Diaspora Yeshiva Band להקת ישיבת התפוצות | |
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| Origin | Jerusalem |
| Genres | Jewish rock,bluegrass,country,folk,blues,jazz,klezmer |
| Years active | 1975 (1975)–1983 (1983) |
| Past members |
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| Website | www rockinrabbi |
TheDiaspora Yeshiva Band (Hebrew:להקת ישיבת התפוצות) was an American-IsraeliOrthodoxJewish rock band founded at the Diaspora Yeshiva onMount Zion,Jerusalem, bybaal teshuva students from the United States. In existence from 1975 to 1983, the band infusedrock andbluegrass music with Jewish lyrics, creating a style of music it called "Chassidic rock"[1] or "Country and Eastern".[2][3] The band had an international following, having become famous after winning three Israel Chassidic Festivals, in 1977, 1978, and 1980 and produced many hit songs. They were very popular with Jewish Youth Groups and tourists in the early to mid-1980s, and became very well known in Jerusalem for their Saturday-night concerts atKing David Tomb.[4] DYB had a considerable influence oncontemporary Jewish religious music, inspiring later bands such asBlue Fringe,8th Day,Reva L'Sheva,Soulfarm, theMoshav Band, andShlock Rock. Fifteen years after it disbanded, band leader Avraham Rosenblum revived the band under the nameAvraham Rosenblum & Diaspora and produced several more albums.
TheDiaspora Yeshiva (ישיבת התפוצות) was founded in 1965 by Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein,[5] an alumnus of theChofetz Chaim Yeshiva inQueens, New York, and a colleague of RabbiShlomo Carlebach.[6] It was originally named "Yeshiva Toras Yisrael", the name of its American charity,[7] and with the influx of students from the Diaspora after it moved to Mount Zion, Jerusalem following the Six Day War in 1967, it became known as "Diaspora Yeshiva", which the later Israeli charity registration as "Yeshivat Hatfuzot Toras Yisrael" reflects.[8] The currentRosh Yeshiva is Rabbi Yitzchak Goldstein.
Diaspora Yeshiva was established as anoutreach yeshiva forbaalei teshuva.[6][9] Unlike traditional rabbinic academies, the yeshiva reached out to young Jewish men who had never been exposed to traditionalTorah orTalmud study. It offered introductory and intermediate courses together with acclimation to an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle.[6]
As a long-time student of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim under Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz, Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein established the Diaspora Yeshiva according to the derech (way) of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, following in the footsteps of theAlter of Slabodka and RabbiYisroel Salanter, the founder of theMussar movement, according to which the Diaspora Yeshiva continues to operate to this day, including that it is more important to work on oneself and to become amentch than it is to adopt a particular dress-code, so students are not required to wear black and white, but may come as they are and feel comfortable to grow at their own pace.[10]
Numerous students were professional or semi-professional musicians, and several musical collaborations were spawned in the yeshiva dorms.[11] In 1975 student Avraham Rosenblum, a rock guitarist who led his own bands in Philadelphia and New York in the late 1960s founded the Diaspora Yeshiva Band, along with Moshe Shur and Ben Zion Solomon.[11][12] The band was conceived as an outreach tool to college and hippie students and, later, post-hippie seekers, using theirJewish rock music to draw hundreds of them into the milieu ofTorah study.[13][11]
Theyeshiva itself offers programs ranging from basic Judaism to advancedTalmud – employing a methodology based onRamchal (seeTorah study § The Luzzatto method) – and emphasizesmussar, or character development. Its core programs range from three month introductory programs to six year programs, intermediate to advanced.[14]
Machon Roni,[15] awomen's Torah seminary, operates in parallel.It was established with similar goals to the yeshiva "to guide young Jewish women on their journey of teshuva".It has become "a leading seminary" for women seekingJewish conversion.
