Ms. Aronin’s extensive experience in Finance and Administration includes serving as  Vice President for Science Administration at New York University School of Medicine (2007-2010); Vice Chair for Administration and Chief Financial Officer of Columbia University Department of Psychiatry (2005-2007); and Budget Director, Administrator, Department of Psychiatry; and Interim Chief Operating Officer, NYU Child Study Center at New York University School of Medicine (1999-2004).

Outside New York, Ms. Aronin served as Director, Human Services for The Community Builders in Boston (1996-1998) and was a Visiting Scholar at The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Jerusalem (1994-1996).  A city government employee from 1983 to 1994, Ms. Aronin advanced through a number of jobs involving the provision and oversight of human services programs until she attained the position of Assistant Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

A graduate of Princeton University and New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service (MPA), Ms. Aronin lives in Harlem with her son, Jake.

About JASA
Founded in 1968, JASA’s mission is to sustain and enrich the lives of today’s seniors in the New York metropolitan area so that they can remain in the community with grace and dignity. Its 3,000 staff and volunteers have provided social, recreational, health, housing, cultural and educational programs for older adults — regardless of their race, religion, or ethnicity — to help sustain them in their homes and communities and to offer opportunities for a better quality of life.  Services are available in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Nassau and Suffolk Counties. www.jasa.org

More than 10,000 Jewish teens from around the country came together on Sunday, April 22nd to serve their communities and make a difference.  JCYF is administered by Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County and funded by the Ricky and Andrew J. Shechtel Philanthropic Fund and the Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks. For more information about the Jewish Community Youth Foundation, please contact Celeste Albert at 609-987-8100, celestea@jfcsonline.org or visit our website http://www.jfcsonline.org/jcyf.html.

Rabbi David attended the Hebrew Union College (HUC) – Jewish Institute of Religion, where he received his M.A. in Hebrew Letters in 2003 and was ordained in 2004. Following that, he completed a year-long post-graduate program in Hebrew Language and Literature at Columbia University and Jewish Theological Seminary. He was a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Muhlenberg College,where he received a B.A. in English in 1999.

“My wife, Lisa and I are happy to be returning to South Jersey where I grew up. The vibrant congregation and community feels like a perfect fit for us and our two young children,” said Rabbi David. “I hope to work side-by-side with the wonderful leadership and congregational members to help each of us become our very best selves as thinkers, as seekers of social justice, as lovers of Israel, and as spouses, siblings and parents. And I am committed to pushing the bounds of what it means to be a rabbi and a reform Jew,” he added.

Serving at Long Island’s Temple Sinai since 2005, Rabbi David was instrumental in nearly tripling the size of the Hebrew high school and increasing the number of graduates ten-fold. He supervised the youth groups and led trips to Israel and missions to assist struggling populations in the Gulf Coast and Southern California. He developed and facilitated numerous adult education courses and worked with a variety of committees including social action, caring, interfaith outreach, and gay and lesbian, among others.

In the broader community, Rabbi David played a pivotal role in an anti-bullying campaign and broad-scale teen interfaith initiative with the Islamic Center of Long Island and St. Martha’s Church of Uniondale. The Fall 2010 issue of Reform Judaism Magazine featured a story on “Sinai in the City,” the program he helped to found and support to engage young adults from the congregation who were in their 20s and 30s and located in Manhattan.

Among his awards, this youthful rabbi was honored with the Jewish Chautauqua Society Leadership Award in 2010, the HUC’s Awards for Talmud Study and Midrash in 2004, and was nominated for the United Jewish Appeal’s Jewish Community Hero Award in 2010.

He served two terms on the Central Conference of American Rabbis Journal editorial board, is a current member of the Rabbis Manual task force, is founding editor of Davar Aher, the HUC journal of thought, and is a contributor to The Still Small Voice, The Jewish Week, Ten Minutes of Torah, RJ.org, and Newsday. Rabbi David also co-founded Running Rabbis, an international social justice program for clergy.

Rabbi David met his wife, Lisa, at the age of 11 when they were both at the Union for Reform Judaism’s (URJ), Camp Harlam and started dating at age 17. Lisa’s love for the organization continued and she is currently employed as the URJ’s associate director of camping. The couple were married in 2002 and have two children, Noa, 4, and Elijah, 2. They are excited about moving to a professional and supportive community where their children can grow and thrive and where Lisa can take an active role in the synagogue and with parents of other nursery school students.

