Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
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The Schmooze Best Experimental Jewish Music of 2013
This year, we ventured to create a set of five memorable 2013 releases that are not easily defined either as “Jewish music,” jazz, or klezmer, but represent alternative, thought-provoking musical experiments, rooted in yet transgressing Jewish musical traditions. Please note that the works below are listed in alphabetical order — there’s no ranking here. “Pillar…
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The Schmooze He Was Deaf But Now Can Sing
During a phone conversation from his home in Paris, David Serero admits that his “is kind of a Cinderella story.” That’s an understatement. Frankly, Cinderella wouldn’t believe his story. Cinderella would call it a fairy tale. Deaf almost since birth, Serero began to regain his hearing after a three-year series of surgeries starting at the…
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Israel News A Program Developed by German Police Could Help Track Down Neo-Nazis
The German police are planning to ratchet up their battle against neo-Nazism with a new computer program that can identify “forbidden songs” beloved of Germany’s far-right. The program, which is similar to the popular application Shazam, can identify “neo-Nazi” music played on Internet radio stations or at gatherings of neo-Nazi activists. It was developed by…
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Music Arik Einstein, Singing ‘Father’ to Millions, Leaves Decades of Memories
It may be the ultimate testament to Arik Einstein, the Israeli pop singer who died November 26 at age 74, that there won’t be an ultimate testament. He was too deeply enmeshed in the fabric of too many Israelis’ ordinary lives for any one tribute to capture him. He was Israel’s most beloved entertainer and…
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The Schmooze Israeli Singer Arik Einstein Dies at 74
Legendary Israeli singer Arik Einstein died at age 74 after being admitted to Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv Tuesday evening. He was reported to have suffered an aortic aneurism. According to Ynet, Einstein was rushed to the hospital and was sedated and intubated before he was taken in for surgery. Einstein, a Tel Aviv…
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Culture 8 Best Songs To Ring in Thanksgivukkah
Talk about your freak occurrences: For the first time since 1888 — and the last time, according to certain quantum physicists, for at least another 7,000 centuries — the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars have synched up so that this year, Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah will fall on the same day. This rare…
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The Schmooze Klezmatics Given Lifetime Achievement Award at YIVO
In the mid 1980s several key figures in the klezmer revival movement had day jobs at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. So, perhaps it was only fitting that The Klezmatics were given a lifetime achievement award at YIVO’s Manhattan headquarters November 19. After cocktails and dinner at the Center for Jewish History’s atrium on…
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The Schmooze Cheb i Sabbah, Algerian Jewish DJ, Dies at 66
Cheb i Sabbah, a DJ, producer and composer known for combining Asian, Middle Eastern and African influences into his global electronica music, died November 6 at age of 66. The San Francisco-based Sabbah was born Haim Serge El Baz in Constantine, Algeria to a working-class Jewish family with some Berber ancestry. Major music publications have…
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