"A younger band are taking klezmer further still. Members of She'Koyokh (which translates roughly as 'have strength') have brought it to the inmates of Wormwood Scrubs, and the group's accordionist, Jim Marcovitch, is planning to work with people who are at risk of becoming drug users."Klezmer, the solution for the "kids at risk" in the frum community!
Update:
A reader emails:
So I know it's a punchline, but you are not far off the mark. One of the glaring deficiencies in Yeshiva education is the lack of real Music programs. And no, I don't mean Music appreciation or clubs with eight guitar players and the one loser whose parents made take violin lessons.I mean, in fourth grade, you choose an instrument, either brass, woodwind, string, or percussion, and learn to play in a band setting in a comprehensive school music program. It's not an automatic "cure" for kids at risk, but it is another way the Yeshiva day School becomes a hospitable place for all kids, whether they express themselves academically or not.
Did you notice, by the way, that as the Orthodox community becomes more obsessed with materialism and academic achievement as a means to wealth, that the "Kids at Risk" problem becomes bigger? its amazing that the Orthodox community responds so often by trying to fix the relationship the kids have with Yiddishkeit, instead of addressing the emptiness ofmodern life for all members of the family. Perhaps the people who need
the fixing aren't the kids, but their parents.