As the father of two pre-schoolers, Rabbi David understands the challenges of raising Jewish children in a complicated world and hopes to replicate his success at Temple Sinai in enriching and enlarging the vibrant programs already in place at Adath Emanu-El.  His goal is to build bridges from nursery school, camps and Tot Shabbats to religious school and truly engage the children and their parents.
His father, Rabbi Jerome P. David, noted, “My wife, Peggy and I are thrilled on so many levels, that Ben and Lisa, and their family will be moving into the community.  As parents, we are exceedingly proud of Ben — proud of his accomplishments, and prouder yet of the Mensch that he is. I believe that Rabbi David and Adath Emanu-El are a great match, and know that their partnership will be long and fulfilling.”

The new spiritual leader will succeed Rabbi Stacy K. Offner, who has been ably serving as interim rabbi since January 2010. Rabbi Offner, who previously worked as a congregational rabbi for over 25 years and as vice president of the URJ – the umbrella organization for all 900 Reform congregations in the United States and Canada – noted, “I have been impressed with Rabbi David from our very first meeting. He is a thoughtful and devoted Jewish leader and will be the perfect fit for this vibrant community.”

Adath Emanu-El, located in Mount Laurel, N.J., is a liberal but traditional Jewish community that welcomes all who seek to learn, live and engage in Jewish life. It provides a spiritual home to Jews from more traditional backgrounds, lifelong Reform Jews, Jews by choice and interfaith families seeking to build a Jewish home. Founded more than 50 years ago, the congregation includes many third- and fourth-generation families, and many new families as well.  A sense of kinship, a welcoming environment, and a feeling of belonging pervade the synagogue. Learn more at http://www.adathemanuel.com/.

“These nine artists blew my mind and the tops off of the pushke boxes I grew up with,” said AJWS president Ruth Messinger. “These designs beg all of us to think about the enormous impact our charitable dollars have on communities in need all over the world. And, more importantly, they offer thrilling new ideas about making giving a part of our everyday lives— whether it’s at the grocery store, in the kitchen, on our phones or in public spaces.”

Lynne Honickman, founder and president of the Honickman Family Foundation, has always been a woman ahead of her time. Honickman started collecting photographs 40 years ago when most people thought the only place for them was in a photo album. Today, her photography collection is one of the finest in the United States.
Honickman, recalling early snobbery about photography as an artform, recounts, “When my mother brought her friends to see my new apartment [high above Rittenhouse Square] 22 years ago, one said ‘I see Lynne hangs the photographs like they are real art.’”
Her love of photography spurred Lynne and her husband of 58 years, Harold Honickman, to underwrite much of the activity in photography at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This includes recently sponsoring the landmark Zoe Strauss exhibit [see Chutzpah Winter 2012] and purchasing the work of modernist photographer Paul Strand for the Museum’s permanent collection. With the opening of the Zoe Strauss exhibition, this grandmother of four succeeded where Alfred Barnes of the Barnes collection and others have failed—she opened the museum to all of the city’s residents.
“I said to the Museum, ‘Do you know that you are elitists?’ A museum belongs to the city. Zoe Strauss broke through the glass ceiling and brought the entire city to the museum,” she says proudly.
Although Harold serves as vice-chairman of the Kimmel Center, Lynne has always gravitated toward the “underserved” artforms. The Honickman Family Foundation awards two national prizes in poetry and photography—the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography.
Honickman could have easily enjoyed the life of a socialite—she is the daughter of the founder of the one of the largest real estate developers in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Delaware area, Korman Corporation, and the wife of the founder of one of the country’s largest bottling and distribution companies of Pepsi, among other brands. But she chose to get involved and tackle society’s most intractable problems like AIDS, homelessness, the children soldiers of Uganda and gun control. Honickman doesn’t just write checks. Honickman, who was close to her Orthodox grandfather growing up, credits a rabbi with giving her the push to roll up her sleeves and get involved. “I felt like I wanted to do something, but did not know what to do,” she says. “I talked to a rabbi in New York. He told me, ‘This is what you do—start screaming and do not stop until you see a difference.’”
She was one of the first to help AIDS victims when there was overwhelming stigma attached to the disease in the ’80s. She was one of the first to get behind God’s Love We Deliver, the Manhattan charity that delivers meals to AIDS victims, and she serves on the advisory board of Manna (Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance), the Philadelphia based charity that provides food for people at risk of acute nutritional risk because of serious health conditions such as AIDS and cancer.
Thanks to the recent Kony 2012 video that’s gone viral, everyone is now aware of the horrendous plight of Ugandan children, but Honickman has been helping them for 10 years, even facilitating bringing a Ugandan child to Philadelphia so that he could receive a prosthetic arm. “I sponsored an exhibition of the photos of L.E.A.D. Uganda founder photojournalist Stephen Shames at the Gershman Y to raise money for the organization. One of the attendees, riveted by the picture of one of the children without an arm, said that her husband was a surgeon and could give that child an arm,” she says. “I just received a letter from Ronald thanking me for helping him get the arm. He wrote that ‘now I can help my mother with the chores.’”
Honickman’s greatest legacy as an advocate for people who crosses all lines of race and religion may be her work to save a broken down North Central Philadelphia neighborhood, which she found on an accidental detour on her way to visit her grandchildren. In conjunction with Sister Mary Scullion’s Project H.O.M.E, she built the Honickman Learning Center, where 300 children and 1000 adults annually attend after-school programs and adult classes; it’s staffed by teachers and equipped with more than 200 computers. In a neighborhood where secondary education isn’t even on the dream menu, 38 children who attended the afterschool program have been accepted into college this year—“and good ones,” emphasizes Honickman.
“I originally wanted to help children because they are the city’s future,” says Honickman. “Unexpectedly, many of the parents called asking for classes. We now provide GED, assistance with tax returns and other classes so that the parents can lift themselves up along with their kids.”
A vice-president of the statewide anti-gun coalition CeasefirePa, Honickman became an ardent gun control advocate after watching the children walk in stooped over order to duck bullets on their way to the center. “Everyone pro-gun should be forced to attend a child’s funeral,” she says.
Straight talk is nothing new for indomitable Honickman. While the Jewish community often feigns ignorance about Jewish poverty, she has been unsuccessfully attempting to persuade local Jewish charities to build a homeless shelter for Jews. “When there was a former congregant sleeping on the steps of Temple Beth Sholom, Rabbi Andrea Merow contacted me,” she says. “I persuaded Sister Mary to make room in the shelter for him. Since it was near Passover, she provided him with a basket filled with Passover food. The men in the shelter approached to pray with him. When he had gotten a job in transportation a year later, he sent a $1,000 check to Project H.O.M.E. That is a success story.”
Honickman’s hope is that the Honickman Family Foundation “will always take care of the people that live among us.” The Foundation could not have a more inspirational leader to sustain that vision.

