Even in a completely Jewish setting,
Kol Nidre is generally
I would argue that the
Kol Nidre functions less as what we commonly think of as "prayer" than as an instance of what Giorgio Agamben calls profanation.
The last stanza finds the singer of "
Kol Nidre" moving on, and the speaker, with renewed vitality, finding in the evening a star he knows is his, and only his, destiny "in stern creation": "There is my star!"
Not only did the film include a lengthy rendition of Jolson singing
Kol Nidre at its climax, but it also included a significant solo performance from Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, one of the day's most popular and beloved performers of Jewish liturgical music.
The quintessential Jewish songs include: Adon Olam; Al Kol Ele; Am Yisrael Chai; Artza Alinu; Ata Echad; Bai Mir Bitsu Shein; Bashana Haba'a; Chai; Dayenu; Der Rebbe Elimelech; Donna Donna; Eli, Eli; Erev Shel Shoshanim; Hal'luyah; Hanaava Babanot; Hine Ma Tov; Hora;
Kol Nidre; Ocho Kandelikas; Od Yishama; Oifn Pripitichik; Ose Shalom; Ovinu Malkenu; Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen; Rumania, Rumania; Shalom Alechem; Siman Tov; Sisu Et Y'rushalayim; Tsena Tsena; Tumbalalaika; Y'rushalayim Shel Zahav; Yiddishe Momme and thirty six more compositions.
It was clear to Variety in 1927 that something momentous had happened when Al Jolson intoned "
Kol Nidre" in that long-ago mother-son melodrama otherwise known as "The Jazz Singer."
In the material there is also a voice part for the Jewish song
Kol nidre. Comments in the director's book show that there were actually more musical numbers.
Both that final scene, and an earlier conversation when his mother comes to plead with him to sing
Kol Nidre in place of his ailing father, reveals not only the dilemma within the film, but the struggle which Jolson as Jewish blackface performer personified.
Ehrenburg concluded his piece with a summary of Sutzkever's famous poem "
Kol Nidre," about an elderly Jew who kills his son to save him from torture at the hands of the Nazis.
I realized this many years ago during
Kol Nidre, a liturgical prayer recited at the beginning of the service on the eve of Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day.
The night before
Kol Nidre, a childhood friend and I made a baseball fan's equivalent of aliyaha trip to Fenway Park which, along with Wrigley Field, comprise the Jerusalem and Tzfat of major league ballparks.
Yom Kippur's most famous prayer,
Kol Nidre, assumes our future failure.
