(JTA) – More than 80 bands and several scheduled panelists have pulled out of the ongoing South by Southwest festival, citing Israel defense ties among its organizers.
Organizers of the Austin, Texas, event that draws attendees from around the world have threatened legal action against the boycott’s leaders. But they also said on Tuesday that they “fully respect” the boycott.
Cantor Rebecca Garfein took the opportunity to show her talented secular side at the Temple Sinai Gala this past Sunday, keeping the banter on the microphone lively as she described much of her life through song.
Accompanying the cantor on piano and providing the arrangements for the songs she sang was her longtime collaborator Bob Egan, who flew in from his residence in New Hope, Pennsylvania to...
(JTA) — David Draiman, the Jewish frontman of heavy metal band Disturbed, is raising money to provide private security for Matisyahu after the Jewish reggae singer had two venues cancel on him in the face of pro-Palestinian protests.
“I’m raising funds to provide security for our brother @matisyahu,” Draiman, the heavy metal singer, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Him and his family have been relentlessly harassed during...
(JTA) — Empty chairs representing the Israeli hostages held in Gaza lit up the stage of Israel’s “Rising Star” song competition show Tuesday night as 20-year-old Eden Golan, wearing a yellow ribbon pin, sang Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” — an emotional grand finale for the country’s auditions to the Eurovision Song Contest, which were postponed by several months due to the war.
(JTA) — After a week of witnessing the pain and resilience of Israelis in war time I went to Jerusalem’s Yellow Submarine music club. I was driven by a prayerful hope to find some solace during the war, along with communion, with fellow heartbroken folks for whom words were failing.
The last time I went to Yellow Submarine was almost a decade ago. It was also wartime....
(JTA) — Those who are Jewish, or Phish fans — or both — have likely noticed at one point: Jews really seem to love Phish.
There are many possible reasons for this, starting with the fact that the genre-bending jam band has many ardent fans of all stripes, having sold millions of albums and played to enormous festival crowds for decades. Two of the band members — bassist...
(JTA) — Like many parents, Mickey and Linda Rubin indulged their only child Ricky’s various hobbies — magic, photography, music — while he was growing up in the 1970s on Long Island. Ultimately, they hoped he would set his artistic interests aside and choose the sensible career of an attorney.
Ricky famously stuck with music.
In 1983, when he was a junior at New York University, he...
(JTA) — Since the birth of hip-hop 50 years ago, plenty of Jewish rappers have picked up a microphone and rocked a crowd. They’ve spit rhymes in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, even Aramaic. Collectively, they’ve shattered stereotypes about what Jews look and sound like.
But hip-hop is hypercompetitive, so the question must be asked: Who are the Jewish artists who have made the biggest impact on the culture?
(JTA) – Over the course of Irish pop singer Sinead O’Connor’s career, she made her fair share of enemies — most notably the Catholic Church, after she ripped up a picture of the pope on “Saturday Night Live.”
But five years after that incident, she also found herself in the crosshairs of Israel’s future national security minister.
(JTA) — Roger Waters projected Anne Frank’s name at recent concerts to draw comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, leading Germany’s Orthodox rabbinical association to call for a ban on Waters performances in the country.
Observers told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Waters, the former Pink Floyd frontman known as a leader in the boycott Israel movement, has lumped Anne Frank together with Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist...
