This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
The Latest
-
The Schmooze Monday Music: Sephardic Culture Takes On the Club Scene
When Erez Safar started the Sephardic Music Festival in 2005, he was thinking about the future of Sephardic music. Having spent the last decade watching klezmer explode in popularity among artists like the avant-garde composer John Zorn and the Brooklyn punk band Golem, Safar realized klezmer was moving into a brave new future and was…
-
The Schmooze ‘The Beatles of Palestine’ Give First Homeland Performance
Crossposted from Haaretz For decades the music band Al-asheqeen has provided a soundtrack to life in the Palestinian territories; their songs are heard at weddings, funerals, and in daily living. The band, which was created in Damascus by Palestinians from refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon, has become a symbol of national heritage and a…
-
The Schmooze Striking the Right Note
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree I’ve been meaning for quite some time now to write about the Judaica Sound Archives, an online treasure trove of American Jewry’s musicological patrimony, but I couldn’t quite find the right note to strike. In the wake of the sudden and untimely passing of Debbie Friedman, whose musical contributions…
-
The Schmooze Monday Music: God, the Devil, and a Couple of Sheriffs
On the new record by the Israeli quintet Fogel and the Sheriffs, Jesus packs a gun, the Pope is a woman, and the Second Coming occurs in the bedroom. One song calls the Holocaust a “soiree”; another orders a Muslim woman to “put on a burka, baby” to hide her body, from her head to…
-
The Schmooze New York Philharmonic Puts On a Light and Sound Show Worthy of Creation
After listening to and viewing a rehearsal for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s presentation of “In Seven Days,” the 2008 concerto for piano and moving image by Thomas Adès and Tal Rosner being performed January 7 and 8 at Avery Fisher Hall, I was ready to become a creationist. Not that the piece works to…
-
Books Old and Grey and Only in the Way
Earlier this week, Michael Wex, author of “The Frumkiss Family Business,” wrote about writing about intermarriage and being the kvetch guy. His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog series. For more information on the series, please visit: I…
-
The Schmooze The Wife Left Behind
On the Yiddish Song of the Week Blog, Forverts associate editor Itzik Gottesman writes about “Tunkl brent a fayer” (“A Fire Burns Dimly”), a song about an agune, a woman who was abandoned by her husband but cannot remarry: [Jacob (Yankev) Gorelik] sang “Tunkl brent a fayer” (“A Fire Burns Dimly”) in his apartment in…
-
The Schmooze Monday Music: Gabriele Coen’s Anxious ‘Awakening’
Gabriele Coen’s “Awakening” is a dark, moody collection of pieces built around complex, syncopated rhythms and long, spinning melodies in minor modes. Coen and his band mates are clearly accomplished jazz musicians, and together they produce moments of understated elegance. But don’t think of playing this album at your next cocktail party — your guests…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary on the manosphere takes a detour into antisemitism
- 2
Fast Forward Illinois primary pits Jewish candidate with deep Israel ties against AIPAC spending
- 3
Fast Forward Expelled Oberlin Chabad rabbi says he ‘made a mistake’ with explicit social media chats
- 4
Opinion Trump has forced an impossible choice on American synagogues amid antisemitic attacks
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish כ׳בענק נאָך די סעקולערע ייִדן פֿון אַמאָלLonging for the way secular Jews used to be
מײַן פֿעטער האָט נישט געהיט שבת אָדער כּשרות אָבער ווען ער האָט אָפּגעריכט דעם סדר האָט ער געקלונגען ווי אַ פֿרומער ייִד.
-
Fast Forward Expelled Oberlin Chabad rabbi says he ‘made a mistake’ with explicit social media chats
-
Yiddish פֿינעף פֿאַקטן וועגן פּסח וואָס איר ווייסט אפֿשר נישט Five facts about Passover you may not know
דאָס רייכערן פּאַפּיראָסן יום־טובֿ האָט צונויפֿגעבראַכט מענטשן
-
Culture A brilliant Jewish storyteller may be gone, but her characters are ‘still talking’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
