Adam Blander
By Adam Blander
-
The Schmooze Chabad Hits the Streets for Facebook Votes and Cash
A few weeks ago, while walking past the fountain at Lincoln Center, a young Lubavitch teenager approached me with a laptop in his hands. He asked if I had a second to vote for his school on the Kohl’s Cares for Kids Internet contest, in which the department store chain is giving away a total…
-
The Schmooze Orthodox Record Executive Gunned Down in Liquor Store
Yoseph Robinson, a 34-year-old Jamaican-born hip-hop artist and record executive who converted to Orthodox Judaism, was shot to death yesterday at a kosher liquor store in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. According to eyewitness accounts, Robinson, who was on duty as a store clerk at the time, was fatally shot in the chest and arms…
-
The Schmooze This Klezmer Kills Fascists
“The politics these days are the worst I’ve ever seen,” lamented Robert Kaplan of the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring. He was introducing The Klezmatics before they hit the stage at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park Bandshell on August 3 for the second show in the Music For a Better World series, which culminates on August 15 with…
-
The Schmooze Why Will Gorillaz Play in Syria, But Not in Israel?
Earlier this spring Gorillaz, a British “virtual” rock sensation headed by Blur front-man Damon Albarn, canceled a show at Tel Aviv’s Pic.nic festival, along with British dance punk outfit Klaxons and American alt-rock pioneers The Pixies. Albarn never explicitly stated the reason for the cancellation, but it was widely speculated that the decision was linked…
-
The Schmooze NBA Star Heads to Israel
While Jewish New York Knicks fans may wonder if signing NBA superstar Amare Stoudemire was worth the $100 million price tag, as well as the loss of all-star center and all-around mentsch David Lee, they can at least take comfort in the fact that the 6-foot-10-inch power forward has taken an interest in Judaism. Stoudemire,…
-
The Schmooze More Cuban Than Klezmer
Unlike many practitioners of Jewish music, percussionist and composer Roberto Rodriguez doesn’t view Jewishness as a simple war chest of traditions and musical idioms to draw from. Instead, Rodriguez’s Cuban-Jewish All Stars project is a more strict interpretation of what a particular moment in Jewish history must have sounded like. The era is pre-revolutionary Cuba,…
-
The Schmooze For Malian Musicians, ‘Simplicity is Freedom’
Eclecticism is a virtue too often touted by musicians and critics. Reviews and press releases formulaically repeat the cliché that “artist x blends elements of genre y with style z.” While this may be relevant to the archivists amongst us, such statements really say very little about the quality or authenticity of the music in…
Most Popular
- 1
Music In 1964, when he was just 23, Bob Dylan wrote the prophetic anthem that encapsulates Trump’s America
- 2
News State Department plan to deport ‘pro-Hamas’ students relies on a 1952 law that targeted Jews
- 3
Fast Forward What does the election of Mark Carney mean for Canadian Jews and Israel?
- 4
News Jewish groups targeted Columbia grad Mahmoud Khalil — then ICE arrested him
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Trump’s economic assault on Europe is terrible news for Israel
-
Yiddish נאָך 10,000 בריתן וועט אַריזאָנער מוהל זיך פּענסיאָנירןAfter doing his 10,000th bris, Arizona mohel is retiring
אַלען זינגער איז אַ קינדער־דאָקטער וואָס האָט דורכגעפֿירט בריתן, מערסטנס פֿאַר רעפֿאָרם־ און קאָנסערוואַטיווע משפּחות
-
Looking Forward Mahmoud Khalil, Elon Musk and the upside-down world of Purim 2025
-
Culture BDS has denounced ‘No Other Land’ for ‘normalization’ – what does that actually mean?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism