When jazz saxophonist Dave Koz’s “dream” car was stolen in 1997 after he stopped for five minutes to pick up a sandwich at a restaurant in the San Fernando Valley, it was perhaps the lowest point of his life.
There was a time when Jews dominated the ranks of American orchestras, and superstars like Leonard Bernstein and Isaac Stern were musical ambassadors to the world. The fact that today\’s master Jewish musicians tend to have proteges with names like Yo Yo Ma, Kyung-Wha Chung and Lang Lang is one hint that for many Jews, classical music is no longer a top priority.
When Steve Berlin gained early admission to a university premed program as an 11th-grader, his mother and father had visions of their little boy becoming a physician. Much to their chagrin, the young Berlin had other ideas. He told them he dreamed of becoming a rocker — not a doctor. They worried about his future.
Here\’s what I used to know about Mike Einziger: that when he was 9, he played on the same soccer team as my good friend Mike; that he was the only kid in my second-grade class who could breakdance; that his mom makes great pizza bagels; and that he went to Calabasas High School. Well, that and the fact that he\’s now the Jewfro-sporting guitarist for the multiplatinum-selling rock band Incubus.
When Yale Strom was growing up in a traditional, socialist-Zionist home in Detroit, he was riveted by his father\’s tales of a Jewish state founded 20 years before Israel in a Siberian swamp.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.