This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture where you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music (including of course Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen), film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of…
Culture
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Music
How one cheesy 2009 pop song became the most massive Bar Mitzvah hit of all time
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. How did a song written by a West Coast hip-hop group, a…
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LISTEN: The greatest Jewish pop songs (a curated Apple playlist)
We cannot properly publish a list of the 150 Greatest Jewish Pop Songs of All Time without also providing a convenient playlist for your listening enjoyment. And so we scoured the deep recesses of Apple Music to create a curated, four-and-a-half-hour, 59-song playlist featuring a representative selection of the complete Top 150. All you have…
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The second time Lou Reed paid homage to his Jewish mentor
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. The poet and writer Delmore Schwartz, who at 25 published one of…
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Music A ‘Dachau’ song so shocking and transformative, there’s nothing else like it
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. “Some white folks think it’s hip to have Blacks in their band….
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The ‘dark and funny’ song that Leonard Cohen would have nailed to a church door
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. Leonard Cohen gave us one of the most fierce, apocalyptic songs of…
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How a Jewish song with gospel roots became a 1960s garage band standard
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. The Blues Project were one of New York’s seminal bands in the…
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Music In 1985, they wrote the granddaddy of all Bible story songs
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. The staccato opening minor chord progression on keyboards, rhythmic reggae percussion, eerie…
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In Bob Dylan’s mysterious 1975 masterpiece, is he referencing the Talmud?
Dozens of Dylan songs can be considered Jewish — and 'Idiot Wind' more than most.
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Music How a dysfunctional New York punk band personified the postwar Jewish struggle
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. Like the Beatles, the Ramones were four distinct personalities. There was the…
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How Mel Brooks’ Hitler ditty became the best worst song ever written
Editor’s Note: Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. How do you write the worst song of all time?…
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How Neil Diamond’s most personal song chronicled his journey out of Brooklyn
'Brooklyn Roads' begins as an exercise in nostalgia but becomes so much more
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