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
-
The Schmooze How 100 Years of Jewish Jokes Shaped Modern Humor
Not that it should come as any surprise, but Vulture’s recent list of merely affirms the widespread assumption that much if not most of what passes for contemporary humor was and remains directly or indirectly forged out of the tragicomedy of Jewish culture. With roots going back to the Old World badkhns through Yiddish vaudeville…
-
Music Glenn Frey and the Secret Jewish History of The Eagles
The death of rock singer Glenn Frey, a cofounder and leader of the Eagles, marks an end to one of the longest running and most successful bands of the rock era. Critics have always noted the somewhat acerbic, downright cynical attitude running through many of the group’s best-known songs. But perhaps overlooked has been a…
-
Culture The 10 Most Jewish Beatles Songs Now on iTunes and Spotify
By now you’ve all heard that after years of holding out, Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono have struck deals with major music streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music, and have allowed the complete Beatles catalog to be available to those who stream music online. Both Spotify and Apple allow users to create playlists of…
-
Culture He Dreamed a Dream in Yiddish
Over the weekend, two events encapsulated Yiddish New York, the week-long festival of Yiddish arts, music and culture that served to replace a gaping hole in the calendar left by the demise of KlezKamp, which ended its 30-year run last year at this time. On Saturday night at the Museum of Jewish Heritage at Battery…
-
Culture Why 2015 Was the Most Yiddish Year of All
For a supposedly dead or dying language, Yiddish is not going down without a fight. In fact, we’re in the midst of a rich and creative revival such that the language and its culture hasn’t seen in decades. Yiddish Studies programs are cropping up at the unlikeliest of colleges and universities across the United States….
-
Culture The Jew as Not-So-Other at Yiddish New York
“The Jew as Other” is a theme running throughout the programming of this weekend’s Yiddish New York festival, a first-time event intended to perpetuate the decades-old annual Christmas-week gathering in the Catskills of Yiddish newbies, wannabes, and experts that was KlezKamp, which had its final incarnation last December. You could say “The Jew as Other”…
-
Music Yiddish New York Transports Viewers to an Alternative Universe
During a week in which one can attend a revival of a Yiddish language musical from the golden era of Second Avenue (“The Golden Bride” by the National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage through January 3); or enjoy a critically acclaimed updated Broadway staging of “Fiddler on the Roof,” the musical that…
-
Culture The secret Jewish history of ‘Star Wars’
In a 2012 interview, “Star Wars” creator George Lucas made the feeble claim that the release of another episode in his now-38-year-old sci-fi franchise is “not a religious event. I hate to tell people that. It’s a movie, just a movie.” Needless to say, such a remark merely fans the flames of devotion accorded to…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News What We Know About Jeffrey Epstein’s Childhood
- 2
News Antisemitism group keeps board member who emailed Epstein on the legality of transporting minors for sex
- 3
Fast Forward AIPAC fails its first test in the midterms
- 4
Fast Forward Mamdani appoints Phylisa Wisdom, progressive Jewish leader, to run Office to Combat Antisemitism
In Case You Missed It
-
Letters Why the Super Bowl antisemitism ad uses a familiar slur
-
Opinion My university wants me to sign a loyalty oath — am I in America or Vichy France?
-
Fast Forward From far corners of the Jewish world, the women of Chabad gather in freezing Brooklyn
-
Opinion My grandmother Eva Schloss survived Auschwitz. She would not be silent about America today.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
