Monday, June 5th 2023   |

Music

Roger Waters uses Anne Frank’s name at German concerts, prompting calls for punishment from Jewish groups

By TOBY AXELROD

(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...

Sofia Richie, Lionel Richie’s daughter, marries Jewish music executive after converting to Judaism

By GABE FRIEDMAN

(JTA) — Sofia Richie, a model and the daughter of musician Lionel Richie, married Jewish music executive Elliot Grainge on Saturday, less than a month after she said she completed her conversion to Judaism.

Richie, 24, and Grainge, 29, tied the knot at a hotel in Antibes, France, where they were married by Rabbi Thomas Salomon, a British rabbi, according to a report in Vogue magazine. They...

Frankfurt can’t cancel Roger Waters concert over his antisemitism record, court rules

By GABE FRIEDMAN

(JTA) — Frankfurt’s administrative court ruled that the city can’t cancel a Roger Waters concert after calling him “one of the most widely known antisemites in the world.”

Waters, the former frontman of the band Pink Floyd, took legal action and prevailed on Tuesday after Frankfurt officials said in February they would cancel his concert in May. The city can appeal the ruling.

The Frankfurt court ruled...

Two late iconic Israeli singers have been resurrected via AI for a duet. Not everyone is happy about it.

By JACKIE HAJDENBERG

(JTA) — Two popular Israeli singers — one the “Madonna of the East,” the other the “king” of Mizrahi music as well as a convicted rapist — have teamed up on a new song in honor of their country’s 75th birthday.

The twist: Both Ofra Haza and Zohar Argov have been dead for decades.

Their collaboration, “Here Forever,” wasn’t unearthed in a dusty archive. Instead, the song...

How on-the-rise Jewish indie rocker Blondshell takes inspiration from Larry David and Sarah Silverman

By GABE FRIEDMAN

(JTA) — When she sits down to write song lyrics, Sabrina Teitelbaum, who records music under the moniker Blondshell, doesn’t plan to reference her Jewishness. It just spills out in subtle turns of phrase.

In her song “Sepsis,” for instance, the quickly-rising 25-year-old rocker sings: “I think I believe in getting saved/Not by Jesus validation/In some dude’s gaze.” 

In “Salad,” her latest track, which she debuted on...

Munich says it can’t block Roger Waters concert

By DAVID I. KLEIN

(JTA) — Weeks after the city of Frankfurt canceled a Roger Waters concert over his anti-Israel activism, the mayor of Munich says he cannot find legal standing to do the same.

“We do not currently see any legally secure possibility … to reverse the decision already made,” said Mayor Dieter Reiter, according to Deutsche Welle. “I do not want to have him [Waters] here, but now...

Frankfurt cancels Roger Waters concert, calling him ‘one of the world’s most well known antisemites’

By DAVID I. KLEIN

(JTA) — Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd bassist who is a leading proponent of the movement to boycott Israel, has been blocked from performing in Frankfurt after the city called him “one of the world’s most well known antisemites.”

Waters had been scheduled to perform May 28 at Frankfurt’s Festhalle, which during the Holocaust was the site of the deportation of 3,000 Jews to their deaths...

Beatles.net owner Bruce Spizer warns of possible Facebook scam

By ALAN SMASON, Exclusive to the CCJN

Local Beatles expert and author Bruce Spizer is warning his fans and followers of a possible online scam using his logo and established website Beatle.net.

In an email sent Wednesday to his customers and friends, Spizer stated that the offer on Facebook of the complete Beatles catalog on compact disc for just $49 is not valid or sanctioned by him, his 498 Productions,...

The sequel to the Holocaust novel ‘Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ is here. Its author has no regrets.

By ANDREW LAPIN

(JTA) – At one point in John Boyne’s new novel “All The Broken Places,” a 91-year-old German woman recalls, for the first time, her encounter with a young Jewish boy in the Auschwitz death camp 80 years prior.

“I found him in the warehouse one day. Where they kept all the striped pajamas,” she says.

The woman, Gretel, quickly realizes her mistake: that “this was a phrase...

From Jack Antonoff to Doja Cat to Flora Purim, this year’s Jewish Grammy nominees span every genre

By GABE FRIEDMAN

(JTA) — This year’s slate of Jewish Grammy nominees offers a little something for everyone.

The nominees for the 2023 Grammy Awards, announced on Tuesday, include prominent Jewish names from pop and rap, but they also recognize Jewish musicians and writers in classical music and other less popular genres.

Here’s the full (and varied) list:

Jack Antonoff, a New Jersey Jewish day school grad who has become...