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‘Seinfeld Music Guy’

Composer to bring stories and his TV theme songs to Beth Shalom.

Barbara Lewis
Contributing Writer

He spent many Shabbat mornings at his
grandparents’ Conservative and Orthodox
synagogues and celebrated his bar mitzvah
at his parents’ Reform temple.
Wolff started playing at bar mitzvahs,
house parties and weddings when he was
12. He won a National Merit Scholarship
and moved to Los Angeles at 17, intend-
ing to study at the University of Southern
California. Within a year, he quit school to
work full time as a studio musician, orches-
trator and recording engineer.

T

V music maven Jonathan Wolff, cre-
ator of the Seinfeld theme and many
other well-known Hollywood tunes,
will perform and speak at Congregation
Beth Shalom’s Cafe Shalom cabaret on Jan.
30.
Wolff will share some tales of his 29
years as a television insider. He has written
music for more than 75 shows, including the
themes for Seinfeld, Will & Grace, King of
Queens, Saved by the Bell-The College Years
and The Hughleys.
The musician is probably best known as
the “Seinfeld music guy,” which he uses as
his Web address: www.seinfeldmusicguy.
com. He used a synthesizer to create dif-
ferent music for each episode of the long-
running NBC comedy.
Each week’s piece was written around
Jerry Seinfeld’s opening monologue.

The Seinfeld Music Guy: Jonathan Wolff

Wolff grew up in the Jewish community
in Louisville, Ky.
“Most of the social activities of my youth
took place at the Jewish Community Center;
it’s where everybody gathered,” said Wolff,
who was a BBYO member as a teen.

RETIRED FROM TV
Wolff retired 10 years ago, at age 47, while
he was at the height of his career so he could
devote more time to his children and their
activities. He built a home in his beloved
Louisville, where he now lives with his wife,
Stephi; daughter, Emily, 19; and sons Aaron,
20, and Isaac and Levi, 16.
Now that his children don’t need so much
of his time and, with the royalties from

worldwide re-broadcasts of his TV shows
providing a steady income, he travels the
country doing concerts and lectures, like the
one at Beth Shalom. It’s his way of giving
back to the community, he says.
Wolff charms audiences with engaging
insider stories about his career, when he
worked with celebrities like Jerry Seinfeld
and Larry David.
He also likes to talk to music students
about the business of music and making a
living in the field.
At his concerts, he plays piano and relates
the songs to stories from his Hollywood
days. He also answers questions from the
audience.
“My stories are real, and they are spec-
tacular,” he said.
The “Concertalk” starts at 8 p.m. Saturday,
Jan. 30; refreshments will be served. Cost is
$25 in advance and $30 at the door.
For an additional $11 ($36 total, pay-
able in advance), concertgoers can attend a
Pre-Glow Meet & Greet with Wolff. He will
also speak at a “Lunch and Fun” following
Shabbat services at Beth Shalom. Cost of the
lunch is $15 and must be paid in advance.
For reservations, call Beth Shalom at
(248) 547-7970.

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‘A Shared Future’

Joint lecture series will explore Jewish and Muslim viewpoints.

Esther Allweiss Ingber | Contributing Writer

T

he American Jewish Committee, a
Jewish advocacy organization with
offices in Bloomfield Township, also
has a history of fighting against discrimina-
tion and working on behalf of social equality.
Although approximately 300,000 Muslims
live in Metro Detroit, AJC once had “a dearth
of programming directed at Muslim-Jewish
relations,” said attorney Bryant Frank, AJC
regional past president.
“Given the relative size of our Jewish
[about 67,000] and Muslim communities,
along with the Chaldeans (120,000 Iraqi
Christians), our feeling was if we can’t make
interfaith relations work here in Greater
Detroit, where could it work?” he said.
Over three years, core leaders in the AJC
and the Michigan Muslim Community
Council (MMCC) in Royal Oak have devel-
oped close ties.
“We have similar interests locally and want
to try to make our homes and communities
better,” said Dr. Muzammil Ahmed, MMCC
board chair.
Leaders from both groups wanted to
gauge the interest in their communities for
developing joint Jewish-Muslim partnerships
and collaborations. With funding from the
Kalamazoo-based Ravitz Foundation, whose
beneficiaries include special Jewish commu-
nal initiatives, the organizations hired iLabs,

16 January 21 • 2016

University of Michigan-Dearborn’s Center for
Innovation Research, to conduct a survey.
Six-hundred individuals — 41 percent
identified as Muslim, 59 percent as Jewish —
participated in the survey, “Building a Shared
Future: Understanding the Muslim and
Jewish Communities of Southeast Michigan,”
during the summer of 2013.
The major finding was that “90 percent
of respondents had a desire to find ways to
interact with the other community,” Frank
said.
“A Shared Future” conference followed
the survey at the University of Michigan-
Dearborn in spring 2014. Wayne State
University Professors Howard Lupovitch
and Dr. Saeed Kahn, conference present-
ers, are returning to lead AJC and MMCC’s
Wednesday evening lecture series, “A Shared
Future,” starting Jan. 27 in Farmington Hills.
A joint leadership group developed topics
for the series. The first program, defining
jihad and Zionism, had the most pushback in
Ahmed’s community.
“Muslims see jihad as more pure and
distrust Zionism while Jews often hold the
opposite viewpoint,” he said.
Yet, misrepresentation of the terms “has
been an aggravating factor of the recurring
conflict,” Lupovitch said.
Jews and Muslims hold multiple view-

points about the Middle East, but
the AJC-MMCC relationship has
brought “increased sensitivity to
each other’s narrative,” Ahmed
said. Frank is convinced “we will
figure it out and have these discus- American Jewish Committee and Michigan Muslim
sions, knowing we may not agree
Community Council leaders at “A Shared Future”
on everything.”
conference in spring 2014
The leaders’ experience is some-
thing worth emulating by other
Muslims and Jews, the friends
must be open-minded and willing to budge.
agree, because “the deeper our relationship
develops, the more likelihood for developing We want an open dialogue. Maybe we can
change opinions.”
more nuance in our discussions of interna-
tional issues,” Frank said.
Previewing the series, Lupovitch said
guests will experience “a substantive
‘A Shared Future‘
exchange of ideas and free-flowing dialogue
The lecture series is 7-8:30 p.m. on
between me and Professor Khan. We share a
three Wednesdays at Wayne State
commitment to a pursuit of knowledge.”
University-Oakland Center, 33737 W. 12
Frank said the lectures seek to “touch
Mile, Farmington Hills. Jan. 27: “What’s
opinion makers — the thought leaders — in
in a Word? ‘Zionism’ and ‘Jihad’ — What
our respective communities, so we can find a
They are, What They are Not.” Feb. 3:
broader platform to get together.”
“Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia
Ahmed continued, “Once we have align-
— What is the Antidote?” Feb. 10:
ment with organizations serving faith com-
“Whose Middle East Is It? A Multi-
munities, we hope to get other organizations
Millennial Retrospective of the Regional
similarly engaged. We may plan other oppor-
Relationship of Muslims and Jews.” RSVP
tunities, whether it’s a joint book club or
by email to asharedfuturedetroit@gmail.
screening films.”
com for each free lecture.
Frank said, “People coming to the lectures

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