Seth Rogovoy is a contributing editor at the Forward. He is the author of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet (Scribner, 2009) and the forthcoming Within You Without You: Listening to George Harrison (Oxford University Press).
Seth Rogovoy
By Seth Rogovoy
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Music Why are Bob Dylan’s archives in Tulsa?
The reasons the Bard chose Oklahoma as the home for his collection may have more to do with politics than money
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Culture On Al Pacino’s 82nd birthday, his secret Jewish history
Is Al Pacino one of the great Jewish actors of our time? Hear me out. While best known for portraying characters of Italian and Latino descent – think Michael Corleone of “The Godfather” films, Carlito Brigante of “Carlito’s Way,” and Tony Montana of “Scarface,” Pacino has an arm’s-length resumé of portraying Jews in film and…
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Culture Two hundred artworks later, has Bob Dylan finally painted his masterpiece?
Does Bob Dylan write his songs in black and white or in color? This is just one question of many that occur to a viewer after spending a few hours with the 200-odd visual artworks that comprise “Bob Dylan Retrospectrum,” on exhibit through April 17 at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum on the…
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Culture A Yiddish performance so versatile, it spans from ‘Mauthausen’ to Elvis Presley
With her latest project, “The Ballad of Mauthausen,” Dutch Yiddish singer Niki Jacobs has pulled off the seemingly impossible: She has recast the song cycle of the same name by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis and poet Iakovos Kambanellis as an avant-garde Yiddish cantata that remains true to the spirit of the original while extracting new…
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Culture The secret Jewish history of Carson McCullers
About one-third of the way through Suzanne Vega’s terrific new one-woman film, “Lover, Beloved,” about the life of great 20th-century American writer Carson McCullers, the folk-pop singer-songwriter – playing McCullers in a tour de force of acting (and singing) – says, as McCullers, “I wanted to write about a Jew. You see, because, we are…
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Culture The 33 greatest Jewish pop songs of all time (that we left off our list)
Much as we expected when we published “The 150 greatest Jewish pop songs of all time” on January 31, 2022, readers responded with their likes, dislikes, and suggestions for songs that did not make the list. Attendees at the Zoom event we hosted about the list offered their opinions, and at our invitation, readers sent…
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Culture The secret Jewish history of Teddy Roosevelt
Roosevelt was the first president to appoint a Jew to a Cabinet position
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Music The 150 greatest Jewish pop songs of all time
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. After Rolling Stone magazine published its list of the 500 Greatest Albums…
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Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
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Opinion This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
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Opinion Campus protests defined the year since Oct. 7. Could they actually change U.S. policy?
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Special Report At the kibbutz hit hardest on Oct. 7, a wrenching debate over how to rebuild
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