Glenn Spearman - Blues for Falasha

One of the last projects completed before his death in 1998, Blues For Falasha was composed by Glenn Spearman specifically for the Tzadik label's Radical Jewish Culture series. The "falasha" in the title refers to the group of Jews in Ethiopia who claim to have descended from Solomon and Sheba and who practice a kind of pre-rabbinical Judaism. Because of their religion, the Falashas have had to live on the fringes of Ethiopian society and have been frequently persecuted. When the Ethiopian famine broke out, many Falashas tried to emigrate to Israel, but because of their racial background and economic status, the Israelis were reluctant to accept them as real Jews -- many Falashas were allowed to emigrate, but the process became increasingly difficult to the point where they became one of the only Jewish peoples to be denied immigration under the law of return. Read More