A mainstream pop album is an unlikely place to encounter an ancient tongue known to a total of 705 people in the Holy Land.
March 22, 2007 (Press Release) --
But tucked between the smooth chords and Hebrew vocals on Israeli singer Sofi Tsedaka's CD, listeners can hear the lilting language of the Samaritans.
Tsedaka, well-known here as the star of soap operas and children's TV shows, calls her album a gesture of reconciliation with the Samaritans, the tiny religious sect she was born into and which she abandoned in anger a decade ago.
In one song, Tsedaka intones the first passages of the Book of Genesis in the Samaritan tongue. Other tracks sample the unique rhythms and whooping chants of Samaritan prayers and songs.
''I'm not a great singer -- I'm not Whitney Houston,'' said Tsedaka, 31. ''What makes this album special for me is that I'm touching places I've never been willing to touch before.''
The Samaritans have lived in the Holy Land for thousands of years and are best known for the parable of the Good Samaritan in the New Testament.
Named for Samaria, a region in the northern West Bank, the Samaritans believe they are the remnants of Israelites exiled by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. They practice a religion closely linked to Judaism and venerate a version of the Old Testament, but are not Jews.
Today, there are precisely 705 Samaritans, according to the sect. Half live near the West Bank city of Nablus on Mt. Gerizim. The other half live in a compound in the Israeli city of Holon, near Tel Aviv.
But by the time she finished high school, Tsedaka had made up her mind to leave what she saw as the suffocating confines of Samaritan life.
She converted to Judaism, married a Jewish man and had a daughter, now 9. Though her parents maintained some contact, the sect excommunicated her.
''Sofi gave in to the seductions,'' said Benyamim Tsedaka, a distant relative and the sect's historian and unofficial spokesman. ''We don't throw them out, but we'd rather they don't come.''
Tsedaka suggested the album might help by generating new interest in the Samaritans.
''Sofi is providing a service to us with her talent and beauty,'' Tsedaka said. ''But that doesn't mean we welcome her with open arms.''
Source: http://www.msn.com
POSTED BY MATTI FRIEDMAN
Tsedaka, well-known here as the star of soap operas and children's TV shows, calls her album a gesture of reconciliation with the Samaritans, the tiny religious sect she was born into and which she abandoned in anger a decade ago.
In one song, Tsedaka intones the first passages of the Book of Genesis in the Samaritan tongue. Other tracks sample the unique rhythms and whooping chants of Samaritan prayers and songs.
''I'm not a great singer -- I'm not Whitney Houston,'' said Tsedaka, 31. ''What makes this album special for me is that I'm touching places I've never been willing to touch before.''
The Samaritans have lived in the Holy Land for thousands of years and are best known for the parable of the Good Samaritan in the New Testament.
Named for Samaria, a region in the northern West Bank, the Samaritans believe they are the remnants of Israelites exiled by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. They practice a religion closely linked to Judaism and venerate a version of the Old Testament, but are not Jews.
Today, there are precisely 705 Samaritans, according to the sect. Half live near the West Bank city of Nablus on Mt. Gerizim. The other half live in a compound in the Israeli city of Holon, near Tel Aviv.
But by the time she finished high school, Tsedaka had made up her mind to leave what she saw as the suffocating confines of Samaritan life.
She converted to Judaism, married a Jewish man and had a daughter, now 9. Though her parents maintained some contact, the sect excommunicated her.
''Sofi gave in to the seductions,'' said Benyamim Tsedaka, a distant relative and the sect's historian and unofficial spokesman. ''We don't throw them out, but we'd rather they don't come.''
Tsedaka suggested the album might help by generating new interest in the Samaritans.
''Sofi is providing a service to us with her talent and beauty,'' Tsedaka said. ''But that doesn't mean we welcome her with open arms.''
Source: http://www.msn.com
POSTED BY MATTI FRIEDMAN
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