‘Holy’ Prog Rock

Television’s religious calendar just gets busier and busier. Five years after “The O.C.” popularized “Chrismukkah,” and 11 years after “Seinfeld” brought fans “Festivus,” music channel VH1 Classic has invented another semi-Jewish pseudo-holiday.

“Rush Hashanah,” not to be confused with the Jewish New Year, will kick off on the cable network September 29 (the evening that marks the beginning of the High Holy Days), offering viewers an extended tribute to the Canadian band Rush, the millions-selling rock group behind such platinum albums as “2112” and “All the World’s a Stage.” The group’s singer and bassist, Geddy Lee, born Gary Lee Weinrib, is the son of Holocaust survivors from Poland.
The 24-hour “Rush Hashanah” broadcast will feature Lee and his band mates in old videos and concert footage. Kicking off at 7 p.m., it starts on what reasonably could be called Erev Rush Hashanah.
The idea for the tribute was a “mix between our people and Rush,” VH1 publicist Nyle Washington said. “The lead singer is Jewish, so it made perfect sense.”
Washington acknowledged that observant Jews won’t be able to tune in to “Rush Hashanah” because of its timing — “We do realize that,” she said — but the idea has already met with approval from other quarters. Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed the broadcast “a victory for both Canadian prog rock and awesomely clever puns,” while fans on rushisaband.com, a blog devoted to the group, greeted the tribute with “mazel tovs” and a suggestion that the band’s next concert DVD be named “Lechaim.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Opinion Is this new documentary giving voice to American Jewish anguish — or simply stoking fear?
- 4
Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Think every Palestinian in Gaza is Hamas? This week’s protests prove you’re wrong
-
Opinion A Palestinian Oscar-winner’s arrest shocked the world. For these Jewish activists, it was terrifyingly normal
-
Opinion In the Trump administration and Israel, a grotesque display of virility coupled with a loss of humanity
-
Fast Forward Cornell’s new Jewish president says he is ‘very comfortable with where Cornell is currently’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.