Bar and bat mitzvahs aside, if ever there was a rite of passage for young Jews, it’s that first sip of wine at the Passover seder. Most of us can remember the first time we were allowed the real thing instead of a wine glass filled with Welch’s grape juice. For many, it was the unique, sweet (some might say cloying) taste of Manischewitz Grape Wine, which still serves admirably as a stand-in for the blood we spill during the Haggadah reading. While Manischewitz remains one of the kings of kosher wine—and, for some, may even be an anticipated, once-a-year taste that can transport us back to our youth, it is no longer the only option. Far from it. Whether you’re an oenophile or find contentment with the house wine when you eat out, there’s no shortage of outstanding kosher wines that will surprise and delight your tastebuds as you sip your four cups.
Kosher wine has come a long way from the days when the only thing full-bodied about it was the shape of the rabbi supervising its production. Back in the nascent period of American kosher winemaking, quality grapes were not readily available. In fact, a sort of raisin wine was typically used, and the process was often rushed. Enter the Concord grape. This cultivated American grape was easy to grow in the Northeast, although once processed, the finished product ended up with a bitter taste. That’s when a good dose of corn syrup (or pure cane sugar for kosher for Passover varieties) came to the rescue and gave traditional kosher wine its syrupy sweetness.
In recent years, thanks to vintners and importers like Royal Wine Corp., kosher wines from around the world—and made from sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc grapes—have taken on a leading role at seders everywhere.
At Skyview Wine & Spirits in Riverdale, NY, owner Gary Wartels regularly stocks more than 600 kosher wines, the most of any brick and mortar wine retailer in the country—he calls his store the Katz’s Deli of kosher wine. According to Wartels, the explosion in kosher wine sales has its roots in—where else but—Israel, and kosher is earning a place among the best. “Now, they are world-class wines,” says Wartels. “The biggest driver of that change has been Israel. Typical of Israel, when they set their mind to it, they go into it full force.”
Many of Israel’s top winemakers cut their teeth at top winemaking schools around the world, from California to Australia. They then took that knowledge back to Israel and, along with some strong capital, leveraged it into a winemaking headquarters of both kosher and even non-kosher wines. Though still in its infancy, Israeli winemaking is serious business, ready to go up against generations of kosher winemakers throughout Europe as well as arrivistes in Napa and Sonoma. Notes Wartels, though Israeli wineries such as Carmel and Golan Heights have led the charge, South Africa, Chile and Australia now all produce excellent kosher wines, too. Testament to the high quality of kosher wines, last year a New York Times wine-tasting panel judging 20 of the 2007 Napa Cabernet Sauvignons awarded the fourth spot to kosher Covenant Winery, calling it fresh and lively with earthy aromas of flowers and red fruit.

