The last night of Chanukah this year fell on the solstice — the start of winter and the longest night of the year. Although known as "the festival of lights," Chanukah felt dark in the wake of yet another antisemitic-motivated hate crime on Bondi Beach in Melbourne, Australia.
In times of such violence, many tend to turn inward, clinging to the sounds and songs of tradition. New Mexico-based multi-instrumentalist and multi-linguist Jordan Wax's new album, Pantakozak and other new Yiddish Songs for Kids, arrived in late November, bringing a silly, joyful, and thoughtful collection of songs to an otherwise heavy period.
Wax may be most recognized in roots music circles as the fiddler and accordionist for Lone Piñon, a stringband from Santa Fe that blends transitions from Western American, Mexican, and Indigenous musical traditions and provides the live soundtrack for folks tearing up folk festival dance floors around the country.
But in more niche communities, Wax is an esteemed teacher and historian of Yiddish language and music. Yiddish is a diasporic tongue, shared among Jewish communities with roots in Eastern Europe. It blends elements of German, Hebrew, Aramaic, and even bits of Slavic and Romance languages, continuing to adapt and regionalize as people immigrated and fled persecution. Rutgers University estimates that about 600,000 people in the world still speak Yiddish today, compared to the peak of around 11 million before the Holocaust. Still, Yiddish language theater, poetry, and music helped define a culture, relay radical themes of protest and justice, and unite a people despite geographic boundaries.
Pantakozak features songs in Yiddish and English (often in the same song), written with mentors-turned-ancestors and young children. It's got tales of polar bears, lullabies, holiday songs, and chants for the greatest soccer player in the world. It's a testament not only to survival, but also to making connections from generation to generation.
Like other stories in our In The Deep End series, questions start easy and get progressively deeper. Responses from Wax have been edited for length and clarity.
