This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
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Fast Forward ‘Backstreet’s Back’ To Perform Again In Tel Aviv Suburb
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The American pop band Backstreet Boys will perform in Israel. The band, whose popularity was at its peak in the 1990s, will play one concert in April in the central city of Rishon Lezion. The concert was announced on Monday afternoon and is based on the band’s Las Vegas show in residence at the…
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Fast Forward Paul McCartney Wins A Prestigious Prize In Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Paul McCartney is one of nine laureates announced for Israel’s prestigious Wolf Prize. McCartney is one of two recipients of the 2018 Wolf Prize in Music, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin announced Monday. Each year the Wolf Foundation awards $100,000 prizes in five fields. More than 30 winners have gone on to receive…
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Fast Forward Lorde Cancelled Her Concert In Israel. Here’s What 5 Other Artists Did Instead.
(JTA) — Pop star Lorde’s decision to cancel her scheduled concert in Israel has sparked some fierce reactions, even if most of them were expected. The 21-year-old New Zealand native’s move earned praise from proponents of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, who said she was taking a stand for the Palestinians. Meanwhile, a range…
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News Jewish Convert Explores Faith And Belonging Through Country Music
At the largest gathering of Reform Jews in the country earlier this month, Joe Buchanan stuck out in the crowd. Thousands of Jews had gathered in Boston for four days of worship and learning. But Buchanan was the only Jewish cowboy. In a black felted hat and a patterned handkerchief tied around his wrist, Buchanan,…
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Opinion Should We Still Be Singing Shlomo Carlebach’s Songs In The #MeToo Era?
Though Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach has been dead for nearly as long as I’ve been alive, his music and ethos still echo throughout American Jewish communal life and liturgy. Carlebach’s music is almost childishly simple, often utilizing only a few easy chords and repeating a few short verses in Hebrew. In the right environment, it can…
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Community Should Jews Be Singing Christmas Songs?
Jews and Christmas music go together like bartenders and craft cocktails — they produce the vast majority of them, but things get awkward when they consume them in excess in front of the masses. But as the end of November draws near, it’s hard to escape Christmas music on every radio station. Some Jews have…
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Life Niggun, Meet Jam Session: Joey Weisenberg May Be The Future Of Jewish Music.
Joey Weisenberg has a quiet magnetism. Standing up in front of a conservative synagogue in New Rochelle a number of weeks ago, he asked the congregants to spread out to the far corners of the sanctuary. Then he asked them to sing together. The sound was unsurprisingly tepid. But then he brought them together –…
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Music LISTEN: Arik Einstein’s Yiddish Song “Meydele”
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Arik Einstein was the single most important figure in the rise of Israeli rock-music, as important to Israelis as Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley and the Beatles were to Americans. Although known exclusively for his songs in Hebrew, Einstein did record one song in Yiddish in 1971, a…
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Opinion This German word explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power
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Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
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Fast Forward Connie Francis, 20th-century star turned TikTok sensation, recorded an album of Jewish songs in 1960
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