Seth Rogovoy, a contributing editor at the Forward, is the author of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet (Scribner) and Within You Without You: Listening to George Harrison (Oxford University Press).
Seth Rogovoy
By Seth Rogovoy
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of Baseball’s Opening Day
Like a New Year celebration, Major League Baseball’s annual opening day brings with it an opportunity to start afresh: to leave the past behind and to begin anew with a clean slate. Every team begins the new season as a reborn entity: The reigning World Champions and last year’s losers are equal going into the…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of Hawaii
There once was a land ruled by a King David. And unto the king from beyond the land came a wise man who was learned in the traditions of an ancient, foreign people; skilled at fortune-telling, and able to read the stars. The king took a liking to the man and spent many hours alone…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of Captain And Tennille
In the more obscure corners of the Internet, one occasionally comes across a reference to Daryl Dragon, best known as the “Captain” in the 1970s pop group Captain and Tennille, as being half-Italian and half-Jewish. This is probably because Dragon — who died earlier this week at age 76 in Prescott, Arizona — was the…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of Teddy Roosevelt
Teddy Roosevelt packed at least three lifetimes into his relatively short one: He died 100 years ago, on January 6, at age 60. Widely regarded as one of the greatest presidents in American history (with a bust on Mount Rushmore as proof), Roosevelt was a bestselling author; a historian; a naval strategist; a conservationist (as…
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Music Klezmer Revivalists Hail The Lords Of The ‘Tanz!’
In 1955, just when klezmer was about to end its half-century-long run as a viable commercial and creative outlet for immigrant-era Jewish musicians and a few younger instrumentalists who took up their torch, the great Ukrainian-born clarinetist Dave Tarras recorded one more album at the urging and with the creative guidance of his son-in-law, Sam…
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Culture In Praise Of Ruth Rubin, Patron Saint Of Yiddish Song
Ruth Rubin was the Alan Lomax of Yiddish folk song. For over 40 years, she visited Jewish communities around the world, tape recorder in hand, assembling a collection of more than 2,000 songs, including lullabies, children’s songs, love songs, drinking songs, satirical songs, and work songs, gathered from ordinary (and some extraordinary) “informants.” Hers was…
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Film & TV The Secret Jewish History Of Rock Hudson
Who was the biggest male star in Hollywood in the 1950s and ‘60s? John Wayne? Too typecast in Westerns. Marlon Brando? Too weird and rebellious. James Dean? Died too young. It may be hard to remember or to imagine today, but the biggest star in Hollywood back then was a clean-cut, all-American, handsome guy named…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of Wilco Frontman Jeff Tweedy
If you think the most Jewish thing Jeff Tweedy ever did was to name a Wilco album “Schmilco,” think again. The truth is that Tweedy — the founder and main creative force behind the indie-rock group Wilco, celebrating its 25th anniversary next year — married a Jewish woman, raised two Jewish boys into manhood, and,…
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