Old Alliances Anew

In the early 1960's, Lena Horne, singer of famed sultry voice, put out word that she was interested in singing an original civil rights protest song and entries from composers far and wide came pouring in. That she chose a piece written by the eminent Jewish Broadway duo of Comden and Green (that's Betty Comden, nee Basya Cohen, and Adolph Green of "Singin' in the Rain" fame), is no surprise. African American writers sharing material with Jewish performers, Jewish writers passing shtick onto African American performers, a long history of such collaboration exists in the rich annals of our libraries. What really piques the cultural imagination is the music composed for the song (entitled "Now!") Lena chose. Take a listen (below) and see if you can identify the signature melody as the refrain kicks in:

If you recognized "Hava Nagila" I can only hope the cognitive dissonance you experienced registered as high on the Richter Scale as mine. Only in the 1960's could a joyful Jewish tune set to the Hebrew words "Let's celebrate and be happy" be imperceptibly transformed into a song, somber yet triumphant, demanding equal rights for black America "Now!".

But, then again, here we are in nascent Obama 2008 looking forward to an historic first "black" president whose first public appointment, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, is a modern Orthodox Jew revving up to put the motto "Yes We Can" into action "Now!"

Here's to the hope they can make some beautiful music together. Though they'll need all the fortune they can collectively muster, we can rest assured they've been named presciently for their future mission: one with the first name "blessed" in Swahili-Arabic and the other with a last name "god is with us" in Hebrew.