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 The Rolling Stones
About five years ago, The Rolling Stones — who performed their first ever concert in London on this date in 1992 — took the stage at HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv. That event represented more than just the world’s greatest and longest-running rock band’s first concert in Israel. It also marked one small victory in the war…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of ‘Shaft’
Hold on. Before you get all “cultural appropriation” on me, hear me out. The character “Shaft” is not now, nor has he ever been, Jewish. Nor has he been portrayed by Jews in film or TV, nor was he conjured by a Jewish artist. Early on in his fictional life, however, Shaft was among Jews,…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of ‘A Star Is Born’
On this day in 1899, film director George Cukor was born. Today, we look back on the history of one of his most famous projects. Like the cicadas that spend most of their lives underground, emerging only every 13 or 17 years (and how they decide is for you to know and me to find…
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Music The Secret Jewish History Of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue
There is a telling moment in “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story,” a new film by Martin Scorsese that played in theaters for one night only on June 11, before commencing to stream on Netflix on June 12. David Mansfield, who at age 19 played mandolin and pedal-steel guitar on the 1975 Rolling Thunder…
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Culture Bob Dylan’s 10 Most Jewish Songs
Bob Dylan turns 78 today. In honor of that auspicious occasion, we revisit his 10 most Jewish songs.” While Bob Dylan has, throughout his life and career, engaged in all sorts of mythologizing and playful biographical falsification, it has never been in the service of denying his heritage. This son of a middle-class appliance salesman…
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Film & TV The Secret Jewish History Of Doris Day
She was the iconic, American girl-next-door. She was wholesome, blonde, perky, Midwestern – a bubbly cheerleader who liked hunky guys. She was white bread with mayonnaise, with perhaps a frisky dollop of mustard. Singer and actress Doris Day – who died on May 13 at age 97 – was a lot of things to a…
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Culture For Mother’s Day — 9 Great Versions Of ‘My Yiddishe Mame’
What better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than to sit back and listen to “My Yiddishe Mame,” which long ago escaped the confines of the Jewish ghetto to become one of the world’s most popular songs about the love of a mother. The proof is in the wide range of singers of all backgrounds and…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of “Rock Around The Clock”
It wasn’t the first rock-and-roll song. It wasn’t even the first rock-and-roll hit. But 65 years ago this May, Bill Haley and His Comets’ version of “Rock Around the Clock” was released, beginning its long, strange journey to the top of the pop charts, where it became the first rock-and-roll tune to hit the No….
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