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The music was polished, the atmosphere cheery and informal at this year’s edition of New York Festival of Song’s (NYFoS) “A Goyishe Christmas to You!” A cabaret-like sequence of holiday songs written by Jewish composers, the show ranged from the purely comical (“Can I Interest You in Hanukkah?,” from the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert TV special of a few years ago) to the sweetly melancholic (“Silver Bells,” sung poignantly by Rebecca Jo Loeb). Cultural mishmashes (“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in Yiddish) banged up against zeitgeist-updated songbook nuggets (“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in three versions, including a flipped one where the man is trying to get rid of, rather than seduce, his date).
Six singers and clarinetist Alan R. Kay joined indefatigable NYFOS pianist and director Steven Blier for this colorful nosegay of holiday tunes. The long tradition of Jewish songwriters writing (mostly secularized) Christmas tunes (a tradition I confess to having myself contributed) dates back at least to Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” – a song that here, performed by the whole company, included a gorgeous vocalise verse in multipart harmony.
The show included other hits like “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”), here with some added lyrics by Adam Gopnick; “Santa Baby,” transmogrified as “Santa Zaydee” by Ms. Loeb, who also sang it; and “Winter Wonderland,” delivered with silliness and charm by Joshua Jeremiah and Alex Mansoori.
The menu also featured a few obscurities, like a bizarrely funny “What Makes Santa Run?” and a Tom Lehrer song I’d never heard, “Chanukkah in Santa Monica.” Fifteen songs in all rang through the sanctuary at what must be a new venue for NYFOS: the synagogue that CBST finally can call its own, after the LGBTQ-focused congregation wandered in the wilderness for nearly half a century. (Though it’s worth nothing that those wanderings have featured High Holy Days services so well attended they are held in the Javits Center).
Through Tin Pan Alley days and since, Jews have written Christmas songs galore. That was in part a testament to the shiny side of the American Dream, where immigrants fleeing persecution and economic disaster found welcome, if at first grudging, in a new land where, even if theirs wasn’t the dominant religion, they could assimilate enough to not only participate in the popular culture but help create it. That version of the American Dream seems to exist only in nostalgia these days, but a reminder of what once was, and maybe could be again, is nice.
NYFoS will be back to its more formal but always enlightening and delightful concert programming in 2025.
