Rabbi Shawn Israel Zevit: Music

New CD Mixes Jewish Nostalgia with Modern Sounds

Shawn Zevit’s CD called unique contribution to Judaic tradition.

The Jewish Tribune - March 8, 2007
www.jewishtribune.ca

TORONTO – Winnipeg-born Shawn Zevit’s new double CD, Generations: Journey Across the Ages, is a unique contribution to the Judaic musical tradition. Zevit, who moved to Toronto as a young boy, now lives in Philadelphia, where he’s a senior consultant and director of outreach and external affairs for the Philadelphia-based Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. A spiritual leader, writer, performer and musician, he teaches at Gratz College’s Melton Program for adult Jewish education and is visiting rabbi of Dor Hadash congregation in Pittsburgh. He’s a founding member of Shabbat Unplugged, a musical group formed in 1995 based in the Delaware Valley.

The first CD of Generations includes beautiful, devotional music based on Friday evening Shabbat services. The second is a compilation of zemirot (hymns traditionally sung at the Sabbath table) that Zevit used to sing every week with his late grandfather, Aaron Zevit. “What’s particularly moving [about the first CD],” Zevit said, “is that it’s about preserving a legacy and giving people a chance to seek a Jewish spiritual connection. “This project turned out to be partly in memory of [prominent Zionist, politician and media mogul] Izzy Asper,” he adds. Asper’s mother and Zevit’s grandfather were brother and sister. When Asper was alive, he was very supportive of the initiative, Zevit explains. Asper, too, was a music lover and very interested in the family history. After his passing, his children, especially Gail Asper, wanted the CD to be produced to maintain the family legacy. Zevit describes his grandfather’s “love of tradition, music and ritual, as opposed to orthodox practice. I think that whole side of the family were artists at heart.”

According to Zevit, “the society in which we live has always had a powerful influence.” The first CD includes his own songwriting, influenced by folk, pop, rock, soul, and indie mixed with prayerful music. He uses an Indian shruti in combination with the guitar and violin. The second CD, he says, is less instrumental because “it’s more about preserving the integrity of the singing.” The songs on this CD, made from original recordings of Zevit and his grandfather in the early nineties and digitally enhanced, are traditionally sung at the Friday night dinner table or at Saturday lunch. The last track is an extract of a longer interview with the grandfather, “a form of an ethical will,” Zevit explains. “The musical violin is a reflection of that legacy, while he discusses his hopes and what he would wish to see happen in the world.”

The CD cover is precious, with its stunning black-and-white intergenerational family photo. The artistic packaging has inspired people to look for old family pictures, Zevit says. Zevit, who graduated from the Associated Hebrew Schools, studied Fine Arts (theatre) at York University and worked in that field for about 15 years. “When I pursued the rabbinical path,” he says, “I was able to bring my artistic expression in music and leadership together with the spiritual role. It’s a balance of innovation and tradition…It became a perfect home to me, connection to God and Jewish life.” “I feel so blessed to have seen this happen, to bring this music to everybody, to give back to the tradition,” Zevit continues. “People who have heard it say the experience gives them a deeper connection, even if they don’t understand the words.” His earlier CDs are Heart and Soul, traditional themes with contemporary interpretations, and Sanctuary, a spiritual mix of folk, rock and rhythm and blues.

Zevit is now co-editing, with writer/philosopher Harry Brod, a new book, to be published by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) in 2008, on male-gender identity in Judaism, a topic in which “there has been a void.” He’s the author of Offerings of the Heart: Money and Values in Faith Communities, published by the Alban Institute, an ecumenical, interfaith organization. Generations sells for US$20 and 10 per cent of the sales are allocated to tzedakah. Tzedakah means charity, and Zevit prefers to use the Hebrew word, which also means justice.