Time-Tested Tradition
As with any wine, producing kosher wine requires a lot of time, and becoming certified as kosher means meeting specific processing standards including:
• Supervision of a rabbi
• Kosher ingredients
• Rabbinically certified equipment
• No added preservatives or colors
• Handled from crushing to wine glass by a Sabbath observant Jew
• Non-Jews may serve the wine if it is mevushal or flash pasteurized to 185 degrees F
And though tradition must be upheld, buying kosher wine just got easier. Wartels, ever the entrepreneur, is ushering kosher wine into the 21st century with the launch of the first ever kosher wine app, complete with a listing of his shop’s wines that can be ordered online.

Battle Royal
Royal Wine Corp., owner and operator of Kedem Winery in New York’s Hudson Valley, which produces its sacramental wines and grape juices, and Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard, CA, is one of the country’s leading kosher wine producers and its largest importer. It traces its roots back to 1848 when the Herzog family winery served as the royal wine supplier to Emperor Franz-Joseph in Czechoslovakia. During WWII, the Nazis took over the winery and the Herzog family went into hiding. In 1948, they fled to the United States where Eugene Herzog joined Royal Wine Corporation. By 1958 he had become a majority stockholder of the company, purchased it and took the name Kedem.
Royal Wine’s growth has followed—some would argue led—that of kosher wines in general. According to Gary Landsman, the company’s director of marketing and public relations, as mainstream tastes evolve and get more sophisticated, so too does that of the Jewish and kosher observant population. He sees it as a natural culinary evolution.
On the other hand, Landsman attributes the continued popularity of sweet wines at Passover to people’s preference for  “easier drinking” wines or those with a lower alcohol content. Typically, most wines contain about 14 percent alcohol content whereas many Passover wines come in at about 12 percent—not a bad idea if you don’t want to be under the table by the time the afikoman is found. Not surprisingly all those seder blessings translate to Royal Wine’s busiest time of year, with nearly half of its business taking place during the Passover season.
As with wine in general, an excellent kosher can be purchased for between $10 and $25, yet some bottles can soar upwards of $300. Royal Wine Cellars’s Baron Herzog label produces some of the best value wines, while its higher end Herzog Reserve label ranges in price from $25 to $40 and up. For a lighter Baron Herzog wine, Landsman suggests the Weinstock Red by W. He also recommends the Bartenura Muscato from Italy with its famous blue bottle, which happens to be the bestselling imported Muscato in the entire country.

For More
Skyview Wine & Spirits, 5681 Riverdale Avenue, Riverdale, NY 10471; 888-SKY-VINO; www.skyviewwine.com/
Covenant Winery, 1241 Adams Street, #1023, St. Helena, CA 94574; 707-963-3887; http://covenantwines.com/
Kedem Winery, http://www.royalwine.com/about-us/kedem-winery
Royal Wine Corp., http://www.royalwine.com/

Stocking Your Wine Cellar
Here are suggestions from Gary Wartels of Skyview Winery & Spirits to introduce you to kosher wines; all are under $26:

Carmel Appellation Sauvignon Blanc 2010: A light-bodied, crisp white wine from Israel, it has notes of citrus and just a hint of some sweet tropical fruit; $15.95 (non-mevushal)
Binyamina Bin Chardonnay 2010: An un-oaked Israeli chardonnay, this is a newer style chardonnay and an alternative to the oaky buttery style that California made famous. A medium-bodied but still crisp white wine, being un-oaked makes the flavor of tropical and white stone fruit (peach, apricot) much more noticeable; $10.95 (mevushal)
Shiloh Chardonnay 2010: This chardonnay from Israel is aged in oak and has subtle but beautiful hints of smoke and oak when you first taste it. However, the oak does not dominate and you are fully able to appreciate the luxurious mouth feel and wonderful fruit flavors that make chardonnays famous; $17.95 (non-mevushal)
Binyamina Carignan Reserve 2009: This light, medium-bodied red wine from Israel is made from a little known but delicious grape. Soft in all the right places and flowing with luscious fruit, this wine has all the structure needed to hold it up; $18.95 (mevushal)
Elvi Mati Rioja 2009: From the Rioja region of Spain, this red has a medium body and is wonderfully soft, yet complex—smooth and easy to drink, but jam-packed with flavors of red fruits and dark berries; $16.95 (non-mevushal)
Baron Herzog Old Vine Zinfandel 2008: This red zinfandel from California is a medium full-bodied red wine with lots of jammy red fruit that perfectly balances notes of black pepper, spices and oak from the barrel aging process; $10.45 (mevushal)
Carmel Kayoumi Cabernet Sauvignon 2007: This full-bodied red wine from Israel is earthy and rich in flavor with a beautiful silky mouth feel; $25.95 (non-mevushal)
Chateau Thenac Fleur du Perigord 2010: Full bodied with hints of vanilla and red fruits, this red wine from southwestern France is soft with a wonderful texture; $19.95 (mevushal)
Carmel Emerald Riesling/Chenin Blanc 2009: This light white from Israel perfectly balances sweetness and fruity crispness; $9.95 (mevushal)
Bartenura Moscato Rose 2011: Light, bubbly and sweet with low alcohol content, this fully sparkling wine is perfect for that fourth Passover seder cup and other celebrations; $13.95 (mevushal)

