Ezra Furman Image by EzraFurman.com

As he, acclaimed indie rocker (and gender nonconforming Shabbat-observant Jew) Ezra Furman isn’t shy about expressing his Jewishness in his music. But he just released his most explicitly Jewish song yet.

Furman told Consequence of Sound that “The Refugee,” which he uploaded to the SoundCloud music streaming site on Wednesday, is his “first song entirely concerned with my Jewish background and present, a song dedicated to my grandfather who fled the Nazis as well as to all of the refugees desperate for a home today.”

The song follows a character (presumably based on his Jewish grandfather) who is displaced from “frosty green Poland” (presumably during World War II) and is forced through a difficult migration, which involves “sleeping in churches” and eating grass “like a goat.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“This is the sound of the Jew who refuses to die,” Furman sings at one point in the folky waltz, which features Eastern European-sounding string and clarinet melodies.

The song will be part of his upcoming six-song EP “Big Fugitive Life,” which is set to be released on Aug. 19 on the Bella Union record label.

Listen to the track here.

RELATED:

Ezra Furman — a gender-bending, genre-crossing, observant Jewish rocker — is the next big thing

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount