“Aneinu!” – Moshe “Moussa” Berlin, Israel’s foremost klezmer clarinetist, plays with his ensemble from the repertoire of the hasidic-orthodox klezmer tradition. The recordings were made by ethnomusicologist Joel Rubin in a yeshiva (a Jewish institution for Torah study and the study of Talmud) during the ceremony celebrating the end of the holiday Simchat Torah. They show the vital role that the music of the “klezmorim” and the ecstatic singing of “nigunim” (melodies of spiritual elevation) play among orthodox Jews, displaying at the same time a microcosm of the variety of ethnic and cultural influences to be found in the musical traditions of Israel today.