The Diaspora Yeshiva Band staged its first concert at theBeit Ha'Am hall in theNachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem duringHanukkah 1975.[11] After that, the band became well known for its weekly Saturday-night concerts held in a room adjacent toDavid's Tomb (located in the same courtyard as the yeshiva) on Mount Zion.[11][16][17] These concerts attracted secular American, British, and French youth; yeshiva and seminary students; tourists, and Israeli soldiers.[11] Band members continued to perform with the group even after they had married and begun studying inkollel.[11]
The band released its first album in 1976.[12][18] In 1977 they were invited to compete in the Chassidic Song Festival, an Israeli competition that ran from 1969 to 1984 and broadcast on national television.[11] Diaspora Yeshiva Band was the first yeshiva band to perform at the largely secular music event, and won first prize for its song "Hu Yiftach Libeinu" (He will open our hearts).[11] Interviews in the general media followed, increasing name recognition and visitors to the Saturday-night concerts.[11] The band was invited back for the 1978 Chassidic Song Festival, and won first prize again for its entry "Malchutcha" (Your sovereignty).[11]
The band embarked on its first North American concert tour in 1979, visiting 26 cities.[11] It went on to tour the U.S., Canada, Europe, and South Africa on five additional tours.[18][19] The band was highly popular on college campuses in the early to mid-1980s.[12][20]
In the 1980s,Lynyrd Skynyrd drummerArtimus Pyle came to study in the Diaspora Yeshiva for several years.[21] He played with a later band and bequeathed his drum set to the yeshiva.[21][22] In 1987 the Diaspora Yeshiva Band performed and were interviewed onMTV's Musical Passport series,Rock Israel, as part of the coverage of the visit ofTom Petty and the Heartbreakers to Israel and Egypt.[23][24] Band leader Avraham Rosenblum was filmed accompanyingTom Petty,Benmont Tench, andRoger McGuinn at theWestern Wall.[25]
The Diaspora Yeshiva Band released a total of six albums.[11][26] They disbanded in 1983[2][26] as its members began pursuing both solo careers and careers in Torah learning andoutreach.[11]
In December 1992 the band reconvened for a month-long[27] reunion tour beginning with a performance atCarnegie Hall.[18][28] It reunited again in 1996 with a show atThe Town Hall inNew York City.[24]
In 2014, Rosenblum, Simcha Abramson, Gedaliah Goldstein, Ruby Harris, and Menachem Herman performed at theHASC 27 concert at Lincoln Center.[11][29] That same year, the group held another reunion concert atCongregation Shomrei Emunah in Baltimore, where Rosenblum is a member.[19]
In 1998 band leader Avraham Rosenblum and his son, drummer Moe Rosenblum, revived the band under the nameAvraham Rosenblum & Diaspora and produced the albumJerusalem is Calling.[28][30][31] Moe went on to produceThe Diaspora Collection (2000), a digitally-remastered double-CD of Diaspora Yeshiva Band hits, andKedem (2003), an album featuring solo material by Avraham Rosenblum.[28][30][32]
"They started putting their music talents together in a religious way ... You remember that song "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog"? Well, it was the same sound, but they were singing about how wonderful God is".
The band members viewed their music as a means of expressing their newfound connection to God, the Jewish people, and the Land of Israel in a medium that they were familiar with.[2][33] Their arrangements reflected the musical trends of secular American culture in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[11] The band's repertoire includedrock,soft rock,acid rock,country,bluegrass,blues,folk,jazz,klezmer, andYiddish ballads.[18][20][34][35][36]Strom describes their music as blending "a San Francisco rock 'n' roll sound with Israeli, Middle Eastern, and Hasidic music".[12]
Instrumentation includedelectric guitar,rhythm guitar,bass guitar,saxophone,fiddle,banjo, anddrums.[11][26] The band was noted for its guitar harmonies[19] and "virtuoso" instrument playing.[19][37]
The lyrics, in contrast, expressed Jewish values. Lyrics were both original and drawn from theTorah andBook of Psalms.[18][26] The band sang inHebrew,Yiddish, andEnglish.[1] Their on-stage presence also belied the traditional rock band image: they sported full beards,payot, andtzitzit,[36] and dressed in the dark-colored attire typical of yeshiva students.[2][11]
The Diaspora Yeshiva Band was considered an influential group in the history of contemporary Jewish religious music.[37] Bands that name them as an inspiration includeBlue Fringe,[38]8th Day,[39] andShlock Rock.[40][41] Besides Rosenblum, other original band members who pursued solo careers include Ruby Harris, founder of the Ruby Harris Electric Violin Blues Band in Chicago,[42]Adam Wexler, co-founder ofReva L'Sheva,[43] and Rabbi Moshe Shur, founder of the Moshe Shur Band and Moshe Shur and Sons.[44] Sons of original band memberBen Zion Solomon includeNoah Solomon ofSoulfarm,Yehuda Solomon ofMoshav Band, and Nachman Solomon ofHamakor.[3][45][46]
The six founding members of the Diaspora Yeshiva Band were:[11][22]
Student-musicians who played with the band at different times between 1973 and 1986 include: Beryl and Ted Glaser, Shimon Green, Isser Blum, Amram Hakohen, Menachem Herman, Yochanan Lederman, Tzvi Miller, Yosil Rosenzweig,Chaim-Dovid Saracik, and Rabbi Moshe Shur.[22]
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