How Janis Ian’s Jewish Heritage Inspired Some Of Her Greatest Hits
(REVIEW) Janis Ian’s songs are known for their sharp social commentary, but what director Varda Bar-Kar uncovers in her new documentary “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence,” is how central Ian’s Judaism was to her activism.
Ian was born Janis Fink to a liberal Jewish household in Farmingdale, N.J. She legally changed her name to Janis Ian in 1964, adopting her brother Eric’s middle name as her last name. Her parents were involved in activist circles in America. Her dad, Victor, was once even picked up by the FBI and questioned about his involvement with civil rights activists.
In an interview with Bar-Kar, who’s previously directed music documentaries such as “Big Voice” (2015) and “Fandango at the Wall” (2020), Ian credits her heritage as giving her the strength to face the backlash she encountered with her breakthrough hit, “Society’s Child.” Released in 1966, the song was written from the perspective of a white teenage girl with a Black boyfriend, an obscene transgression of social norms at that time.
Ian first recorded the song in 1965 when she was only 14. Her producer, George “Shadow” Morton, told her that if she omitted the word “Black” from the song, the record would be a guaranteed hit. Ian chose to leave it in.
Morton approached over 20 labels in New York City with the song, but did not have any success until 1966, when Ian signed with Verve Records. The song found more commercial success in 1967 thanks to another Jewish musical icon, Leonard Bernstein, who had Ian perform “Society’s Child” on a television special he was hosting, “Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution.”
The song’s popularity also came with a lot of negative attention. Ian was subjected to hate mail and death threats, including bomb threats at many venues during her first tour. At one show in Encino, California, Ian’s performance of “Society’s Child” was interrupted by hecklers calling her a “N-word lover.” The insults prompted her to leave the stage, crying. When the venue manager called her a coward, Ian began to think of the religious persecution her family had been through and survived.
Ian speaks specifically of her grandmother who watched her family get slaughtered in pogroms in Russia and of her grandfather who had been beaten so badly by Russian authorities that his hand was left permanently maimed. Ian felt that she had been raised “to be a Maccabee” and it was this sentiment that pushed her to go back on stage and finish the song.
Judaism was a central theme to her song “Tattoo” written about a woman’s experience in a concentration camp. The track appeared on “Breaking Silence” (1993), notable for being the album with which Ian publicly came out as a lesbian.
At the time, around three out of 10 attempted suicides by minors were committed because the kids believed they were gay. Ian hoped that coming out as a public figure would push society towards being more accepting. She credits her Judaism with pushing her to speak out at that moment, as well, saying that as a Jew, she was raised to believe if she did not stand up for others in the face of oppression, no one would stand up for her.
“Breaking Silence,” which took three years to make, blends animation with re-enacted scenes from Ian’s life, to portray moments that they were not able to show through archival footage. Sometimes in documentaries, the inclusion of modern reenactments can feel jarring, pulling the viewer out of the past and into the present. However, the “Breaking Silence” filmmakers avoided this disruption, casting actors with a close resemblance to their subjects and color-grading the modern footage to give it an appropriately vintage 70s feel.
“Breaking Silence” has a lot to offer both for those who already identify as Ian fans and those who may be discovering the singer for the first time. The film captures Ian’s personal story, exposing fans to parts of her family and romantic life they may not have been privy to before.
It’s also an engaging depiction of broader political and cultural shifts happening in the United States and the music world during the mid to late 20th century, as the civil rights and gay liberation movements transformed the country’s social landscape.
And it captures a particularly Jewish story of standing up to bigotry, no matter the cost.
This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.
Olivia Haynie is an editorial fellow at the Forward.