Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
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Food Meet the Jewish Punk Bands That Throw Gefilte Fish, Bagels and Hummus
Bagels, gefilte fish, Manischewitz, and other Jewish foods were used — and thrown — at Jewish punk concerts. In the early 1990s, Gefilte F*ck singer Howard Hallis would take the stage clutching a bottle of Manischewitz wine. The Los Angeles band threw matzo, chocolate gelt and even its eponym at concertgoers. At one raucous show,…
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Fast Forward Coldplay Denies Report It Will Play Israeli-Palestinian ‘Peace Concerts’
(JTA) — The British rock band Coldplay denied reports that it was planning two “peace concerts” for Israelis and Palestinians in November. A representative for the band said the report was not true, according to Rolling Stone. The Times of Israel had cited a report by Israel’s Channel 2 in an article that said the band was to perform on Nov….
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Fast Forward Dutch Rapper: ‘Jews Like Money’ Song Is a Compliment
(JTA) — A Dutch rapper who sang that he “sits on money like a Jew” and “deports” greedy women defended the text as a “compliment” devoid of any anti-Semitic undertones. Ali Bouali, a best-selling performer of Moroccan descent who is also known in the Netherlands as an activist against discrimination, defended these lines from his…
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Fast Forward George Michael, British Pop Star With Jewish Roots, Dies at 53
British singer George Michael, who became one of the pop idols of the 1980s with Wham! and then forged a career as a successful solo artist with sometimes sexually provocative lyrics, died at his home in England on Sunday. He was 53. In the mid-1980s, “Wham! was one of the most successful pop duos ever,…
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Opinion My Name Is Loolwa Khazzoom and I Won’t Change That To Come Off Less Middle Eastern
I just received a text from my guitarist, urging me to change our band name from “Iraqis in Pajamas” to something else — anything else, as long as it has no Middle Eastern connotation. A young Muslim woman at the local university was just attacked and hit in the head, he informed me, and the…
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News Ben Zion Shenker, a Master of Melodies, Made from Music a Life of Meaning
There are very few people who may honestly be referred to as “national treasures” — someone whose contributions are not to one or another group within our community, but to all of us together: old and young, wise and simple, religiously observant and less so. Rabbi Ben Zion Shenker, who died November 20 at the…
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Fast Forward Family of ‘The Pianist’ Wins Suit Against Book Alleging Jewish Musician Had Nazi Ties
The family of the late Polish-Jewish man whose story inspired the Academy Award-winning 2002 film “The Pianist” has won on appeal a defamation suit over claims that he was a Nazi collaborator. According to Agence France Press, the widow and son of Wladyslaw Szpilman said Monday they have won their suit against the author and…
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Community Singing is Just the Beginning
In the spring of 1947, a small group of Hazzanim joined together to lay the foundation for a cantorial association designed to address the immediate and anticipated future concerns of practicing cantors in North America. Their most pressing objective was to professionalize the Cantorate. In doing so, they had to establish the Cantor as a…
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Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
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Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
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Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
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Fast Forward Columbia staff receive texts asking if they’re Jewish, as government hunts antisemitic harassment on campus
In Case You Missed It
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News At Harvard, reports on antisemitism and anti-Palestinian bias reflect campus conflict over Israel
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Opinion Is JB Pritzker’s very Jewish toughness the key to fighting Trump?
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Fast Forward Trump nominee Ed Martin, who praised a Nazi sympathizer, also compared Biden to Hitler
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Opinion RFK Jr. and Trump are talking about an ‘autism registry’ — this sounds disturbingly familiar
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