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Was That Casbah Music Koshers?

A punk rock band's Jewish connections.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

Q: A number of years ago, I
remember listening to a rock song
that ended, "He thinks it's not
kosher." What was that song, who
sang it, and what did keeping
kosher have to do with the lyrics?
A: You're probably thinking of
"Rock the Casbah," by the Clash.
The Clash, a British punk rock
band popular in the 1980s, is best
remembered for its London Calling
album, which many critics still con-
sider one of the best punk albums
ever made. Their biggest hit was
"Rock the Casbah." If the lyrics are
virtually impossible to understand
while hearing the song, they are
even more difficult to comprehend
if you actually read them.
"Rock the Casbah" has something
to do with "that craaazzy Casbah
sound" and a king who loathes it.
("By order of the prophet/ We ban
that boogie sound/ Degenerate the
faithful/ With that crazy Casbah
sound.")
Well, whatever it's about, "Rock
the Casbah" ends with the lyrics,
"He thinks it's not kosher," presum-
ably referring to the king's abhor-
rence for the "Casbah jive."
And while the word "kosher" is
hardly unknown to gentiles, you
may be wondering whether the
Clash included any Jewish members.
It did.
An early Clasher (who was kicked
out of the band and later joined
forces with another punk legend,
Johnny Rotten) was Keith Levene.
His father was Jewish, his mother
was not, and Levene never identified
in any way as Jewish.
Mick Jones, however, was Jewish.
The son of a Jewish mother and a
gentile father, Jones not only identi-
fied as Jewish, but after leaving the
Clash in 1983 he formed a new
band called Beyond the Pale, a refer-

ence to an area in Eastern Europe
with a large Jewish population.
Further, one of his albums included
a song about Jones' Russian-Jewish
grandmother's difficult days in the
former Soviet Union.

Q: With Shavuot coming up, I'm
wondering if you would tell me
about the various names for this
holiday.
A: Shavuot is indeed a holiday with
more names than any other. Today,
as outlined in the Talmud, we
observe Shavuot as the time when
we received the Torah. Yet originally,
it was regarded primarily as a har-
vest celebration, which accounts for
most of those names.
In Numbers 28:26, the day is
called Chag HaBikurim, or the
Festival of First Fruits, which refers
to the fact that the new crop of
wheat was harvested at this time.
The flour made from the first har-
vesting was then brought to the
High Priest.
In Exodus 23:16, Shavuot is called
Chag HaKatzir, or Harvest Festival.
This is because two loaves of bread,
made from the new crops of wheat,
were given at the Temple at this
time.
In the Talmud, Shavuot is called
Atzeret, or "assembly." This is
because the rabbis of the Talmudic
period regarded Shavuot the last day
of Pesach, and it was to be observed
as a holy day for assembly. (If this
sounds familiar, you're probably
remembering Shemini Atzeret,
which is the end of Sukkot.) While
days for "holy assembly" were to be
observed as any other holiday, there
is little special ritual associated with
them.
A handful of people still call
Shavuot "Pentecost." This is a Greek
term, which translates "the holiday
of 50 days," because Shavuot comes
on the 50th day after the first day of
Pesach.

❑

A drawing by Leonard Baskin — Shavuot, the season of the
giving of our Torah.

