Hava Nagila (The Movie) - 07/14/2013

Congregation Shaara Tfille hosts Hava Nagila (The movie) as part of The 2013 Saratoga Jewish Cultural Festival

 Join Congregation Shaara Tfille as they present Hava Nagila (The Movie) on Sunday, July 14th at the Synagogue located at 84 Weibel Avenue in Saratoga Springs.  The cost is $5 with a light dinner included.  RSVP’s must be made by July 10^th to the Synagogue at 584-2370 or saratogajcc@verizon.net.  This is the second 2013 Saratoga Jewish Cultural Festival family-oriented, fun-filled event intended to foster community, enhance Jewish identity and raise awareness of Jewish cultural arts.   Open to the public, it is partially sponsored by a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Northeastern NY and is part of the Saratoga 150 five-month-long celebration.

Hava Nagila is the song you thought you knew, but the story you won’t believe!  It's to music what the bagel is to food – a Jewish staple that has transcended its origins and become a worldwide hit.  Follow the instantly recognizable, infectious party song on its 150 year fascinating journey from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the cul-de-sacs of America in this hilarious and surprisingly deep film.  Much more than a tale of Jewish kitsch, it carries an entire constellation of history, values and hopes for the future.  It also reveals the power of one song to express and sustain Jewish identity while transmitting lessons across generations and to bridge cultural divides and connect us all on a universal level.  Hava Nagila is used as a springboard to explore Jewish history spotlight the cross-cultural connections that can only be achieved through music. 

Musical shorthand for anything Jewish, this happy party tune that people dance to at weddings, bar mitzvahs and even at Major League Baseball games.  It conjures up wistful smiles, memories of generations past...and no shortage of eye rolling.  Featuring interviews with Leonard Nimoy, Regina Spektor and many more, Hava Nagila (The Movie) excavates the layers of cultural complexity with humor, depth and heart – traveling the distance between the Holocaust to Dick Dale and his surf guitar, sometimes in the same sentence.  It stops at key places—Ukraine, Israel, the Catskills and Greenwich Village, where Harry Belafonte performed a hopeful version in the late 1950s, only to be countered by Bob Dylan, who butchers the song in his version Talkin’ Hava Negiliah Blues.  The film covers Allan Sherman’s parody Harvey and Sheila, and Lena Horne’s civil rights anthem Now—both set to the tune of Hava Nagila.  The film spotlights Italian-American crooner Connie Francis, who made the song the first track on her famous album of Jewish favorites, and Glen Campbell, who released an instrumental version of Hava on the B-side of his theme song from True Grit.  It also dissects the proliferation of pop culture references to Hava Nagila in film and TV and brings the song up to the present, where it’s a rallying tune at sports games, a hot dance number in nightclubs and a global hit online.  The resulting film not only entertains us and makes us laugh, but it reminds us of the power of melody to go deep and to bring a celebration to life – offering delightful moments of discovery, one after another, on the song’s fascinating journey from Ukraine to YouTube.