Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
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Fast Forward Patti Smith and Julian Casablancas among over 600 musicians to call for boycott of Israel
(JTA) — Patti Smith and Julian Casablancas of The Strokes are among the more than 600 musicians who have signed a letter calling for artists to avoid playing concerts in Israel. “We call on you to join us with your name in refusing to perform at Israel’s complicit cultural institutions,” says the letter, which began…
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Culture Musician Yoke Lore thrives as a pandemic hermit. Here’s what he’s gotten done
The last real concert I attended, before the pandemic hit, was at the Sinclair in Cambridge. I was seeing a band called Yoke Lore — really just one guy, who plays electronic-inflected, danceable banjo music. I’d just gotten into the band, and was listening to a few songs on repeat, but I didn’t know much…
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Culture ‘They Own The Media’: New Van Morrison song amplifies antisemitic trope
Legendary singer-songwriter Van Morrison released a new song on streaming platforms Thursday whose title espouses a classic antisemitic trope. The lyrics of the song, “They Own The Media,” never indicate who the pronoun in its title refers to. But Morrison, a two-time Grammy winner, was also accused of antisemitism for the 2005 track “They Sold…
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Culture Jewish music in Germany after the Holocaust
Read this article in Yiddish. Tina Frühauf Transcending Dystopia: Music, Mobility, and the Jewish Community in Germany, 1945-1989 Oxford University Press, 2021, 644 pp. Immediately after World War II, the German rabbi Leo Baeck, who had survived the war in the concentration camp Terezin, declared: “The history of German Jews has ended once and for…
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Fast Forward Jewish rocker Ezra Furman announces she’s a woman — and a mom
(JTA) — This article first appeared on Kveller. Jewish indie rocker Ezra Furman is a trans woman — and has been a mom for years — she revealed on Wednesday. In a moving Instagram post, the 34-year-old musician briefly explains her journey, her experience of motherhood and why she’s sharing her story. “I wanted to…
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Culture Can music be educational and still be sexy? These rappers think so.
When you think of rap and hiphop, what probably springs to mind is the type of music that makes it into the Top 40 charts, with lyrics about love or sex or money. But the Brooklyn-based duo Nate and Hila are more likely to rap about compost or bees. To be fair, their bee music…
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Culture If you’re looking for a Passover anthem, this is…not it
If you haven’t heard of Trisha Paytas, I recommend you stop reading here and continue on in blissful ignorance. If you follow the ever-controversial Youtube-TikTok-social media figure, you will be unsurprised by her new music video release. Titled “I Love You Moses,” it is part Passover banger and part love song to her Israeli fiancé,…
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The Schmooze Jewish trio Haim invite Taylor Swift into their group
They're all best friends now
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Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
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Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
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Opinion Just about every interpretation of Trump’s narrow election victory is wrong
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News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Here’s why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Rep. Ritchie Torres, outspoken pro-Israel advocate, is dropping hints that he could run for NY governor
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Fast Forward Ursula Haverbeck, infamous German Holocaust denier known as ‘Nazi grandma,’ dies at 96
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Fast Forward A Jewish museum in Tulsa held a funeral for remains of Holocaust victims it kept for years
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Sports Texas A&M’s Sam Salz cherishes his first taste of DI college football — and the opportunity to inspire fellow Orthodox Jews
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