[ad_1]
NPR’s Daniel Estrin explores Jerusalem with hip-hop artist Shannan Street during Hanukkah.
Daniel Estrin, Host:
Jerusalem is a great city to stroll around during Hanukkah.
(music sound bite)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (singing in a language other than English).
ESTRIN: Tonight is the last night of the holiday. The other day I saw people light menorahs outside their homes with actual oil and wicks like in the old days. I was walking with Israeli hip-hop artist Shannan Street.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: This keyboardist is funky.
ESTRIN: As I got closer, I realized that he knew the guy playing the piano.
Unidentified Person #2: Shaanan Street, Hadag Nahash.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: (Non-English languages).
ESTRIN: He’s a fellow musician and a religious Jew. Sha’nan Streett is by no means a religious Jew. he doesn’t believe in god But he feels at home among the various crowds of the Holy City.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: You can get beer anywhere in Jerusalem – Muslim, ultra-orthodox, everywhere. I know where the bad guys hang.
(laughter)
ESTRIN: A lot of songs and prayers have been written about this city, but his band Hadag Nahash released a haunting love song this month called “City Of God.”
(Soundbite of Song, “City of God”)
HADAG NAHASH: (singing in a language other than English).
ESTRIN: In the biblical country of milk and honey, he sings about milk and blood and honey.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: So no crying over spilled milk or blood or honey here. Everything spilled here.
(Soundbite of Song, “City of God”)
HADAG NAHASH: (singing in a language other than English).
Estrin: He took me to the neighborhood where he lived. He still remembers hearing the sound of a boom, followed by the eerie silence of death: the Palestinian bombing of the city twenty years earlier.
(Soundbite of Song, “City of God”)
HADAG NAHASH: (singing in a language other than English).
ESTRIN: And he brings up the recent tragedy in town.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: I’m thinking about Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral. her death and funeral.
Estrin: Palestinian-American journalist killed by Israeli forces earlier this year.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: Her death and her funeral are both improbable for a city Jew.
Estrin: The police interrupted her funeral procession and attacked the pallbearers in the coffin.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: Well, a very difficult question has been raised about equality in the city.
(Soundbite of Song, “City of God”)
HADAG NAHASH: (singing in a language other than English).
Estrin: But he also likes the mix of cultures in Jerusalem. There, he can hear people listening to Bach or Carl Bach, the American singing rabbi. Fairs, an Arab singer from Lebanon. Or blues.
(Soundbite of Song, “City of God”)
HADAG NAHASH: (singing in a language other than English).
ESTRIN: This song has another great line. He calls the city’s mosaic of people a big fermented beer of apple cider.
(Soundbite of Song, “City of God”)
HADAG NAHASH: (singing in a language other than English).
ESTRIN: The outsider’s cider.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: Like hundreds of thousands…
ESTRIN: All tiny little tribes and subtribes.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: All fractions and factions and fractions and they are all fermenting together to create outsider cider.
Estrin: That’s Jerusalem to you.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: Yes.
Estrin: We ended up at his favorite bar, where he greeted old friends – two Palestinians, a few Israelis, someone Japanese.
SHA’ANAN STREETT: (Non-English languages).
Estrin: The cider an outsider drank one Hanukkah night.
(music sound bite)
SHA’ANAN STREETT: (Non-English languages).
In short, this holiday song is your chance to improve your life wherever you are. That’s the spirit, the holiday greeting. Live better, wherever you are. Make your life and the lives of those closest to you better. Light that candle. You have 8 days, go for it.
Estrin: (laughs). Shaanan Street by Israeli hip-hop band Hadag Nahash. Their new single is called “City of God” in Hebrew and they wish you Happy Hanukkah on the eighth night of the holiday.
(Soundbite of Song, “City of God”)
HADAG NAHASH: (singing in a language other than English).
Copyright © 2022 NPR. all rights reserved. For more information, visit his website’s Terms of Use and Permissions page at www.npr.org.
NPR transcripts are produced by NPR contractors on a rush deadline. This text may not be in final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative recordings of NPR’s shows are audio recordings.
[ad_2]
Source link
