I have run into similar problems with the klezmer band that I'm in. There are some very good songs from the 20's and 30's- both from vaudeville and the stage- involving Jews. Songs like The Sheik of Avenue B or Abie My Boy are funny songs but we have been criticised for singing them because they portray Jews in what they consider to be an unfavorable light. At the same time, the old ladies in the audience sing along with them and suggest new ones we ought to learn.

So what do you do? Do you cut a portion of the history of a people out because a few are uncomfortable with it. These are not overtly rasist songs.While they do poke fun at an ethnic group, it is gentle fun and not intended to hurt. Every group of immigrants went through the same thing;fun was had at their expense and then they became an accepted part of the community.

What we have done is to be careful in our selection of material and to deal with the critics on a one-to-one basis, explaining that htis was the way it was inthose days and that we are simply trying to shed light on the Jewish music that was being written at that time.

Still, it is a problem and there really is no good solution. If you try to do music that offends no ones sensitivities, you'll wind up doing only instrumentals and numbering the songs rather than giving them word titles.Thats not where I want to go.

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