Part II: The Jewish Invasion
By Len Canter     Photography by Janet Macoska

Part I of Chutzpah’s essay on the history of Jewish Rock and Roll found Jews cultivating the Black sound and then dominating the infant artform as songwriters, disk jockeys, cutting-edge producers and risk-taking record executives in the 1950s. That era lasted less than a decade as a new generation of young singer-songwriters began to save their best material for themselves. An epochal change swept through the industry, led in part by a handful of politically motivated Jewish folksingers who, in turn, opened the door to an explosion of Jewish stage talent, ushering in the next era of Jewish Rock and Roll—the performers.
The Jewish invasion started with the greatest Jewish performer of them all, Elvis Presley. Surprise, surprise, if you haven’t heard already that the King of Rock and Roll was Jewish and certainly cognizant of it. The Wall Street Journal provided the scoop in 1998, followed by intriguing research by historian Elaine Dundy who assembled the details in her fascinating book Elvis and Gladys. Dundy’s conclusions regarding the maternal lineage of Elvis’s family is based on well-documented evidence and seems spot on. Her investigation revealed that Elvis’s great-great grandmother, Martha Tackett, was no doubt Jewish, maybe not all that surprising in a family that had an eclectic of lineage including Cherokee. The Jewish maternal side ran uninterrupted to Gladys Presley whose only living child was named Elvis Aron Presley—Aron is presumed to be a common misspelling of Aaron, the brother of Moses. (Elvis’s twin brother was stillborn.) Rabbinic law allows that one’s Jewishness is determined by the law of succession through mothers, conclusively settling the question of whether Elvis was Jewish. And even though naysayers point out that Elvis attended a Baptist church, was nearly unparalleled in his singing of Christian hymns, yada yada yada, the fact remains that any Jew who adopts another faith is never considered an ex-Jew, but rather he or she remains Jewish, though as an apostate.
There are many instances of further anecdotal evidence, often supported by eyewitness accounts. Of course, many occurred over 70 years ago and are open to interpretation, depending on what you want to believe. However, there is no disputing that, during Elvis’s teenage years, the Presleys lived in a two-story house located in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Memphis called the Pinch and that Rabbi Fruchter and his family lived above them. Elvis would often visit and dine with them and for years served as the Rabbi’s shabbos “helper,” performing tasks for his Orthodox neighbors that they were not permitted to do during the Sabbath. During those years, Elvis often carried a yarmulke in his pocket and certainly had a habit of wearing it when in the Fruchter home.
When Elvis’s beloved mother died, the King designed her tombstone with a prominent Star of David on it (as well as Christian symbols).  Soon after her passing, he began to donate heavily to Jewish charities in Memphis, perhaps out of respect for his mother’s faith. In one instance, he gave $150,000 (no chump change in those days) to the Memphis Hebrew Academy and donated funds for a new room at the Memphis Jewish Community Center.
Among the most iconic images from The King’s Las Vegas years during his vaunted comeback are those showing him in open-necked jumpsuits with a gold or diamond-encrusted chai around his neck, one of our most significant symbols and words. By 1977, it was certainly an integral part of his wardrobe. When asked why he wore it, Elvis often replied, “I don’t want to miss out on goin’ to heaven on a technicality.” So why then didn’t Elvis finally come out of the closet as a Jew? A number of authors suggest that Gladys had cautioned him not to mention his Jewish ancestry because of anti-Semitism, which might tarnish his career.
Personally I love the notion of Elvis as a bona fide tribesman taking his rightful spot at the head of a long line of Jewish rock and rollers. My connection with Elvis—certainly not a religious one in any sense—goes back a long, long way. His was the first rock and roll song I can actually remember hearing and one of the only vivid memories of my very early childhood. It was 1957, and I was sitting at a local diner having lunch with my parents when my theretofore Mozart-only loving dad (OK, he did have a Theodore Bikel folk album on the shelf) impulsively put a nickel in the little boothside jukebox and out came Hound Dog (written by the Jewish team of Lieber and Stoller). My mother’s response, as it would be to all rock and roll over the next decades, was to “please make it lower!” And although we did, we still all had to admit that the song had a certain something. From that instant on, I was hooked on Elvis “Pretzel,” as my grandfather, who must have seen him on TV with Uncle Miltie and Sullivan, called him.
Fifty years later, I stood with my own kids at the gates of Graceland, trying to make sense of the throngs who had never seen him alive but who filled the buses going from the parking lot to the small estate, of the rows of his Cadillacs and all the jumpsuits. What a stir it would have caused if Elvis had come out and embraced his Jewish roots back in the day when he had everyone’s attention. Most of us would agree that, as good as he could spin a gospel tune, he would have made one heck of a cantor.

