Idina Menzel sings the National Anthem at the Super Bowl// Getty Images It may have been a football game but Jewish diva Idina Menzel hit a home run with her version of the Star Spangled Banner. Katy Perry at halftime? Feh. No. For us at The Forward, Idina Menzel (or Adele Nazeem, if you’re John…
Holiday haters, rejoice! Finally, here is an anti-Thanksgivukkah anthem that you can rally around to protest the unholy alliance of latkes and cranberries, stuffing and dreidels. In the words of video creator Daniel Brenner (who stars along with the “Jew Twins“): “Thank God this holiday only comes once every 70 millenia.” Because really, Charlie Brown…
When Neshama Carlebach recently recorded for us a slightly different, more inclusive version of Hatikvah (one first suggested by our language columnist, Philologos), the reaction from some was predictably pretty negative. As one commenter succinctly put it, “Israel is not a binational state. It is the national homeland of the Jewish people. I’d rather Israel…
There are times when beautiful, soulful music can transport us to a new and challenging place, a place we might never have visited were we not swept along with song. Neshama Carlebach performs that sort of music — when, for instance, she mixes ancient Jewish tropes with the pulsating rhythms of an African American Baptist…
When an Arab Supreme Court justice stood silent instead of singing the national anthem at a public ceremony in late February, it sparked a furor on Israel’s nationalist right. Some lawmakers said that the judge, Salim Joubran, should be dismissed, and Yisrael Beiteinu’s David Rotem went so far as to claim that he “spat in…
Back in 1998, I wrote a column about “Hatikvah.” It was occasioned by a European Cup soccer game between Israel and Austria, before which, as usual on such occasions, the national anthems of both countries were played. When the band struck up the Israeli anthem, the whole Israeli team joined in singing it except for…
The scandal took place at the home of Israel’s president, where members of the nation’s leading legal and political echelon had gathered to pay tribute to the retiring president of the Supreme Court and to welcome her successor to that august office. Among those present were the other justices of the Court, including Justice Salim…
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