June 19, 2020
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra will offer a free concert available online as part of a virtual fundraising gala to help overcome losses due to COVID-19.
Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren will host the event. Registration is required to receive the link.
The program includes short performances by the orchestra’s new conductor, Lahav Shani, orchestra musicians and friends of the orchestra including Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth, Yefim...
June 12, 2020
(JTA) — Two days after being criticized for tweeting a mural some have called anti-Semitic, the rapper Ice Cube was back at it on Wednesday, tweeting images associated with multiple conspiracy theories — and facing open criticism from other celebrities.
One image is of a Star of David with a cube in its center. A subsequent tweet shows black cube structures in different places around the world — the implication...
May 12, 2020
(JTA) — Little Richard, a founding architect of rock ‘n’ roll who died Saturday at 87, was fascinated with Judaism for decades — so much so that he might have even observed Shabbat.
As detailed in an article published in the Forward after the flamboyant singer’s death, Little Richard mentioned his interest in Judaism several times over the course of his career.
In 1972, he shocked a BBC interviewer by...
May 05, 2020
(JTA) — Kiss frontman Gene Simmons said his mother almost never spoke about her Holocaust ordeal, including time in Nazi camps.
A German newspaper has provided him with plenty more information. Bild am Sonntag presented the Israel-born rock star with 100 pages of documents about his mother’s ordeal, including her impact statement, to mark the 75th anniversary of her liberation.
Flora Klein, a native of Hungary, was 19 when American...
April 24, 2020
By EMILY BURACK
(JTA) — Taylor Swift is drawing criticism — and apparent applause among her neo-Nazi fan base — for calling out “the Soros family” in an Instagram post. It’s the latest salvo in the pop superstar’s ongoing battle with her former record label.
The family long has been at the center of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish domination of global banking. George Soros, a Hungarian billionaire and liberal...
April 02, 2020
(JTA) — Adam Schlesinger, known as one of the lead songwriters of the pop rock band Fountains of Wayne and the musical series “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” died Wednesday morning at 52 from coronavirus complications, Variety reported.
Schlesinger, who grew up in a secular Jewish home, had been in an unnamed hospital in upstate New York for over a week.
Fountains of Wayne’s most famous song was “Stacy’s Mom,” for which Schlesinger...
March 08, 2020
The Louis Moreau Society, a group that annually presents new performers and new classical music, holds the first of its concert offerings tomorrow night, March 9, 2020, when they present “Eight Songs for a Mad King” by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies at 730 p.m. at the Marigny Opera House, 725 St. Ferninand St.
“Eight Songs for a Mad King” features a libretto by Randolph Stow.
The performance will feature the...
March 01, 2020
Cantor Joel Colman’s booming bass-baritone voice will be heard in the sanctuary tonight at Temple Sinai, but not in his usual fashion, providing hazanuth for his congregation’s worship services.
Instead, the cantor will be a featured performer in an Opera Nouvelle presentation of the New Orleans Opera Association titled “Opera Americana: Music to Lift the Spirit.”
The event being held at Temple Sinai, 6227 St Charles Ave, will begin at...
February 19, 2020
By EMILY BURACK
Nissim Black knows that wherever he goes, he’s going to turn heads.
“There’s always these questions,” the rapper explains to me from his home in Israel. “Like, ‘Well, are you still black? How black are you? How does that work? But you’re also Jewish? Jews are white?’ No they’re not!”
The questions annoy him, and rightfully so. Yes, he’s black and Jewish and Orthodox. No, that combination...
February 12, 2020
By GABE FRIEDMAN
(JTA) — Sammy Miller and his girlfriend Misha grew up in vastly different cultures: Sammy was raised Jewish in suburban Los Angeles, while Misha was raised Muslim in Karachi, Pakistan, moving to the United States when she was 12.
Miller also happens to be a musician — he leads Sammy Miller and the Congregation, an up-and-coming poppy jazz group that sounds like a cross between the Preservation...
