Rishon Rishon

Jews and Comanches

There's a certain kind of remembering that I think is unhealthy: it keeps us from moving forward. It's for this reason that I'm far from enthusiastic about the various Holocaust-related suits that are going on. Not because I think the defendants are innocent, but because I think it's unhealthy for the Jews: It's time to move on.

This is not to say that we should forget the past, on the contrary. I was very moved by this post (via Solomonia, also found here) by a David A. Yeagley, a Comanche Indian (I have long felt a kind of kinship with American Indians). I know how he feels. I, too, speak the "language of Europe", and like him I would find it easier to write about his suffering than mine:

Why would a Comanche Indian write an opera about the Jewish Holocaust? Shouldn’t an American Indian write about his own Trail of Tears? Why this convergence of cultural ethos? Why this crossing of paths?

I hear these two giant, genetic dirges in the same key. Both are the lamentations of unwanted people. But, the reason I chose to write an opera on the Jewish Holocaust has to do with my educational background and personal experience.

Although I’m an Oklahoma Indian, I speak the artistic language of Europe. It so happens that, since I was a young teenager, Jewish people have always valued what I have to say. They have appreciated me and my work. Therefore I have always felt close to Jewish people.

I trust the Jews with my tears. I once told a rabbi how I felt about Jewish people. I confessed, “I know if I really wanted to cry my heart out, I could come here (the synagogue) in the sanctuary, and just cry. No one would make me feel embarrassed. No one would shame me. No one would ask any questions. Everyone would understand. The Jews know.”

What would I be crying about?

The Indian story. It’s taken me many years to face it, but in my Comanche blood is written the worst historical trauma of all: to be free as the wind, then caged forever; to roam the prairie like a wild horse, then to be roped into everlasting confinement. Yes, I cry for an irreparable, tragic past. It is a doleful drone in my soul, a long, lonely drum beat.

I don’t know how to describe the sorrow. For all my education in the arts, I am mute. I have no voice. Yet.

I remember my composition teacher, Daniel Asia, at the University of Arizona. A nice Jewish boy from Seattle, Dan was wholly reluctant to talk about the Jewish Holocaust. He simply can’t. It is ineffable. I understand now.

UPDATE: Check out his blog. I really like it.

UPDATE: And don't miss this. Excerpt:

The Jewish Holocaust has always held special meaning to me as a Comanche Indian. The threat of extinction is a fear to which I can strongly relate.

Last year, I composed what I am told is the first grand opera on the Holocaust, "Jacek," a three-act story based on the personal life of Jack P. Eisner, 75-year-old survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and several concentration camps.

I met Mr. Eisner in Caesarea, Israel, on January 8, 1998. I was there for the debut of my newly composed chamber music, "Three Spirit Dances On The Bark Of An Ancient Stump." It was a three-movement duet for oboe and bassoon. I had rehearsed the music with Ayalet Ballin (bassoon) and Mirav Kadichevski (oboe), two young, brilliant music students from the Rubin Academy at the University of Tel-Aviv.

Mr. Eisner was kind enough to attend the concert. I was introducing a new system of harmonic organization and tonality, and gave my first public presentation of it in a pre-concert lecture.

I also introduced a new style of Hebrew cantorial chant, which I sang myself, and finally ended the concert with a performance on my Comanche flute, the type designed and made famous by Doc Tate Nevaquaya. (The late Doc Tate was noted as one of the top five Indian flute players in recorded history.)

As Mr. Eisner, my Israeli host Ted and I were walking home from Shabbat morning services, Ted – who had introduced me to Mr. Eisner – said, "Hey, Dave, you’re a good composer. Why don’t you write an opera on Jack’s story?"