Documentary filmmaker has a ‘Hava Nagila’ in her heart

By Elyse Glickman
Published on February 27, 2013

"Hava Nagila” is one of those songs, like “Celebration” and “Auld Lang Syne,” that brings back memories and gets stuck in one’s head. In fact, “Hava Nagila” is so ingrained in American pop culture that many non-Jews can readily identify it, and high-profile non-Jewish recording artists, including Harry Belafonte, Connie Francis and Glen Campbell, count their renditions as a career highlight.

August 11-17, 2012

By Ryan Torok
Published on August 8, 2012

The latest production from Moriah Films, the Oscar-winning film division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, explores of the life and times of Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism. Co-written and produced by Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and directed by Richard Trank, the film features narration by Ben Kingsley and stars Christoph Waltz as the voice of Herzl.

August 3-10, 2012

By Ryan Torok
Published on August 1, 2012

The Skirball screens four documentaries that address the richness, complexity and inherent contradictions of the Jewish experience in the modern age.

Handy Hazzan is Hanukkah Hazzan - Making Dreydls Out of Clay Today!

By Cantor Harris Shore, The Handy Hazzan
Published on December 16, 2011

‘Upper West Side Story’ - The Groggers [MUSIC VIDEO]

Published on September 8, 2011

"Upper West Side Story" - The Groggers' hot new single off of their debut CD "There's No 'I' in Cherem"

Online memorial service for Debbie Friedman scheduled for Sunday night [RECORDED VIDEO]

By JewishJournal.com
Published on January 9, 2011

The JCC of Manhattan will broadcast a live memorial service at 5pm PST tonight. Friedman, a popular singer and songwriter who is widely credited with reinvigorating synagogue music, died Sunday after being hospitalized in Orange County for several days with pneumonia. She was in her late 50s.

Collectors recover lost era of Jewish America on vinyl

By Lilly Fowler
Published on December 3, 2008

While other music fanatics visit Hollywood's nightclubs to discover groundbreaking music, Kun rummages through countless bins at places like the National Council of Jewish Women's thrift shop looking for Jewish records of the past. But he hasn't done it alone.

Trumpeter gives cantorial classics fusion makeover

By Eric Herschthal
Published on March 7, 2008

Ten years ago, this would not have been: Steven Bernstein, a jazz trumpeter whose most popular bands include the Sex Mob and a Kansas City-style big band, leading a group playing jazz-inflected cantorial tunes. But at a recent Sunday night gig at the Jazz Standard in New York, Bernstein was doing just that.

There’s no shame in the Shondes’ melodious yelling

By Rachel Ament
Published on February 28, 2008

It is no easy feat to yell melodiously, but the Jewish rock quartet, The Shondes, has achieved just that. The screams on their new album, "The Red Sea," sound ancient and somewhat cantorial, piping in from the Old Testament to talk to us about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, misogyny, Bible tales and intimacy.

Eight Jewish albums hit high notes in ‘07

By George Robinson
Published on December 20, 2007

Jewish music of 2007 reviewed.

JDub worldwide concerts add synergy to the season

By George Robinson
Published on December 6, 2007

The buzzword in business circles is synergy. That's what JDub Records was looking for when it began to think about its third annual Chanukah event.
And when Daniel Brenner, vice president for education at the Birthright Israel Foundation, told JDub heads Aaron Bisman and Jacob Harris that he was interested in doing a project with the nonprofit music label, the buzz of synergy filled the air.

‘Tent’ meeting showcases new spirit of synagogues

By Ron Wolfson
Published on November 29, 2007

A crowd of 4,500 gathered recently at the ornate Fox Theater in Atlanta for a celebration of Jewish spirit and synagogue life that can accurately be described as a Jewish tent meeting. "Hallelu Atlanta" was an extraordinary moment in the history of one of the fastest-growing Jewish communities in North America. The afternoon gathering held significance, meaning and purpose far beyond what may have appeared to be simply a concert featuring a who's who of Jewish music.

For listening, for giving—klezmer and its cousins

By George Robinson
Published on November 29, 2007

CD reviews, Metropolitan Klezmer, "Traveling Show", The Polina Shepherd Vocal Experience (featuring Quartet Ashkenazim), "Baym Taykh", Blue Fringe, "The Whole World Lit Up" , Gail Javitt, "Like a Braided Candle, Songs for Havdalah", Klezamir, "Warm Your Hands", Romashka, "Romashka", Chana Rothman, "We Can Rise", Slavic Soul Party, "Teknochek Collision".

