ([19:08])
• Dual motivations: commercial ambition (“never underestimate for Irving Berlin the stake of money”) and genuine assimilation/participation in American life.

3. Assimilation, Nostalgia, and the “American Dream”

• Christmas music as a “soundtrack for the American dream,” creating a nostalgia for a mythic past (“a New England Courier & Ives, Norman Rockwell past that never really existed.”) – Kapilow ([11:23], [12:28])
• Ongoing tension: “Should we keep to our own identity? Should we become part of a larger whole?” – Kapilow on assimilation, applicable to Jews, Native Americans, and other groups ([26:09]–[27:16])
• Kurtzer: “In the early 20th century, assimilation…was the core project. By the 1990s, assimilation is a ‘boogeyman’” ([27:16]).

4. Jewish Names & Cultural Hiding/Claiming

• Name changes—a symptom of the urge to assimilate: “Jakob Gershowitz becomes George Gershwin, Hyman Arluck becomes Harold Arlen, Israel Baline becomes Irving Berlin…” ([27:54])
  • Now, contemporary music (e.g., Jack Black’s Hanukkah songs) embraces and celebrates Jewish identity.

5. Deep-Dive: Anatomy of Specific Songs

• “The Christmas Song” ([Nat King Cole/Mel Tormé])
  • Written in a hot LA summer by Mel Tormé (born Melvin Howard Tormé; lyricist Robert Wells was Robert Levinson). Their Jewishness was hidden in “Americanized” names.
  • The jazz harmony and “extra notes” provide the song’s emotional core: “It’s the music that has all the emotion that…the very standard words lack.” – Kapilow ([33:07]–[34:22])
• Joni Mitchell’s “River”
  • Uses “Jingle Bells” as a motif; changes in harmony reflect different moods of Christmas (major/happy to minor/sad).
  • “It’s Christmas being viewed from four different angles, four different emotional experiences.” – Kapilow ([35:06]–[37:12])
• Simon & Garfunkel’s “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night”
  • Two Jewish artists juxtapose the idealized peace of Christmas carols with harsh contemporary news—an act of musical subversion and longing for a better America ([40:44]–[44:30]).
  • “You have two Jewish kids basically doing the same story of a version of America they wish they had.” – Kurtzer ([44:12])

6. Evolving Trends and Reclamation

• Secularization and Commercialization
  • Military invention of the “Judeo-Christian tradition”—blurring differences for unity ([24:15]–[25:04]).
  • Big business: “By the 90s, every artist is going to start making their Christmas album because it’s a kind of easy way to make money at the end of the year.” – Kurtzer ([47:41])
• Hanukkah in Pop Culture
  • Reclaimed or parodied versions of Hanukkah music (Barenaked Ladies, Jack Black, Adam Sandler), showing pride, humor, and complex negotiation between reverence and self-mockery.
  • Musical analysis of different versions of “Oh Hanukkah” reveals cultural synthesis: Klezmer roots vs. Jack Black’s cantor-inspired flourishes and choral pop ([51:40]–[54:01]).
  • “He feels he can mix it all. Like it’s all part of his background…what’s powerful…is he’s saying, it’s all part of my experience and I can put it all in one place.” – Kapilow on Jack Black’s version ([54:01])
  • Debate: preservation (“behind plate glass”) vs. reinvention each generation ([54:06]–[54:59])

7. Ironic (& Proud) Embrace: Hanukkah Parodies

• Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert’s “Can I Interest You in Hanukkah?” ([55:23])
  • Balances self-mockery with pride; playfully sings about Hanukkah traditions in the style of American Songbook standards.
  • “It’s now been brought into an American tradition. And that in itself was a great American achievement.” – Kapilow ([56:14])
• Adam Sandler’s “Hanukkah Song”
  • A playful reclaiming of Jewish pride by naming Jewish celebrities, contrasting with the earlier assimilationist need to hide Jewishness ([57:17]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “A Jewish anti-Christian polemic emerges in musical conversation with the Christians of the time.” – Yehuda Kurtzer ([05:31])
• “What’s so powerful about [Christmas music] is it creates a kind of childhood and a New England past that none of us ever really experienced, certainly not the Jews who created the Christmas music for it. But it’s one we all wish we had…” – Rob Kapilow ([11:23])
• “Songs make history and history makes songs.” – Irving Berlin, quoted by Kapilow ([15:25])
• “[White Christmas] became the piece that was played the first winter that the GIs were away from home…a why-we-fight anthem.” – Rob Kapilow ([17:16])
• “Every extra note is what [Irving Berlin is] trying to contribute to the American soundtrack.” – Rob Kapilow ([19:08])
• “There’s always been that tension in America between who America is and what we wish America was.” – Rob Kapilow ([12:57])
• “He feels he can mix it all. Like it’s all part of his background.” – Rob Kapilow on Jack Black’s Hanukkah song ([54:01])
• “Assimilation…has had a negative connotation. But there’s also something wonderful about saying it’s now there for all of us.” – Rob Kapilow ([56:14])

Segment Highlights with Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment & Content | |------------|---------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:04 | Yehuda’s reflection on Maoz Tzur and irony of its tune | | 07:15 | Christmas music’s commercial and cultural dominance | | 13:51 | Play and analysis of Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” | | 24:15 | The military’s role in forging the “Judeo-Christian” myth | | 28:55 | Mel Tormé and the jazz impact on “The Christmas Song” | | 35:06 | Joni Mitchell’s “River” – nostalgia and musical analysis | | 40:57 | Simon & Garfunkel’s “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night” | | 51:40 | Contrasting versions of “O Hanukkah” (Yiddish & Jack Black) | | 55:23 | Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert’s Hanukkah musical sketch | | 57:31 | Discussing Adam Sandler’s “Hanukkah Song” |

Tone & Style

The episode balances humor, musicological geekery, and serious reflection.
Kurtzer and Kapilow riff warmly, sometimes wryly, on the cultural ironies and emotional resonance of both Jewish and Christmas holiday music; musical excerpts and playful banter are interwoven with thoughtful historical context and analysis.

Conclusion: What Does It Mean for Jewish Identity?

• The act of assimilation through music is framed as both a necessity and a gift—a means of survival and an act of creative self-assertion.
• Modern iterations—whether comedic, nostalgic, or musically innovative—show that the relationship between Jews and Christmas music is dynamic, playful, subversive, and central to the larger American project of pluralism.
• Musical “tradition” is kept alive not only by reverent repetition but by reinvention, commentary, and reclamation.

Final quote:
“The wonderful thing about each great piece of music is it takes you into its universe. And when you’re in that universe, that’s how the world looks. Each one has its own particular gift to offer us…we can be there for all of them.” – Rob Kapilow ([57:46])