Aish.com,a division of Aish HaTorah, an apolitical network of Jewish educational centers in 35 branches on five continents, has entered the Passover music video club with a very unusual choice of a song as a basis for parody.
Many of the current Pesach parodies are based on current popular songs, but the Aish entry, titled Passover Rhapsody, is based on the British rock group Queen's 1975 hit Bohemian Rhapsody that has been ranked on all of the music charts as one of the top all-time hits in the U.S. and the UK.
Bohemian Rhapsody, a mock opera written by Queen's lead singer Freddy Mercury (1946-1991), a Parsi/Zoroastrian born in Zanzibar, is the subject of a lengthy article in Wikipedia and its meaning is still debated around the world.
But there's no reason to debate the meaning of Passover Rhapsody. It's the story of the Exodus from Egypt that most Jews will retell at the Passover seder, set to Queen's music and enacted by a cast of puppets.
Enjoy!
(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS: THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS. YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)
(A tip of the kippah to Phil and Shawn Fink of Shalom America and radio-j.com for bringing this video to our attention.)
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Hello.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Gili Kozin-Ulmer, I've just seen for the first time your beautiful video "Passover Rhapsody a Jewish Rock Opera" and was shocked to see a puppet I had designed and built without being credited for it in the credit list. The puppet I have designed is the one with red striped hood and grey beard, walking tied to a female doll. This puppet was made for Izaak Pekar as a part of a puppet play for the Train Theatre in Jerusalem (the play I've translated from Russian into Hebrew). Puppetry is not a profitable enterprise and the only thing that we puppeteers have – is our name and credit. Therefore I ask you to add my name in the credit list of this film as fast as you can, and send the information to all the sites on witch you published this video.
Please write me to confirm that you have received this massage.
Thank you,
Gili kozin ulmer
Gili,
ReplyDeleteThis video is not very good - but you should have the credit nevertheless - it can't compete with real rock opera!