Singing from the Fragments: Iraqi-Ashkenazi Music with Yoni Avi Battat

Sarah Bunin Benor interviews musician Yoni Avi Battat, who discusses his background studying classical violin and his journey to bringing Arab music into the American Jewish soundscape. Yoni discusses his mixed Ashkenazi and Iraqi-Jewish heritage, explaining how he reclaims his Iraqi roots through microtonal melodies, the oud, and his album Fragments. Yoni explores the contrasting experiences of his ancestral languages, from his Polish maternal side's loss of Yiddish to the vibrant Judeo-Iraqi Arabic of his paternal grandparents, finding connection through heritage words like abdalak and the guttural sounds of Arabic.Heritage Words - conversations about the words we inherit and the meaning they bring to our lives - is produced by the HUC Jewish Language Project and HUC Connect.Host and producer: Sarah Bunin BenorAssistant producer: Kyle Elbaz FingerhutEditor: Avishay ArtsyVideo editor: Talia EhrenbergTheme music: Maurice El Medioni’s French and Algerian Judeo-Arabic album “Cafe Oran,” featuring the Klezmatics’ David Krakauer and Frank London, courtesy of Piranha Records.