{"id":70305,"date":"2022-11-07T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=70305"},"modified":"2022-11-07T10:00:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T15:00:08","slug":"f-antisemitism-john-mellencamp-says-as-his-jewish-lawyer-is-inducted-into-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/f-antisemitism-john-mellencamp-says-as-his-jewish-lawyer-is-inducted-into-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018F\u2014 antisemitism,\u2019 John Mellencamp says as his Jewish lawyer is inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) \u2014 As Kanye West extended his antisemitic spree by tweeting about Jewish agents in Hollywood, the rocker John Mellencamp took the stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and said this about his longtime lawyer: \u201cAllen is Jewish.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_70306\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70306\" class=\"wp-image-70306 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp.jpg 1574w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/169;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70306\" class=\"wp-image-70306 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Grubman_Mellencamp.jpg 1574w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-70306\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attorney Allen Grubman, left, and rocker John Mellencamp at the Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles, Nov. 5, 2022. (Amy Sussman\/WireImage)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The line began an impassioned speech about the importance of non-Jews standing up for Jewish people at a time of antisemitism and anxiety for many of them, especially as white supremacists have taken up West\u2019s comments as a rallying cry.<\/p>\n<p>Mellencamp was speaking on behalf of Allen Grubman, a prominent music industry attorney who was being inducted because of his efforts to strike agreements that let artists retain creative rights over their work. Onstage Saturday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, Mellencamp embraced his longtime friend and called him a \u201ctrue mensch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAllen is Jewish, and I bring that up for one reason: I\u2019m a gentile, and my life has been enriched by countless Jewish people,\u201d said Mellencamp, whose songs \u201cJack &amp; Diane,\u201d \u201cLittle Pink Houses\u201d and \u201cHurts So Good\u201d were hits in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI cannot tell you how f\u2014ing important it is to speak out if you\u2019re an artist against antisemitism,\u201d Mellencamp went on. \u201cI don\u2019t give a f\u2014, I don\u2019t care [about people\u2019s identity]. Here\u2019s the trick: Silence is complicity. I\u2019m standing here tonight loudly and proudly with Allen, his family and all of my Jewish friends and all of the Jewish people of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grubman is among a cohort of Jewish attorneys and executives who sit at the top tiers of the entertainment industry. He has represented Madonna, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, who sued him in 1992 for not disclosing that he was working for both Joel and his record label. (Joel dropped the lawsuit after the label paid him $3 million.) Newsweek called Grubman \u201cperhaps the music industry\u2019s wealthiest and most powerful attorney\u201d in 2001, and a 1998 Los Angeles Times profile said he had \u201coctopus-like grip on the upper echelon of the pop music world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Born and raised in Brooklyn and now in his 80\u2019s, Grubman said last week that he was proud of what he had accomplished in the music industry, peppering in the Yiddish that he has used throughout his career. (\u201cLife is 80% mazel and 20% brains,\u201d he told the Los Angeles Times in 1998, using the Yiddish word for luck.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tried to move the leverage from the labels to the artists,\u201d he told Variety. \u201cAnd I feel I was pretty successful doing so, which took chutzpah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was not the first time that Mellencamp had publicly taken a stand to support Jews: Early in his career, he used the stage name John Cougar at the encouragement of his manager. \u201cHis whole explanation to me was that Mellencamp was first of all a German name, and he was Jewish,\u201d the singer told GQ earlier this year. \u201cAnd I kinda understood that point.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"%E2%80%98F%E2%80%94%20antisemitism%2C%E2%80%99%20John%20Mellencamp%20says%20as%20his%20Jewish%20lawyer%20is%20inducted%20into%20Rock%20and%20Roll%20Hall%20of%20Fame\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":70306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7137,25],"tags":[12676,8790,8795,12675,8788,12677],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70307,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70305\/revisions\/70307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}