(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...
(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...
(JTA) — 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: “Allen is Jewish.”
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...
(JTA) — “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” isn’t just the name of a track on Taylor Swift’s newest album — the phrase describes the way many of the pop star’s Jewish fans were feeling after she released the dates for her upcoming tour.
This week, Shabbat-observant Swifties voiced their disappointment with the dates, which were all slated for during or just after the end of the Jewish...
(JTA) — Simon Vozick-Levinson has followed Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, for his entire career. He became a fan after hearing the rapper’s first mixtape around 2002, then played his debut album, “The College Dropout,” on repeat after its 2004 release. He said he appreciated Ye’s “honest, nuanced, sensitive” lyrics and his “original ear” as a producer.
After college, Vozick-Levinson went into music journalism...
(JTA) – The Anti-Defamation League urged sportswear giant Adidas this week to end its partnership with rapper Kanye West over his recent antisemitic comments, while West went on a podcast to brag that “I can literally say antisemitic s— and they cannot drop me.”
The comments came shortly before luxury fashion brand Balenciaga announced Thursday that it had severed ties with West, in a statement to Women’s...
(JTA) — “K-pop is over,” one Twitter user declared. “We’re listening to Orthodox Pop from now on.”
With those words, the Miami Boys Choir has transformed over the last two weeks from a singing group popular among Jewish insiders to a viral sensation. On TikTok and Twitter, users have shared clips of the group’s concerts, overlaid its music with other scenes and inserted themselves into split-screen duets....
(JTA) — Days after defending their decision to play in Tel Aviv, the hometown of their bass player, the indie folk rock band Big Thief canceled two scheduled Israel shows, writing that they “oppose the illegal occupation and the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people.”
Last week, the Grammy-nominated band had announced two shows at Tel Aviv’s Barby venue in July, and said that they would donate...
George Dansker, a noted lecturer and musical theatre expert, who has held a Jewish Composer Lecture series at Touro Synagogue on Broadway luminaries for the past decade, is holding a lecture-concert on Friday, June 17, to usher in summer.
Dansker, whose events are typically held at Touro Synagogue in January, is selecting Harold Rome to be spotlighted and in particular to celebrate the Columbia Record release “I Can Get It...
(JTA) — While the Oscars had a moment of silence for Ukraine and various onscreen messages, Sunday night’s Grammy Awards went further — with a video address from Ukraine’s Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
“What is more opposite to music? The silence of ruined cities and killed people,” he said in the prerecorded video. “Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos.
