I’m used to the anthropological idea of cultural equivalence when talking about things like translation or  kreplach versus tortellini, but I found the presumably viral listing of 32+ versions of the Jewish prayer song “Adon Olum” that showed up in my in-box today fascinating.  For a ‘people’ who were almost eradicated by the Holocaust and who have only had a homeland for 60 years, it is intriguing to see cultural traditions so ingrained that they transcend national boundaries and generational influences.

We tend to have a more traditional rendition of Adon Olam at our synagogue (a la # 33–that’s my Rabbi in one of his 400+ You Tube videos!) but in honor of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, below are 32 interpretations of this Jewish song, from a Techno version to ethiopian harp  to a pretty happenin’ pop rock version.   

For Jews the year is 5770 tomorrow.  These Adon Olam videos, and a Passover seder my son and I attended in Brazil last April, have me amazed at the idea of culture as a set of traditions that is transferred from generation to generation, and how that can remain cohesive in spite of the influence of national borders and thousands of years.

Adon Olam is a song to herald the greatness of G-d, sung during Shabbos (Sabbath) services on Saturday mornings and festivals.  It is not necessarily specific to Rosh Hashanah (for that you would eat apples dipped in honey or have honey cake to usher in a sweet new year) but the juxtapostion of so many versions from so many cultures does create a sense of global community that is warm and welcoming and full of optimism for a new start.

Kind of fun to watch them in juxtaposition to one another…

1. Moscow Jewish Choir

 2. London Jewish Choir

3. Old TV version from Israel (kind of a 60’s Folk sort of thing)

4.Children’s chorus    

5. Reggae Version

6.Cantorial Quintet a cappella

7. Six Cantors during a service -

8. South American version performed in Israel

9. Another Latino version with Cantorial solo

10. This is an old French Sephardic Version

11. Three tenors version

12. Semi-jazz version; semi-Klezmer

13. High school girl group

14. Jerusalem Oratorio Chorale

15. Two Rabbis and guitar

16. Argentinean version

17. Dudu Fisher performing at Yad Va-shem

18. Performance at USC by new group –

20. Version with Transliterated Lyrics (Rock and Roll Version)

21. Same version with Hebrew Lyrics –

22. Two Cantors sing

23. Israeli soldiers sing Adon Olam

24. High School Choir sings doo-wap version

25. Russian introduction 2 minutes then an outstanding version

26. Holocaust concert in >From a Budapest

27. Sweet Ethiopian version on harp

28. Touching performance in a nursing home

29. Hip Hop Performance Art Violin Solo Holocaust Version

30. Techno version  

31. Uzi Chitman sings Adon Olam

32.  Shlomo Gronich and the Sheba Choir

33.  My Rabbi Singing (from Ezra Habonim The Niles Jewish Township)

I happened to see a commercial for the Banzai Color Stream Battle Blaster between SpongeBob’s (ahem—I mean, MY SON happened to see a commercial for it between SpongeBob’s…) and immediately thought of the Hindu holiday Holi (actually—I thought—wow, that’s a commercialized version of that Indian holiday where they splatter each other with different color paint–I had to research/look up the actual name of the holiday, and narrow down Hindu vs. Indian.)

By coincidence, my son and I were talking this morning about ‘cultural equivalents’ and how cultural is transfered by commercial products.  In 8-year-old terms that was how SpongeBob can be viewed in different countries, or how Japanese shows and toys, such as Pokémon, have become popular in the US. 

So when I saw the Color Stream Battle Blaster commercial, boasting “Color Infusion Technology”, I immediately thought of it as the ultimate, commercialized, packaged adaptation of Holi, or at least as it was described to me by an Indian-American colleague last year.  For me and my son, it opened a conversation about a holiday/culture with which he was unfamiliar, a doorway to learn something new, and for us, multicultural. If you celebrate Holi, did you get the same impression?  Would you use a Banzai Color Blaster to celebrate?  Or, should I have kept my visual, cultural connection to myself?  Why?