Good for the Jews tour mixes music, comedy

The duo will perform in Cleveland on Thursday.

By JOHN BENSON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

For decades, the holiday season has been a time of loathing for singer-songwriter Rob Tannenbaum.

Growing up Jewish in a predominantly Christian America, the funnyman and musician decided to do something about it. The result is the touring duo Good for the Jews, which Tannenbaum hopes will take back the month of December for the Chosen People.

“Good for the Jews is a music act that is extraordinarily funny,” said Tannenbaum, calling from New York City. “It selflessly tours the country throughout December, giving bored Jews something to do other than watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ over and over again.

“It really began about nine years ago as an act of resentment against the dominance of Christmas in December. I got to the point where I was fed up walking into a mall and hearing ‘Winter Wonderland’ in August. Jews have a holiday in December as well, and because we’re only 3 percent of the U.S. population, it doesn’t get as much attention.”

After an initial 2006 East Coast tour was met with positive praise, Tannenbaum and his musical partner David Fagin, from the indie rock act The Rosenbergs, have scheduled a coast-to-coast jaunt called “Putting The Ha! In Hanukkah Tour,” which makes its Cleveland debut Thursday at the Beachland Ballroom.

Tannenbaum admits one of the biggest hurdles regarding the “Putting The Ha! In Hanukkah Tour” is the fact audiences may be unsure of what to expect from the duo. 

“There is no Israeli folk dancing,” Tannenbaum said. “This is not spiritual. We’re not going to be singing songs from the Torah, and we don’t have long beards.” 

Instead, the show is a mixture of comedy and indie rock. The latter falls into a They Might Be Giants-meets-The Barenaked Ladies vibe with such songs as the acoustic “They Tried to Kill Us” and the power-pop sounding “Jews for Jesus.”

Though the entire show is comical, “Jews for Jesus” does tackle a somewhat serious subject for Tannenbaum. Specifically, the song’s lyrics — “I’ve never been the most observant Jew/After my Bar Mitzvah I was through … but as bad as I have been/I still would never dream of forsaking my forefathers and playing for the other team/Jews for Jesus/When I see you my mind just freezes” — take no prisoners.

“It’s about our contempt for people who claim to be Jewish but pray to Jesus,” Tannenbaum said. “There’s a line in it that goes, ‘Jews for Jesus … It’s like being a vegetarian for meat.’ 

“There are points that we make during the course of the show, but they’re made by way of humor rather than by way of speeches or op-ed opinions. The last thing I want to do is get on stage and start lecturing people. That’s what rabbis are for. We’re up there to make people laugh and have a good time.”

Tannenbaum, who is currently a music editor at Blender Magazine and said he once dated a Jewish girl from Shaker Heights, is hoping Good for the Jews can record a full-length album in its future.  

“I don’t think this type of thing has been done before,” Tannenbaum said. “At one point someone referred to us as the Bart Simpsons of the yeshiva, which gets to a little bit of the truth. Neither one of us went to yeshiva, and we’re not cartoon characters, but what it does show is we have an irreverent and unorthodox approach.

“The sensibility is very similar to what Jon Stewart or Sarah Silverman does. What we’ve done is taken an irreverent Jewish spirit and brought it to a music duo. So we’re hoping that the Jews of Cleveland will decide to come out and see us, rather than sitting at home and watching more Christmas specials on TV.”