It's been a horrible week. No question about it. Today brings word that Leonard Cohen has died at age 82. Words cannot express the feelings of gratitude I have for his life and his achievement. From his first album in 1967 he accompanied me through my youth and into later days. All the way through. Cohen could only have arisen in the heart of the … [Read more...]
Settlerism as the New Hipster Chic
There's a certain trend among a noted niche of young Jews imbued with the pro-Israel politics of Meir Kahane but yearning for some of the cultural flash of the 1960s counter-culture. So they create this weird amalgam which could be called hip-hop settlerism. You can see it in the Israeli hip hop scene in figures like Subliminal (aka Kobi Shimoni), whose … [Read more...]
Klezmer Joy: Great Day on Eldridge Street
Great day on Eldridge Street--klezmer musicians (Eldridge Street Project) I wrote a post few weeks ago about a project organized by one of my favorite Jewish musicians, Yale Strom called Great Day on Eldridge Street. Yale gathered together every serious klezmer musician he could find and took their picture in front of the historic Eldridge Street shul, … [Read more...]
Arab-Jewish Song for Peace
UPDATED: My reader, Amir, just provided new background and information about the song and I've updated this post. One of my readers, S, e-mailed me about a great song which he's uploaded to YouTube called Heveinu Shalom Aleinu-Ma Ana Ajmal Min Salam. This is in no way to be confused with Heveinu Shalom Aleichem, a rather tired old Jewish song that has … [Read more...]