Klezmering Against Israel’s Occupation

Courtesy Nick Cooper

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Nick Cooper, a 42-year-old Houston drummer of Jewish ancestry, conceived the idea for the 2010 album, Klezmer Musicians Against the Wall, while standing outside a Muslim punk rock concert in New York.

Cooper had spent the evening slamming to the music of the Kominas, one of many bands inspired by Michael Mohammad Knight’s portrayal of a fictional Pakistani punk-rock scene in his 2003 novel, The Taqwacores. “What if we did something like that?” he remembers thinking. “Maybe I could create an anti-occupation klezmer scene?”

Many Americans associate klezmer with Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs. But the folksy, instrumental music from 19th century Eastern Europe has spawned diverse, creative offshoots, including Cooper’s band, The Free Radicals. Cooper says he was attracted to the “one-two beat” of klezmer music, which “kind of overlaps with punk-rock tunes.” The New Yorker describes his band as a “horn-heavy, continually evolving collective” that “produces a wildly eclectic fusion.”

Cooper was raised in a secular Jewish family, “has very little interest in religion,” and has never traveled to Israel. He celebrates some holidays, including Passover—because it’s about “standing with oppressed people of the world.” After forming in 1996, the Free Radicals have regularly performed at protests and charity concerts for liberal causes. They refuse to perform for projects sponsored by Israeli institutions unless those institutions are explicitly opposed to Israel’s 43-year occupation of the Palestinian territories. Cooper is also active in organizations that promote boycott, sanctions, and divestment from Israel.

After that Kominas concert, Cooper used a website called Klezmer Shack to contact hundreds of musicians around the world. Most ignored him. Others “cursed me out or sent me some kind of nasty message.” Still others declined to participate, but they engaged Cooper in “constructive debate that at least wasn’t insulting,” he says. In the end, about 30 bands expressed interest.

A heated debate then ensued over the album’s political message. Some musicians opted out as the bands attempted to compose a mission statement. The final version reads: “Klezmer Musicians Against the Wall oppose discrimination, injustice, and brutality against living beings. We support opposition to Israeli apartheid and occupation through non-violent protest, targeted boycotts, civil disobedience, and direct action. We encourage the international community to join us. Musicians know how people from different cultures can build bridges, not walls.”

The 14 remaining klezmer bands from the US, Israel, Germany, and the UK exchanged audio files over the internet and finished the CD in about two months of intensive work. They decided to donate their online sales proceeds to two charities teaching arts and music in the Palestinian territories, Project Hope and Middle East Children’s Alliance.

While the album is almost entirely devoid of lyrics, its political message is conveyed artistically. Cooper says that one song, “For a Hurried Funeral,” is meant to make listeners “think of all the people in the world who have to go to a funeral and get the hell out of there as quickly as possible, because if they don’t, they’re going to have their own funeral.” Another song, “Enemy Combatant Playground,” includes authentic voices of children playing in the Palestinian territories. The cover photo features the horn—a classic klezmer instrument—tearing through the wall separating Israel and the territories.

Some in the Jewish community are offended by the idea that traditional Jewish music could be used to rally protesters against Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza. The radio station Shalom South Florida banned all of the klezmer bands featured on the album, and the website Klezmer Shack declined to review the CD. These snubs reflect the sharp and growing political divides within the American Jewish community over the question of Israel’s policies towards Palestinians.

Yet Cooper is forging ahead with his plans for an anti-occupation klezmer scene. The album has been out for a year now, and sales are growing at a leisurely pace. Cooper is planning a promotional event in July at a Houston club, and another one in New York in September. “Whether your message comes through the lyrics, or through your artwork and the names of the songs,” he says, “there’s a really important place for all kinds of music in the world of activism.”

Click here for more music features from Mother Jones.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate