Jewish Musical Satire with David Misch
October 6, 2026, 1-2 pm

Online Zoom Session

Is there something distinctly Jewish about musical satire written by Jewish songwriters?

No. Case Closed, move along now, nothing to see here.

Or...Yes.

Popular music often reflects traditional Jewish values like social justice ("Sail Away," Randi Newman's horrifying/gorgeous evocation of the slave trade), love of learning (Tom Lehrer racing through the periodic table of elements to a Gilbert & Sullivan melody), questioning traditional valutes ("Pleasant Valley Sunday," where songwriteres Gerry Goffin & Carole King, born Klein, wonder about their move to the suburbs to a driving Monkees beat), dealing with evil ("No way to Stop it," Rogers and Hammerstein's acerbic critique of political accommodation), and even the Holocaust (Rachel Bloom's "Remember Taht We Suffered"). In this multimedia presenation, we look at a wide range of songs, from the lighthearted mocking of the Gershwins' "Blah Blah Blah' to Lieber & Stoller's witty Fifites Rock to Jerome Robbins and the New York City Ballet's "The Mistake Waltz," to explore how Jewish musical satire connects with the mournful merriment of klezmer, the paintings of Marc Chagall and the stories of Sholem Aleichem: an awareness of amusemetn art, ad sympathy fo our inevitityble human falibility.

Support for this program has been graciously provided by The Albert and Lucille Delighter and Marcella Winston Foundation, a Supporting Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.