More in ‘Music’

David Lehman, author of Nextbook Press’s A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, went on the popular WNYC radio show Soundcheck to discuss the Jewish roots of American popular music. You can listen to his conversation, which touches on the Brothers Gershwin, Bob Dylan, and more, below:

“I Gotta Right To Sing the Blues?”—a concert inspired ...

• A new study argues that al Qaeda has spurned Hamas’s desire for closer cooperation. The global jihadist network is concerned that Hamas’s jihadist intentions are not quite global enough. [Ynet]
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Jordanian counterpart met today in Washington, D.C. They both hit the same note afterward: Israel and the ...

Today in Tablet Magazine, Marissa Brostoff presents 1920s cartoonist Milt Gross’s Yiddish-inflected version of “The Night Before Christmas”—“De Night in de Front from Chreesmas”—read by a Yiddish actor and accompanied by Gross’s drawings. Music columnist Alexander Gelfand profiles a klezmer quartet started by two brothers whose father lost his family in the Holocaust. David Lehman ...

“The two holidays that celebrate the divinity of Christ—the divinity that’s the very heart of the Jewish rejection of Christianity—and what does Irving Berlin do? He de-Christs them both! Easter he turns into a fashion show and Christmas into a holiday about snow.” Philip Roth, in Operation Shylock, was referring to Berlin’s “Easter Parade” and, ...

To download an MP3 of “Eight Days of Hanukkah,” click on the album cover at left and save the .zip file to your computer. File size is approximately 3 megabytes. (Mac users should control-click and select “Save Link as.”)

A Hanukkah gift from us to you: “Eight days of Hanukkah,” with lyrics by Sen. Orrin Hatch and music by Madeline Stone, sung by Rasheeda Azar. Don’t miss the video here. Chag sameach!

Today in Tablet Magazine, the weekly Vox Tablet podcast profiles Jerry Wicentowski, who plays Jewish-inflected bluegrass—Jewgrass?—but not on Shabbat. Family columnist Marjorie Ingall lists 2009’s best Jewish-themed children’s chapter books, while Josh Lambert gives his weekly report on forthcoming Jewish-themed adult chapter books. And each day on The Scroll is like a chapter book for ...

After months of delay, Al-Watania, the West Bank’s second cell-phone carrier, began its operations this week, offering its customers the latest in telephone technology. And while the company’s customers won’t be able to pick up their new flip phones and call Israel—bureaucratic restrictions and mutual resentments make communications between the Jewish state and its Palestinian ...

Know you don’t want to get swine flu but occasionally forgetful of how best to prevent it? Who better to turn to for advice, then, than an bald, dorky, upper-middle-aged Jewish doctor who awkwardly raps about safety tips? Ladies and gentlemen, we present, courtesy of YouTube, Dr. Mache Seibel’s hip-hop “Five Tips to Avoid H1N1 ...

Many of the good people of the internet are trashing Amy Winehouse’s rapping abilities, as demonstrated on a YouTube video of her jamming with some mates. But we respectfully disagree. This is punk rock, guys—it’s not a Grammy-winning performance, but it’s contagiously ecstatic (especially if you can deal with a little banshee-like shrieking). More saliently, ...