Submitted Stories by Matthue Roth RSS Feed Stories Submitted by Matthue Roth
Jewish celebs, Zohan’s diddy and JDub’s latest
JTA's new music reviewer, Matthue Roth, launches his Shtetl Blaster column with a look at American Jewish celebrities singing old school and Israeli rappers breaking new ground. Read more »
Unusual fans for an unusual metal band
When my heavy-metal friends disclosed their secret pasts, it was a series of revelations: although they were muscly, pierced and dark-alley-nightmare-looking, when they told stories of their childhoods, each was nerdier than the last. Now, Spin Magazine reporter Mordechai Shinefield uncovers the newest of the nü-metal fans’ deep dark secrets: they’re ex-yeshiva boys. Elie Hassan and Brian Brown, both 21, graduated from Baltimore’s Ner Israel, where kids in their dorm sometimes snitched on the pair for indulging their nonkosher music habits. “I would say that 30 to 40 percent of our class knew about [lead singer] Draiman and had heard Disturbed,” says Brown. Now college roommates at the more liberal Yeshiva University in New York, they’re free to enjoy the band in relative peace. That’s right: David Draiman, the lead singer of Disturbed, grew up in the yeshiva system – he attended five schools, and was kicked out of three of them. It’s no surprise to the band’s fans (or rubberneckers) – Draiman has repeatedly thrown Hebrew words, Jewish concepts, and knowing winks to the haredi subset of his audience – but writing lyrics like “Elokai, bury me tonight” is probably not what got Draiman ejected. (Blowing up the rosh yeshiva’s car, on the other hand, might have.) Read more »
Borscht Boss: Brooks Arthur on Catskills nostalgia, Barbra Streisand, and Adam Sandler?
Brooks Arthur started his career as an audio engineer in the 60s, working on “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “The Locomotion,” and “Leader of the Pack” before building up to producing albums for the likes of Liza Minelli and Carole King. He struck up a friendship with a young breakaway comic named Adam Sandler led him to produce Sandler’s ubiquitous “Chanuka Song,” after which they co-wrote possibly the most scatological Chanukah movie ever, Sandler’s “Eight Crazy Nights.” Arthur’s latest venture is The Jewish Songbook, a CD filled with new and veteran performers doing renditions of Jewish songs. Most hearken back to the Borscht Belt melodies of the 1940s and 50s, but there is also the liturgical (Barbra Streisand doing “Avinu Malkeinu"), the modern Israeli patriotic ("Hatikvah"), and the unexpected—Adam Sandler doing a version of “Hinei Ma Tov” that not only isn’t a joke song, but also manages to showcase his competent classical tenor. JTA spoke to Brooks Arthur the day before the CD’s release about the record, the performers, and how it felt to sing alongside Barbra Streisand. [audio:/images/archive/060408_arthur_roth.mp3] Audio sound funny? Upgrade your Flash player. To subscribe to JTA’s Behind the News podcast, click here. Read more »
RSS Feed Breaking News
Updated 02/09/12 @ 05:54PM EST
- A poll showed that nearly half of likely voters believed the United States should use military force to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
- Rabbi Gunther Plaut, a major figure in Reform Judaism, died in Toronto.
- The application for a proposed Hebrew-language charter school was accepted by the District of Columbia Public Charter School board.
- A truck driving calves from Eilat to the Golan Heights was hijacked into the West Bank.
- U.S. Rep. Howard Berman introduced legislation that would allow eligible Israeli nationals to receive non-immigrant investor visas in the United States.
- Poll: Half of U.S. voters back strike on nuclear Iran
- Reform leader Rabbi Gunther Plaut dies
- D.C. Hebrew-language charter school accepted for review
- Op-Ed: Kick the reaction addiction on campus
- Berman moves to grant investor visas to Israelis
- Holy cow! Calves hijacked into Palestinian territory
- Report: Israeli journalist also works for prime minister
- Larry Greenfield tapped to lead JINSA