The Chutzpah List: 50 Jews Of “Not

Adam Duritz, born in Baltimore in 1964, the son of two doctors of Russian descent, is a founding member, lead singer and the principal songwriter of hit-makers Counting Crows.
Duritz’s best ditties: Mr. Jones, Accidentally In Love (Grammy winner from Shrek 2)
The song remains the same?: Known for his morose lyrics and style (attributed to a dissociative disorder, which he has publicly talked about) Duritz frequently ad-libs his songs during live performances, making up new lyrics and adding alternative endings.
Tabloid fodder: The dreadlocked Duritz is a paparazzi favorite, not for his music, but as paramour to some of Hollywood’s hottest ladies, which have included, over the years, Courtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston and Emmy Rossum.

Adam Levine, the guitarist, lead singer and songwriter for pop band Maroon 5, was born to German parents in 1979. The kid from LA, who spent more afternoons writing music than doing his homework, got an early start, at age 12, with a gig at The Troubadour, where he performed Rockin’ Robin.
Seminal sounds: This Love, Wake Up Call, Harder To Breathe and Heard ’Em Say with Kanye West.
Can’t touch this: Maroon 5’s debut album Songs About Jane quickly went triple platinum; their smash hit Moves Like Jagger (with Christina Aguilera) became the most downloaded single of all time!

Al Kooper (Kuperschmidt), born 1944 in Brooklyn, is the most influential rock and roller you may have never heard of! Although never having a #1 hit of his own, the music industry’s incarnation of Forrest Gump and the quintessential studio musician’s musician, Kooper was behind the scenes or in the band at countless seminal rock and roll moments.
This magic moment: Kooper was invited to observe a Bob Dylan recording session. During a break he sat down and noodled around on a Hammond organ (the first time he had ever played one) and improvised the striking organ riff heard on Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone. Dylan was so enthralled that he invited Kooper to play on his Blonde on Blonde album.
A legacy with legends: Kooper was a member of The Blues Project, and then left the band (when they wouldn’t play his innovative arrangements with horns) to found Blood, Sweat and Tears. Kooper produced The Who, The Zombies, Lynyrd Skynyrd and George Harrison, among a long list of rock and roll luminaries.

Arlo Guthrie, a Coney Island native born in 1947, has the genes that insured a successful music career—his father Woody (This Land Is Your Land) Guthrie was an iconic depression era folksinger.
It’s always something: Of Guthrie’s most notable songs, the 18-minute Alice’s Restaurant Massacre was deemed too long for AM radioplay, his City Of New Orleans was a little too “country” for rock stations and Coming Into Los Angeles (“bringin’ in a couple of ki’s,” as the Woodstock favorite went) was banned by various radio stations for its drug references.
Did you know?: Guthrie received his bar mitzvah instruction from Meir Kahane, the radical Jewish Defense League founder.
Martha, my dear: Guthrie’s Jewish mother, Marjorie Mazia, was a professional dancer with the Martha Graham Company, and her mother was renowned Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt.

Asleep At The Wheel has been the keeper of the flame for over 40 years, reviving and innovating the genre of Western Swing music popularized by its godfather Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, with 20 studio albums and 9 Grammy Awards.
Who’s the Jews?: Two Philadelphians, the 6’7” lead singer Ray Benson (Seifert) and steel guitarist Luck Oceans (Reuben Gosfield)  founded the band in Paw Paw, WV in 1970 where they found themselves as opening act for Alice Cooper.
Songs with swing: Choo Choo Ch’Boogie, Miles And Miles Of Texas and The Letter That Johnny Walker Read.

The Beastie Boys, a Jewish band top to bottom, revolutionized rock and roll when they morphed from a punk band to a rap group. Along the way they earned the  #77 spot on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists.
Boys in the band: Michael Diamond (Mike D), Adam Yauch (MCA), Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) and Michael Schwartz (Mix Master Mike) are all Jewish.
The Beasties best?: The gen-X anthem, Fight For Your Right (To Party)
Acronym antics: The Beastie Boys took their name from “Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence!”
I scream for: The Beasties made the switch to hip hop with the release of the EP Cookie Puss—east coast Carvel fans know well the genealogy of the name. Alas, no Fudgy the Whale has been forthcoming.

