This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
The Latest
-
Yiddish World Now streaming: Musician’s fascinating journey to find Ukrainian Jewish folksongs
In the 1920s, after the horrific pogroms that followed the Russian Revolution, a Jewish musician and ethnomusicologist named Moyshe Beregovsky, also known as Moisei Iakovlevich Beregovskii, travelled across Ukraine with a phonograph in hand, seeking to record the authentic Yiddish music of Ukrainian Jewry. Among the hundreds of songs that he collected were Yiddish folk…
-
Culture Finally, we can move on from ‘Dreidel Dreidel’ — a true Hanukkah bop has dropped
In the past few weeks, I’ve written about everything wrong with Hanukkah today — kitschy merchandise, Christmasification, the Maccabees. So as we approach the end of the eight nights, I wanted to finish on a sweeter note: a pop anthem made for the holiday that, in my humble opinion, does everything right. “Hanukkah” comes from…
-
Music What do Bible characters have on their Spotify Wrapped list?
From Abraham to Yael, here's what your faves were listening to this year
-
Opinion Our Reform leaders sinned. Should we still sing songs they wrote?
Reform synagogues across the nation are struggling to make sense of the damning report released earlier this month showing nearly unfettered patterns of unwanted sexual contact between male faculty and female students at Hebrew Union College over five decades. Released on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the report, conducted by an independent law firm, showed that…
-
Yiddish World VIDEO: Polina Shepherd sings a new Yiddish song, ‘The Tempest Breakers’
This week, a video of a new Yiddish song, Di Veln (The Tempest Breakers), was posted on YouTube, performed by singer-songwriter Polina Shepherd, with piano accompaniment. The lyrics are by the late expressionist poet, Abraham Nahum Stencl, and the melody and arrangement – by Shepherd herself. The video was produced by the Forverts. Abraham Nahum…
-
Culture The 10 most terrifying (Jewish) songs for Halloween
Due to Halloween’s pagan origins, Rabbinic law prohibits the Jewish celebration of the popular autumn holiday, which might explain why there’s usually a notable scarcity of “slutty rabbi” costumes at your typical All Hallows’ Eve bacchanal. But the dark allure of haunted houses, jack-o’-lanterns and (let’s be honest here) candy corn is often too powerful…
-
News These New Yorkers were annoyed by anti-vaccine Holocaust comparisons. So they wrote a song.
(JTA) — It was a quiet Shabbat afternoon when the frustration that had been building up inside Michal Schick spilled out in a song. For months, Schick had been keeping a tally in her head — and sometimes on Twitter, where the New York City screenwriter is active — of pandemic-related Holocaust comparisons that, to her…
-
Yiddish World After 67 years, ‘The Black Cantor’ finally gets a gravestone
Read this article in Yiddish. Musician and music archivist Hank Sapoznik has announced that he has raised enough money from private donations to put up a gravestone for the remarkable African-American cantor, Thomas LaRue Jones. The in-person unveiling ceremony will take place on Sunday, August 29th, at 11:00 am, 67 years after Jones’ death,…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Bob Dylan warned us about guys like Stephen Miller
- 2
Opinion The ICE shooting in Minneapolis shattered my Holocaust survivor father’s American dream
- 3
News He stormed the Capitol wearing a Camp Auschwitz sweatshirt 5 years ago. Where is he now?
- 4
Opinion A quiet diplomatic shift in the Middle East, with monumental consequences for Israel
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jersey City’s outgoing Jewish mayor Steven Fulop signs antisemitism orders as ‘guardrails’ for his successor
-
Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: אין שאָטן פֿון מלחמה בליט ייִדיש לעבן אין ראָסטאָווTidbits: In shadow of war, Jewish life thrives in Rostov, Russia
חנוכּה זענען בערך 2,000 מענטשן געקומען אויף אַ ייִדישן קאָנצערט, נישט געקוקט אויף דער רוסישער מלחמה קעגן אוקראַיִנע.
-
Fast Forward In a Mamdani-era primary, J Street endorses pro-Israel incumbent — and, in a first, ‘approves’ his challenger
-
Yiddish World A hypnotic new album inspired by a unique Yiddish recording
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
