This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
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Culture Oregon has finally scrapped its racist state song — thanks to a Jewish music teacher
Most of us think of Oregon as a liberal bastion, home to hipster baristas and organic farmers, a conception encouraged by shows like “Portlandia.” But much of Oregon is truer to its historical roots as a “whites-only utopia” that forbade Black residents and displaced its native tribes. It’s therefore unsurprising that the Oregon state song’s…
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Fast Forward Rappers invest in dating app for ‘Jews with ridiculously high standards’
Rappers Bhad Bhabie and Lil Yachty are teaming up with the Lox Club, a dating app for “Jews with ridiculously high standards.” The Lox Club is a private, membership-based app, meant to be an online version of the original 20th century Lox Club – a hidden speakeasy inside a New York City deli. Bhabie and…
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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 ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish’ — the Knicks chant capturing New York’s soul
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Opinion It’s time for Jews who love Israel to give up on Zionism
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Opinion Trump’s humiliation of Netanyahu marks a sea change in the US-Israel relationship
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward This Israeli filmmaker harshly criticizes his country. Pro-Palestinian activists boycotted him anyway
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Fast Forward Trump is imagining an Israel after Netanyahu. So are many Israelis. Netanyahu isn’t biting.
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Fast Forward Spain reports 86% rise in antisemitic incidents, as interior minister takes aim at ‘xenophobia’
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Fast Forward Cara Trager, beloved Queens Jewish communal leader and lifetime journalist, dies at 71