Billy Joel, AKA the Piano Man, born in 1948 and raised in Hicksville, NY, was one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the ’70s through the ’90s, amassing an amazing 32 top 40 hits. Joel was first heard as a 16-year-old piano player on the 1965 Shangri-Las hit Leader Of The Pack and had an itinerant career as a welterweight boxer that resulted in 22 fights and a broken nose.
Songs you’ll recognize: Just The Way You Are, We Didn’t Start The Fire, Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song), Scenes From An Italian Marriage, Uptown Girl and The Entertainer
Angry young man: Joel’s German born father Howard and his grandparents lost their lucrative business when they fled Germany in 1939, ultimately arriving in the US via Cuba. Howard was drafted and, in 1943, was among the US troops that liberated Dachau.
Did he really say that?: “To hell with it, if I’m not going to Columbia University, I’m going to Columbia Records, and you don’t need a high school diploma over there.”

The Blues Project—Greenwich Village denizens of the ’60s still kvell about the underground jam band without a genre. During their brief heyday (’65-’67), they were sometimes psychedelic, sometimes blues and always with a hint of classical and jazz as they covered classics from Howlin’ Wolf to Donovan.
Who’s the Jews?: The band was comprised of five young Jewish musical phenoms who bucked the popular trend of the industry and didn’t bother hiding their ethnicity with stage names. The Blues Project, or “Jews Project” as they were affectionately known, was comprised of Al Kooper (see above), Danny Kalb, Steve Katz, Andy Kulberg, and Roy Blumenfeld.
Their best stuff: Flute Thing, Steve’s Song and Two Trains Running

Bob Dylan (Zimmerman)—What is there left to say about the 71-year-old songwriter, musician and poet who made Time Magazine’s “100: the Most Important People of the 20th Century” and whose songs have been covered by more than 3,000 artists? Dylan has written over 300 songs and is still on what many call “the neverending tour.”
Essential Dylan: The Times They Are A Changin’, Maggie’s Farm, Mr. Tambourine Man, Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35, Just Like A Woman, Lay Lady Lay, Positively 4th Street are just the beginning.
Born again…and again: Despite his brief incarnation as a born-again Christian and troves of bible-based material, the bar mitzvahed Dylan re-embraced Judaism, attending services and studying with the Chabad Lubavitch Hassids. A photo of Dylan praying at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and his occasional attendance at High Holy Days services while on the road only enhance Dylan’s Jewish legacy.
And you can quote me: On a visit to Israel—“I’m interested in the fact that Jews are Semites, like Babylonians, Arabs, Syrians, Ethiopians. But a Jew is different because a lot of people hate Jews. There’s something going on here that’s hard to explain!”
Carole King (Klein), born in 1942 into a middle-class Jewish household in Brooklyn, was a teenage songwriter at the Brill Building when she penned the #1 hit Will You Love Me Tomorrow, then wrote or co-wrote (with future husband Jerry Goffin) 118 hits that made the Billboard Hot 100. Becoming a performer in the ’70s, she scored with a number of singles including It’s Too Late, produced by the renowned (and Jewish) Lou Adler.
A record for a record: King’s landmark Tapestry album set a longevity record for solo female artists, remaining on the charts for 306 weeks while being voted #36 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums list.
Did you know?: While a student at Queens College she was buddies with young Paul Simon and, as the girlfriend of Neil Sedaka, was the inspiration for his big hit Oh Carol!
Songs you’ll recognize: As a performer, I Feel The Earth Move, So Far Away and Jazzman; as a songwriter, The Loco-Motion, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Up On The Roof and One Fine Day

Clive Davis, born in 1932 to a relatively poor working class Ashkenazi  family in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, is one of only two non-performers to make the Chutzpah list. Davis warrants inclusion as the big macher of the recording business, president of Columbia Records and founder of Arista and J Records, all while presiding over an era that gave birth to punk and rap. Davis gets most of the credit for cultivating the careers of a remarkably long list of major artists that includes Pink Floyd, Aretha Franklin, Santana, Outkast, TLC, Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, Usher, The Kinks, Kelly Clarkson and the Grateful Dead.

Country Joe McDonald, born in 1942 in Washington, DC, was the vocalist and front man for the politically conscious, psychedelic band Country Joe and the Fish. McDonald, son of two leftists (his mother Florence Plotnick, the daughter of Russian Jews, for many years served on the Berkeley city council) wrote a darkly humored chorus for his song What Are We Fighting For? that became an anthem of the anti-Vietnam war movement after he performed it at Woodstock.
Some gefilte “Fish”: The Fish were a totally Jewish band. Besides McDonald, there was Barry Melton, David Cohen, Gary “Chicken” Hirsh and Bruce Barthol.
Thanks for nothing: After the call-and-response to the “Fish Cheer” (What’s that spell?) became F-U-C-K instead of F-I-S-H, Ed Sullivan cancelled a scheduled appearance by the band, allowing them to keep the money in exchange for never playing on his show.

