BA
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2005
PROFILE
Musician's passion leads to language study
BY DANI LITT
dlitt@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITE
A University of Kansas student has been selected for an internship in Amherst, Mass., to study Yiddish, the language of most Jews in Eastern and Central Europe before World War II.
Josh Parshall, Columbia, Mo., junior, said it was his passion for music that led him to his interest in Yiddish. Parshall has played concerts throughout Missouri and Kansas, including the Jazzhaus, 926 1/2 Massachusetts St., but he hasn't played the types of music the majority of college students listen to on an everyday basis. He played his trumpet as part of a Klezmer band called The People's Republic of Klezmerica.
Klezmer is Jewish folk music that originated in Eastern Europe as dance music for weddings. It is usually played at Jewish celebratory events, such as weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs.
Traditional Klezmer music is instrumental, but more recently it has gone through a revival and is melting with other types of music such as rock, punk, ska, R&B and pop, Parshall said.
Other instruments in Klezmer music, specifically Parshall's old band, are the accordion, flute, violin, clarinet, bass and percussion.
Parshall is integrating his lifelong passion for music with a desire to bring more Yiddish culture to the University of Kansas as he prepares for an eight-week internship at the University of Massachusetts.
The program will give him an opportunity to study Yiddish language, literature and culture in the morning and work at the
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Check out Kansan.com for
video footage of Yiddish perform- ball
ance by Josh Parshall.
book center in the afternoon.
Parshall said that he might play Yiddish music but that he didn't know how to speak Yiddish. He said he hoped to learn Yiddish through his internship this summer.
Parshall was recently chosen as one of 12 people out of 60 applicants for an internship at the National Yidishd Book Center in Amherst, Mass. The book center is a library and distribution center for Yidishd books.
The American Studies major said he wasn't skilled with foreign languages but hoped to learn enough to recognize Yiddish words on records.
"I'll probably be a huge failure," he said. "I never wanted to learn a language before, but I think I'll be more motivated to learn Yiddish in this atmosphere."
He said it was useful to have a command of the language surrounding Klezmur music.
He will receive six hours of credit and a $2,800 living stipend for his time spent in Massachusetts.
Parshall's interest in music and Yiddish culture began when he was young, said his father, Tim Parshall.
He said Parshall had been fascinated with lyrics since he was four years old.
"I can remember him asking me about the lyrics of songs on the radio," Tim said.
Parshall's interest grew as he got older. In middle school, he became fascinated with music and culture partly because of an English teacher who would use music to inspire his students to write.
The same teacher gave Parshall his first taste of Klezmer music as a gift for his bar mitzvah. He has continued his study of music and culture through learning about and playing Klezmer music.
He said that he would like the internship to open doors for him to meet new people and make connections for the future and that he wanted to research Klezmer and its relationship to Jewish-American culture.
The development of Klezmer during the past 30 years says a lot about Jewish-American culture, he said.
"There is a segment of the Jewish-American population that isn't satisfied with the current level of assimilation," he said. "They don't want to look at Israel as the primary source of Jewish culture."
bringing back what he learns could help the University include Yiddish studies in the Jewish Studies minor, he said.
"It has to do with saving some of Yiddish language and culture, which has been overlooked since the 1950s," he said.
Parshall said he wanted to have some sort of academic career that included studies in music and culture.
"I'm not good enough to be a professional musician," he said. "But I've hopefully found a way that I can keep studying music."
- Edited by Kendall Dix
Ion Tran/KANSAN
Josh Parshali, Columbia, Mo., junior, will intern for the National Yiddish Book Center this summer in Amhurst, Mass. Parshall was one of 12 selected out of 60 applications for the internship.
REGION
GOP social issues fail in Missouri
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — When Republicans won the governor's office and made gains in the House and Senate last fall, social conservatives were hoping their issues would thrive at the Missouri Capitol.
for the results.
But there are just three weeks left in the legislative session. And while fiscally conservative ideas have been solidly embraced, some social ones, from banning a kind of stem cell research to regulating the adult entertainment industry, are faltering. Lawmakers and observers offer various reason
Republicans entered the session with a pro-business agenda as their priority, and they have accomplished many of those goals, including passing legislation limiting injury lawsuits and making it tougher for some injured people to receive workers' compensation.
Republicans had pushed for those measures for years, only to see them fail in the face of a Democratic governor.
But with the exception of anti-abortion legislation, things have not gone as smoothly on the social side of the conservatives' wish list. (Missouri's Legislature has been strongly anti-abortion, across party lines, for years, and continues to propose further restrictions on the procedure).
Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons said Republican leaders simply are taking time to ensure they act in Missouri's best interests.
Among the ideas struggling for approval is a proposal by Sen. Matt Bartle to ban a type of stem cell research known as therapeutic cloning. Supporters say the research could lead to cures for various diseases or spinal cord injuries, but opponents say the procedure destroys human life. The Senate did not even debate the bill until this month and set it aside after a few hours without voting.
The Associated Press
NATION
U.S. officials arrest Afghan drug lord
NEW YORK - A reputed Afghan drug lord who authorities say operated with the protection of the Taliban has been captured and faces charges that he tried to smuggle more than $50 million worth of heroin into the United States, authorities said.
Bashir Noorzai, who is on the U.S. list of most-wanted drug kingpins, was ordered held without bail at his initial court appearance in Manhattan. If convicted, he could face a
maximum sentence of life in prison.
The full circumstances of Noorzai's capture were not made public. Prosecutor Boyd Johnson told a judge that Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested the defendant Saturday in New York, but he did not elaborate.
Noorzai, 44, remained silent during the brief hearing. He was given a court-appointed attorney, David Greenfield, who declined to comment outside court.
Prosecutors say the smuggling attempt involved about 1,100 pounds of heroin.
Kelley said that between 1990 and 2004, the defendant and his organization "provided demolitions, weapons and manpower to the Taliban."
The Taliban protected Noorzai's opium crops, its heroin laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan and its drug transportation routes out of the country, prosecutors said.
Last year, the White House added Noorzai and nine other people and organizations to the list of most wanted drug lords. The White House gave Noorzai's name as Haji Bashir Noorzai.
— Tom Hays/The Associated Press
LIBERTY HALL 644 Mass
749-1912
OFF THE MAP (PG-13)
4:40 7:10 9:30
MELINDA AND MELINDA (PG-13)
4:30 7:00 8:30
Casino Style Poker Sets • Military • Tools • Paint • Hardware
1235 N. 3rd 842-3374
846-F Illinois
Get Over Here And Try Rick's Special Crown Royal Smoothies! ONLY $3!
New Location!
749. 5067