Master of musical fusion blends klezmer with salsa

By Roberto Loiederman
Published on November 22, 2007

Practitioners of world music are constantly exploring ways to fuse disparate musical strains in new and interesting ways. Given all that, it should not be a surprise that there is a new group that combines klezmer with salsa. Odessa/Havana -- "The Explosive Jewish/Cuban Musical Mash-Up" -- a musical project that brings together these two musical traditions in a jazz context will perform at the Skirball Cultural Center at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 29.

Matisyahu—reggae king without a crown?

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on August 16, 2007

Has Orthodox reggae star Matishayu severed his ties with Chabad-Lubavitch? Is he a bad influence on religious youth? And is he still frum? Blogs have been buzzing over these questions since Matisyahu appeared to distance himself from Chabad last month.

The Blissful Minyan

By David Suissa
Published on August 9, 2007

The Happy Minyan has no physical body. It has never owned property or had a permanent location. It relies on the kindness of big congregations. For many years, it used a small chapel at Beth Jacob Congregation. Then their landlord decided they needed the space for something else, so the Happy Minyanites migrated west to a space in the Congregation Mogen David, which, rumor has it, they might already have outgrown.

Milken music archive is a treasure trove

By Tom Teicholz
Published on March 29, 2007

Last November, the classical music label Naxos released the 50th CD of its American Classics series, music from the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, so the time has come to give the archive its props (just imagine Randy Jackson saying: Yo! Yo! Dog, check it out....)

Cute, menschy boy bands make traditional tunes cool

By Leah Hochbaum
Published on November 30, 2006

n June 2005, the Backstreet Boys released "Never Gone," an album filled not with the teeth-rotting pop confections of the group's youth, but with songs of a more adult contemporary style.The album's relative failure marked a turning point in mainstream music -- Backstreet wasn't selling, *NSYNC had disbanded and nobody ever really cared what happened to 98 Degrees. The era of the boy band was officially over. In the pop world, that is. In the Orthodox world, it had only just begun.

Fairfax Shops Feel the Squeeze

By Bobbi Murray
Published on October 20, 2005

A venerable Jewish business in the Fairfax District has received a short-term stay of execution. Hatikvah Records, an internationally known vendor of both popular and rare Jewish music, will remain open at 436 N. Fairfax Ave. until mid-January, despite earlier reports that its closure was imminent.

B’nai B’rith Radio Launches on Web

By Matthew E. Berger
Published on February 17, 2005

Headphones on, face pressed against the microphone in a cramped cubicle, the leader of one of the best-known Jewish organizations in the country is reliving his youth.

Well, sort of.

"This is B'nai B'rith Radio, and I'm your host, Dan Mariaschin."

Mariaschin is far from the 50,000-watt radio station where he used to be a disc jockey in Keene, N.H., from the time he was in high school. But he also is far from his current day job as executive vice president of B'nai B'rith International.

Throughout the workweek, Mariaschin leaves his spacious Washington office for the makeshift radio studio down the hall, and spends several hours recording promotions and other messages for the first Internet radio station devoted to world Jewish music.

7 Days in the Arts

Published on September 23, 2004

7 Days In The Arts

The Circuit

Published on December 11, 2003

The Circuit

Beyond ‘Avinu Malkeinu’

By Ellen Jaffe-Gill
Published on April 10, 2003

To most people, "Jewish music" is something familiar: the
"Avinu Malkeinu" they hear every Rosh Hashana, a Yiddish lullaby or the theme
from "Schindler's List."

Where Religion Meets Bohemia

By Gaby Wenig
Published on July 18, 2002

"What on earth is that?" asks Jordan, a 27-year-old actor in Los Feliz.

He is staring at a dancing rabbi on a flatbed truck that is inching its way down Vermont Avenue, one of the main boulevards in Los Feliz.

Cantors Sing a New Song

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on July 13, 2000

If Jewish Los Angeles seemed a more melodious place in late June, you can thank 250 of the Reform movement's sweet singers of Israel, who gathered in Beverly Hills to celebrate Jewish music and share their knowledge, skills, and repertoire.