The Klezmatics / We were made for these times

The new album by The Klezmatics is fantastic. And, as usual, their timing is perfect.

The first Klezmatics album was titled "Shvaygn=toyt" (silence=death). Even more, when they first appeared in San Francisco at the "Great American Music Hall" touring in support of their breakthrough, "Jews with Horns," lead singer/accordion player Lorin Sklamberg paused after their first song to note that it was Gay Pride Month and they were giving away free condoms at the mailing list sign-up table. That direct engagement with the political struggles and sensibilities of our time has not changed 40 years on. Different from most other "klezmer revival" bands, with The Klezmatics, klezmer is part of a broader, intersectional Americana identity. Klezmer is a foundational part, but the band is still a great world music band, not just a great band that plays klezmer along with Yiddish song.

Along with the many contemporary and historic labor/organizing songs, whether from Spain, Russia, from the Yiddish-speaking labor movement of a century ago the new recording also features a very contemporary title track, and "I am Willing" from Holly Near. The band also reworks the Woody Guthrie ballad, "Plane wreck at Los Gatos," (perhaps better known as "Deportee"). That song gives names to the anonymous imported Mexican laborers who perished in a plane wreck ("goodbye Juan, goodbye Rosalita....") and echoes the theme of Woody's Almanac Singers ballad recalling the dead from a torpedoed World War II troop ship, "what were their names / what were their names … did you have a friend on the good ship Reuben James"). If there is one thing we have learned in solidarity with struggles around the world—including our own—it is that names are a critical part of recognizing the humanity in each other. In that sense, interleaving verses translated into Yiddish and Spanish makes this new "Deportee" current beyond the obvious parallel to our times.

Each song is also an excuse for collaboration, whether with Enver İzmaylov on "Crimean Freylekhs" or "Kegn Gold fun zun (toward the gold sunrise)/Tatar Dance, or the title track, "We were made for these times" sung with old friend Joshua Nelson and the Lavender Light Gospel Choir. The album opens right on the button of these times with "Un du akerst" (And you plow), a poem by Chaim Zhitlovsky set to music by Frank London. "You create endless wealth for us / Everything—but not for yourself; / For yourself, in poverty / You've welded a heavy chain…. We deserve a living wage / Let the bosses feel our rage / Unified our pow'r is great / Together we will agitate…," in this case, joining with percussion/vocal ensemble La Manga and the Lavender Light Gospel Choir.

I also have to call out "Lashinke Vaysinke" (Little white weasel), another example of the genre that apparently inspired "Where have all the flowers gone" in English by Pete Seeger, with a melody that hints at "Khad Gadya" (and other recursive Passover songs). This has more bite than the Pete Seeger hit, and reminds me uncomfortably of Chava Alberstein's equally intense anti-war reworking of "Khad Gadya" some 20 or 30 years ago.

For many of us, the words of "Ikh ken nit zogn vitsn" ring true (I can't tell jokes), a David Edelstadt song with English by Lorin Sklamberg (and featuring Janis Siegel, of Manhattan Transfer, along with Lorin): "I can't tell jokes / I cannot flatter, sisters and brothers, / They thunder and lightning / My freedom-songs!" Despite the song's apparently insouciant tune, the content echoes the thoughts of many of our friends and coalition partners. We also take heart from Holly Near's inspiring "I am willing," with its American Gospel roots, and acknowledge the title song: "We were made for these times … Use our strength … Speak the truth … Show your soul, it shines like gold in these dark times."

Songs like the "forty year freylekhs" or "Poyklers tants" also remind us that there is another meaning to the phrase often attributed to Emma Goldman: "If I can't dance, I don't want your revolution." The Klezmatics are one of the premiere klezmer dance bands of our times. They know that if we can't dance, there might not be a revolution. As usual, The Klezmatics come through. What a wonderful album for these times!

Reviewed by Ari Davidow, 11-June 2026

Songlist

1. Un du akerst—And you plow, feat. La Manga & Lavender Light Gospel Choir (words: Chaim Zhitlovsky, after Georg Herwegh; music: Frank London) 4:04
2. Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee) feat. Sofia Rei (words: Woody Guthrie, yiddish: Daniel Kahn; spanish: Sofia Rei; music: Martin Hoffman; arr: Lorin Sklamberg) 4:15
3. We Were Made For These Times feat. Joshua Nelson & Lavender Light Gospel Choir (inspired by Letter to a young activist during troubled times by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés; add'l words, music, arr: Frank London) 4:45
4. Crimean Freylekhs feat. Enver İzmaylov (trad; arr: The Klezmatics, Enver İzmaylov) 4:48
5. Ikh ken nit zogn vitsn—I can't tell jokes, feat. Janis Siegel (words: David Edelstadt; english: Lorin Sklamberg; music: Lorin Sklamberg; arr: The Klezmatics) 5:03
6. Forty Year Freylekhs (Lisa Gutkin) 5:41
7. Kegn gold fun zun / Tatar Dance—Toward the gold sunrise, feat. Enver İzmaylov (words: Shloyme Lopatin; music: trad. Crimean/Frank London) 5:26
8. Payklers tants—Drummer's Dance (Frank London) 3:41
9. Lashinke vaysinke—Little white weasel, feat. Enver İzmaylov (folk, collected by Y.L. Cahan; music+add'l words: Lorin Sklamberg; add'l music: Matt Darriau; arr: The Klezmatics) 7:20
10. Elegy for the Innocents feat. James Brandon Lewis & William Parker (mus: Frank London) 6:48
11. I Am Willing feat. Joshua Nelson and Lavender Light Gospel Choir (words/music: Holly Near; Yiddish: Yuri Vedenyapin; arr: Lorin Sklamberg) 3:44
12. Di tsukunft (El Futuro)—The Future, feat. La Manga (words: Morris Winchewsky; spanish: Daniela Serna; music: trad; arr: Frank London) 5:48