December 17, 2020
By GABE FRIEDMAN
(JTA) — Dave Grohl, who is best known as the leader of the 12-time Grammy winning band Foo Fighters, isn’t Jewish. But he’s having a lot of musical fun this Chanukah.
Grohl teamed up with the Grammy-winning Jewish producer Greg Kurstin, who has worked with the Foo Fighters, to record eight covers of songs by famous Jewish artists, one for each night of the holiday. “Festival of...
December 04, 2020
(JTA) — There’s a long history of Jewish artists releasing parody songs for Hanukkah, but this year’s most catchy addition to the holiday canon may be Daveed Diggs’ new rap, “Puppy for Hanukkah.”
The song — about a kid hoping to receive a puppy as a present — is set against a klezmer-style clarinet melody and includes a recitation of the blessing over the menorah.
“I don’t know what it...
November 24, 2020
By EMILY BURACK
(JTA) — This year’s Grammy Awards will almost certainly be different from past years, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. But despite the lack of details surrounding the ceremony, it’s still taking place, and as usual, several Jewish artists made the nominations list, which was announced Tuesday.
Ranging all the way from the sister rock band Haim to comedian Tiffany Haddish, these are the Jewish artists...
October 18, 2020
By STEPHEN SILVER
(JTA) — In the late 1960s, when Neal Karlen was not even 10 years old, he would spend time at the home of his grandparents, one of the few Jewish families that remained on the north side of Minneapolis. Karlen would play basketball and ride bikes with a group of African-American kids who lived in the neighborhood. One of them, he later realized, was a young Prince...
August 06, 2020
(JTA) — YouTube is the latest media platform to remove Wiley over what it termed the British rapper’s “repeated violations.”
The decision to remove his channel comes after pressure by groups in the United Kingdom, including the Campaign Against Antisemitism.
Wiley was removed late last month from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram following a series of tweets widely regarded as anti-Semitic and other social media posts.
Last week YouTube, which is...
July 25, 2020
(JTA) — The influential British rapper Wiley posted a series of anti-Semitic messages on Twitter on Friday, spurring a wave of outrage and prompting his Jewish manager to cease representing him.
Among his comments were “I don’t care about Hitler, I care about black people” and “There are 2 sets of people who nobody has really wanted to challenge #Jewish & #KKK but being in business for 20 years you...
July 16, 2020
By ARIELLE KAPLAN
Printed in black and white and bigotry all over, Nazi official Hans Severus Ziegler’s brochure for his public exhibit in Dusseldorf featured an African American jazz musician with a Star of David on his lapel. Designed to ridicule and belittle Jewish musicians for performing “Negro music” as another tactic to contaminate German culture, “Entartete Musik” (“Degenerate Music”) opened in May, 1938 — just four months before Kristallnacht.
...
June 26, 2020
(JTA) — The Jewish Haim sisters are back with a third album of pop rock, titled “Women in Music Pt. III,” and the reviews are glowing.
The Wall Street Journal called the production “brilliant.” The Independent said it was “fearless and effervescent.” And Pitchfork described it as “Intimate, multidimensional, and wide-ranging,” and “far and away their best work.”
To celebrate the release, the trio is streaming a live concert at...
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...
