Thanks!
Thanks for purchasing my new recording and welcome to the online CD booklet for Songs In the Key of Chai! This is the place to find all the song credits, notes, dedications and thank yous.
In an effort to “go green” and cut down on reproductions costs, my newest recording resembles the albums of yesteryear with a simple cardboard wallet packaging. And in case you missed the credits on the back cover, the cover artwork was painted by my daughter Hope and the photo of me and my ukulele was taken by my daughter Hannah.
This CD was a labor of love and a recording I have been wanting to produce for some time. Proceeds from the sale of this CD will go to the JCYS Lakeview Family Center’s Capital Campaign for a new, state-of-the-art building for the many families served by its dedicated staff. Under the direction of my friends Jean Losek Sellmeyer and Debbie Heifitz-Porter, the JCYS staff has provided loving care to thousands of preschoolers over the years, including my own daughters Hope and Hannah. Hope also worked the summer camp for a few years and I have taught music at the site at the corner of Sheridan and Grace for over 15 years.
Thanks also to Nermina, Amy B., and Amy S. two of the teachers at Lakeview who helped me rehearse and record the children from Room 1 (2008-2009 school year) you hear on the songs “Shabbat Call & Response” and “In the Window.”
Thanks also to my recording engineer Victor Sanders at Lakeside Media. Victor is not only a gifted engineer but a talented musician, as well, and you can hear his amazing guitar tracks on many of the new songs.
DEDICATION
Songs In the Key of Chai is dedicated to…
… the memory of my father, Leonard Salidor, son of Israel Salidor, for teaching me important lessons of tolerance and of having a positive attitude in the face of life’s many challenges.
… the memory of my mother, Hazel Salidor, for her loving embrace of Judaism and her commitment to raising my brothers and me in the Jewish faith.
… my stepmother, Margot Salidor, a refugee from Dresden, Germany whose brave personal testimony about the Holocaust is part of public testimony and who appears in the holocaust documentary “The Harp Tree” recounting her experiences as young girl growing up and eventually fleeing Nazi Germany. Most of Margot’s family, including both sets of grandparents, perished in concentration camps.
PERSONAL TESTIMONY
I grew up Jewish in the United States during the 1960s & 1970s, and Jewish music has been a part of my life since I was a little girl. My first schoolgirl crush was Cantor John Spiro at Central Synagogue in Rockville Centre, Long Island. It is his voice I still hear whenever I attend Shabbat or High Holiday services. He is the one who taught me the music behind the prayers.
One of the first choirs I sang in was at my Hebrew school. Choral singing was a large and important part of my adolescence, whether at temple, in public school, or much later as an undergraduate student at NYU. In my teens, I attended the Joseph Eisner Camp of Living Judaism in the Berkshires where we sang our way through each day, most beautifully, of course, during our Friday night and Saturday morning Shabbat services. Thanks to our spirited Camp Eisner song leaders, I learned many contemporary Jewish songs and began to understand how music can accompany one through life.
Fifteen years ago I was invited to be a song leader on an international peace march to Israel, but it is not the music we sang that is burned in my memory. Our first Shabbat took place in Tel Aviv, and the unexpected, purely spontaneous singing and dancing that took place in the streets that evening is unforgettable. I have been fortunate to cantor for bar and bat mitzvahs here in Chicago through my connection with Family School, a Jewish Catholic organization that seeks to teach children of interfaith families the tenets and values of both religions. The proud byproduct of this interfaith education for these children appears to be a shared tolerance for all religions and a respect for the religious choices of their parents – parents who fell in love in spite of their religious differences but who desire to educate their offspring in both Catholicism and Judaism with the belief that such an education can be accomplished.
With the release of Songs In the Key of Chai, I am privileged to include traditional songs from my childhood as well as my original songs that I hope might one day be considered part of the canon of Jewish music enjoyed by both Jewish and non-Jewish families alike.
TRACKS
1. Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho (African American Spiritual)
2. Hinei Ma Tov (Traditional Hebrew)
3. Zum Gali Gali/Lo Yisa Goy Medley (Traditional Israeli/Eng. Trans. Leah M. Jaffa and Fran Minkoff)
4. Tumbalalaika (Traditional Yiddish)
5. Fine Finkelstein (S. Salidor)
6. I’m Sorry (S. Salidor)
7. Gimmel Gimmel Shin (S. Salidor)
8. One Little Hanukah Candle (S. Salidor)
9. In the Window (Chasidic melody/Words: Einsenstein)
10. Shabbat Shalom Call & Response (S. Salidor)
11. Eili Eili (Lyrics: Hannah Senesh/Music: David Zehavi) Copyright Mifalei Tarbuth Vechinuch
12. Shehechianu (S. Salidor)
13. Bom Bom Biddy (Traditional Jewish Niggun)
14. I’ve Got Peace In My Fingers (S. Salidor)
15. What Is Peace to You? (S. Salidor)
16. I Should Like (The Gaze of God) (Lyrics: Jay C. Rehak/Music: Mollie Glazer)
17. Shalom Chaverim (Traditional Hebrew)
Song Notes
1. Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
This recording is from my CD Color Me Singing first released in 1998. I have always loved this classic African American spiritual and its message of non-violence. Joshua and his people are able to bring the walls of Jericho down with the sound of trumpets blaring — can you imagine such a world? Wonderful.