Page 28 - Jewish News_July-2020

28 July 2020 JEWISH INTEREST

The Sarajevo Haggadah: Music of the Book

By Arlene Stolnitz
eraldine Brooks’ People of the Geraldine Brooks. I had already read and tolerance of different cultures and At our final book club session
Book was the inspiration for a the book but was willing to participate. traditions.” She remembers a time on People of the Book, Geraldine
Gcreative musical work entitled It has been an amazing experience with growing up in Sarajevo in a culture that Brooks was the guest speaker. Dur-
“The Sarajevo Haggadah: Music of the readers participating from all over the felt a bond with Jewish, Christian and ing the question-and-answer ses-
Book.” Created by Bosnian composer United States! One of the sion, I offered the information I had
and accordion player Merima Kljuco, most interesting discus- recently discovered. She responded
the work uses accordion, piano and sions involved a museum
video to trace the unique travels of the curator who had worked by saying that in its Boston area
Haggadah from on the Haggadah itself, debut in 2014, she had contributed
medieval Spain which was an early illumi- an introduction and participated
to 20 century nated Haggadah from 14 in a post-performance discussion.
th
th
Bosnia. Hidden century Spain. She commented on the beauty of
and rescued dur- However, in doing the musical piece, which was very
ing World War some research, as I gener- gratifying to me. You can find it on
II, the Haggadah ally do when working on a YouTube. Enjoy!
was later restored new topic, I came upon the Arlene Stolnitz, founder of the Sara-
by the National musical connection that I The Sarajevo Haggadah sota Jewish Chorale, is a member of
Museum in Sa- write of in this article. Muslim communities. In many ways the Jewish Congregation of Venice. A
Arlene Stolnitz rajevo. Commis- Merima Kljuco was studying mu- the Haggadah reminds her of her own retired educator from Rochester, New
sioned by The Foundation for Jewish sic in Sarajevo when the war in Bosnia life and the Exodus she experienced. York, she has sung in choral groups
Culture, the music reflects the turmoil broke out. She fled Bosnia in 1993. A All of this led her to this 12-move- for over 25 years and also sings in
of the times. For Kljuco it’s not about few years later a friend gave her a copy ment composition starting with God’s The Venice Chorale. Her interest in
the violence, it’s about the power of of People of the Book. After reading it, creation of the world in an accordion the preservation of Jewish music of all
culture in the face of violence. The she started thinking of how she could sequence that mimics the sound of kinds has led to this series of articles
music reflects the turmoil of those make a musical story, telling how the breath. on Jewish Folk Music in the Diaspora.
times. But for Kljuclo, the story is Haggadah ended up in Sarajevo. She
not so much about the violence that brought her project to fruition with a
threatened the Haggadah and the Jews multimedia composition for piano and K’zohar Ha-Ivrit
through the centuries. It’s about people accordion that includes images from
helping one another, and the power of the Sarajevo Haggadah. Many of the Na-gif – A virus
culture in the face of violence. “It’s scenes, illuminated in copper and gold, By Dr. Rachel Zohar Dulin
interesting that such a story surprises depict biblical stories from Creation to
us,” she says, “when it should be com- the death of Moses. he last few weeks have been word ma-ge-fah, which is derived from
pletely normal.” So just who is Merima Kljuco? very difficult on all of us, young the verb na-gaf. Na-gaf appears in dif-
As writer of this column, much of Checking her out, I discovered that she Tand old alike. The Coronavirus ferent forms 49 times in the Hebrew
what I write about comes to me in very is a classically trained accordionist spe- pandemic took our breath away around Bible. Depending on the context, na-
strange and unexpected ways. The re- cializing in contemporary music that the globe, as well as our cultural and gaf means ‘strike,’ ‘afflict with plague,’
sult is that often I come upon musical draws from many traditions including economic well-being. Streets emptied, ‘smite’ and ‘defeated in battle.’ How-
stories that few people know. Such is Balkan, Sephardic and Klezmer. She schools closed, ever, 22 times, na-gaf refers directly
the case of this musical composition. was born in Yugoslavia in 1973, and theaters darkened to the devastation of a plague. As for
Since I am an inveterate reader, an fled to the Netherlands as a refugee of and businesses ma-ge-fah (pl. ma-ge-fot), namely
article from the online Forward caught the Bosnian War where she currently is shut down, all ‘plague,’ it is mentioned 26 times in
my attention recently. The article invit- listed as a Bosnian-Dutch resident. At attesting to the the Text. It is interesting to note that in
ed interested viewers to join the For- present she also resides in Los Ange- destruction, fear the well-known story of the Exodus, in
ward Book Club on Zoom. The book to les. She speaks of the Sarajevo Hagga- and confusion which Egypt was struck by 10 plagues,
be discussed was People of the Book by dah as “a symbol that inspires respect that entered our na-gaf is used only once (Ex 9:14). In
universe with the this historical rendition, the writer pre-
invasion of the ferred the verb le-ha-kot, meaning ‘to
PAID POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT Dr. Rachel Dulin Coronavirus. strike,’ out of which the noun ma-ka,
This is not the first time that hu- a synonym of ma-ge-fah, is derived

