Klezmer music is a product of the eastern European Ashkenazic Yiddush culture.The word Klezmer comes from the two hebrew words:
                Kley = instrument;   Zimmer = song thus Instrument of Song 
However it wasn't until the latter part of the 17th century that the actual word klezmer was used to denote both a specific type of music and the musician who performed this music known as a klezmorim.

Klezmorim exchanged many popular tunes with the various indigenous cultures around them. Some of the countries that influenced the music were Roumania, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Greece and the Hungarian gypsies.

The Nudniks hours' presentaion starts with the music of this era explaining the influence of these various different cultures.

Since the time of the destruction of the 2nd Temple, the Rabbis forbade all music as we were in mourning. Most klezmorim wandered through Eastern Europe to perform at various joyful occasions like birthdays, new Rabbis or new Torah dedications, bris and especially marriages.

Klezmer music came to the U.S. with the immigration of eastern European Jews from the 1880's to the early 1920's. With the desire to assimilate into the American culture and become Americanized, they were ashamed of their past poor life in the shtetl and the music associated with it, klezmer music faded away. However, there has been an incredible revival since the early 1970's and klezmer music now is extremely popular today.

Our presentation continues with the klezmer music of today with the unmistakenable influence of American jazz and the transformation of klezmer music to modern times.