This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
The Latest
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Books Songbook Recaptures Lost Melodies
Heard any good Yiddish folksongs lately? Chances are good that the answer is “no.” Not because there aren’t any good Yiddish folksongs to be heard; for generations, the Yiddish-speaking Jews of Eastern Europe sang innumerable songs about love and loss, death and marriage. They sang to their children to soothe them to sleep, and they…
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News Symposium Seeks To Save Yiddish Dance
Most academic symposia don’t offer a steady supply of cold beer and hot pirogi. Fewer still offer the chance to see Michael Alpert, frontman for the progressive klezmer band Brave Old World, dancing on a chair. The first-ever Yiddish Dance Symposium had both. The bulk of the symposium, which was chaired by Alpert and by…
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Music Whoever Said That Rappers and Orthodox Jews Don’t Mix?
Okay, I’m not sure anyone’s actually said that — and now nobody’s going to be able to say it, because we have ironclad evidence to the contrary. TMZ.com reports that the rapper Pharrell — who collaborated with Snoop Dogg on the hit single “Drop It Like It’s Hot” — “was driving around Miami when he…
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Music Yoko Ono’s Lens on the Holocaust
Yoko Ono has decided to donate a pair of eyeglasses to a Liverpool exhibit aimed at raising awareness of the Holocaust, and is also giving £10,000 to aid in the production of the event. According to the Liverpool Echo, several other celebrities, such as Stephen Fry, Ronnie Corbett and Jerry Springer, will be donating glasses…
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Music Matisyahu Bids Chabad Adieu
The JTA reports: Orthodox Jewish reggae sensation Matisyahu is leaving the Chabad movement. “I am no longer identified with Chabad,” the American singer told Ha’aretz this week during a private visit to Israel. “Today it’s more important to me to connect to a universal message.” Born Matthew Miller, Matisyahu embraced Orthodox Judaism while studying in…
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Music Punk Is Dead
First, legendary New York punk palace C.B.G.B. passed into history. Now, the man who made the club a center of the burgeoning punk scene has passed away: Hilly (Hillel) Kristal, R.I.P.
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Music Hitler’s Secret Record Collection: Did the Fuhrer Dig Jewish Musicians?
Say what you will about Hitler, he apparently had better taste in music than previously assumed. ABC News reports: “A new chapter about Hitler’s taste in classical music has now been opened on reports that suggest the German dictator and Holocaust mastermind may have actually had an ear for the works of Jewish and Russian…
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Music Who Lost Matisyahu?
It looks like the Lubavitchers did. The Hasidic reggae sensation recently told the Miami New Times: My initial ties were through the Lubovitch sect… I went to a Hasidic school for two years in Brooklyn. At this point, I don´t necessarily identify with it any more. I´m really religious, but the more I´m learning about…
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