Education Matters! man beings faced an unseen enemy in (Rashi Ex 21:35). Coincidently, the
the form of a virus. We read of many
same verb, le-ha-kot, was used to de-
plagues in the ancient world that struck scribe the pain afflicted upon the Isra-
from time to time. Since the origin of elites as slaves (Ex 5:14,15). From that
DONT FORGET TO VOTE IN the plagues were unknown, people perspective, it is clear that slavery was
attributed them to the will of God or
perceived as a social plague.
THIS IMPORTANT ELECTION! the influence of the stars. Briefly, it is Hebrew, ma-ge-fah means ‘plague’ or
We should mention that in modern
interesting to mention that the word
‘influenza,’ for example, is based on ‘pandemic.’ The Black Plague, for ex-
middle-age Latin influenta, meaning ample, is called in Hebrew Ha-ma-ge-
Support these ‘influence,’ stemming from the belief fah Ha-sh’chro-rah. Moreover, since
that plagues were caused by the influ-
it was discovered that viruses were the
Sarasota County ence of the stars. Also, interesting to cause of ma-ge-fot which plagued the
note, the word ‘epidemic’ is a combina- human race, it is not surprising that the
School Board tion of two Greek words: epi meaning word for a virus stems from the same
root as ma-ge-fah. Indeed, na-gif (pl.
‘between’ and demos meaning ‘people’
candidates: and ‘nation.’ ‘Epidemic,’ then, means a ne-gi-fim), based on the root na-gaf, is
sickness, which is transmitted between
the Hebrew word for ‘a virus.’ Related
individuals, and sickens an entire na- to it is the term milchemet ne-gi-fim,
ADVERTISEMENT Tom Edwards POLITICAL it became known that viruses were the Let us hope that the worst is behind us.
tion. It was only in the 19 century that
which means ‘virus warfare.’
th
PAID
A terrible na-gif entered our world.
cause of several plagues that afflicted
human societies throughout history.
Let us also hope that milchemet negi-
Interestingly, in Biblical Hebrew
POLIITICAL District 3 ADVERTISEMENT we find multiple words for plagues and fim, caused by mankind, will vanish,
and we will not know war and sorrow
any more. Amen.
sicknesses. Words like, ma-ka, ne-ga,
PAID cho-li and ma-ge-fah, all attest to the Dr. Rachel Zohar Dulin is a professor
fact that such conditions greatly affect-
of biblical literature at Spertus Col-
ed the world, or else we would not find lege in Chicago, and a retired adjunct
David Graham so many terms repeated numerously professor of Hebrew and Bible at New
College in Sarasota.
in the Text. Let us focus briefly on the
District 2

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