Dan Auerbach, born in 1979, with his fuzzed-out, scorching guitar work and vocals, is the essence of the two-man blues rock group, The Black Keys. After more than a few years of obscurity, their three Grammys in 2010 have made the band suddenly very difficult to overlook.
Multitasking: Auerbach often self-produces and is quite a multi-instrumentalist, dabbling in percussion along with many other instruments.
Is there a doctor in the house?: Auerbach recently produced an album for New Orleans funk legend Dr. John and has joined the Dr.’s band on tour.
The keys to their success: I Got Mine, Tighten Up, Everlasting Light and Howlin’ For You

David Draiman, born in 1973, was considering law school (like any good Jewish boy) before his heavy metal band Disturbed made it to the Promised Land—their international success includes Israel, where his brother Ben is a folksinging star. Four consecutive Disturbed albums have debuted #1 on the Billboard charts.
A heartfelt crusade: Draiman, whose grandfather was a holocaust survivor, continues a very public crusade against metal bands that flaunt Nazi imagery as props in their acts. Disturbed’s hit Never Again is an in-your-face assault on holocaust deniers.
Leader of the pack: Tzitzit wearing Draiman was on the road to smicha (ordination as a rabbi) as a teen in his hometown Chicago. Trained as a hazan, he was leading High Holy Days services at his temple before starting his first band while a student at Valley Torah High School in LA.

David Lee Roth, born in 1955 in Bloomington, IN, the prancing, bare-chested, bombastic and flamboyant Jewish vocalist (who claimed he learned how to sing while studying for his bar mitzvah), was for over a decade at the core of the meteoric rise of heavy metal band Van Halen. Appearing on their’s highest charted song Jump as well as on their acclaimed albums Fair Warning and Women And Children First, Roth later embarked on a checkered solo career, but he and the band have since reunited.
An unorthodox request: Roth has taken some ribbing for his insistence that his dressing room always be stocked with a vat of M&Ms with all the brown ones removed.
Video killed the radio star: Roth was one of the first rock stars to venture into music videos, which included the hilarious Just A Gigolo. Roth appeared as himself on an episode of The Sopranos, playing in a poker game with Tony.

Donald Fagen, born in 1948 in Passaic, NJ, and partner Walter Becker proved utter failures at selling their songs to Brill Building publishers and again as members of the fledgling Jay and the Americans. But, intent on a musical career, the duo formed Steely Dan whose hallmark—a sophisticated ultra “clean” sounding pop/rock/jazz meld—resulted in a worldwide cult following, election to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 30 million albums sold.
Keep the faith, baby: Fagen was bar mitzvahed at Congregation Beth Shalom in Kendall Park, NJ, the synagogue founded by his own father.
What’s in a name: Steely Dan was named for the steam-powered dildo described in the William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch
Dan essential albums: The Royal Scam, Katy Lied, Aja and Gaucho

Elan Atias, born in 1975 in Los Angeles, the orthodox Jew and budding reggae star filled some large shoes when he became the lead singer for the post-Bob Marley backing band, the legendary Wailers. He has since perfected the genre of Hebrew reggae and now fronts Zadik, an international assortment of musicians whose song lyrics are intentionally drawn from traditional Jewish prayers.
Sidetrips: Atias was featured on the Sex And The City soundtrack where his song Dreams Come True became his first solo hit. He also collaborated with Gwen Stefani on Slave To Love, a chart topper.
One of a kind: Atias’s parents are an eclectic mix—dad is Israeli/Moroccan and mom is a Jewish Native American.

Elvis Presley, a true American icon and the one and only “King of Rock and Roll,” is probably more responsible for popularizing rock music than any other performer in history. His 151 singles in Billboard’s Top 100 and 38 top ten hits are a truly remarkable achievement.
Eternal Elvis: Heartbreak Hotel, Jailhouse Rock, Don’t Be Cruel, Love Me Tender, All Shook Up, Surrender, Can’t Help Falling In Love, Return To Sender, Crying In The Chapel and Burning Love
Gene Simmons, following a demure career as an editorial assistant at Vogue, teamed with fellow hebe Paul Stanley (Stanley Eisen) to form the band Kiss and became its fire-breathing bass player. Their makeup and costumes notwithstanding, Kiss will always be remembered for the teen anthem, Rock And Roll All Night.
The name game: Simmons was born Chaim Witz in 1949, the son of a Jewish Hungarian mother who was the only family member to survive the concentration camps. Together mother and son emigrated from Israel, when Chaim was eight years old, to Brooklyn where he changed his name to the more American sounding Gene Klein. When he became a member of Kiss in 1973, he became Gene Simmons.
The look of love: Simmons personified his childhood fascination with horror movies by creating his alter-ego “the Demon,” who took the stage clad in stylized armor and spiked platform boots, his face painted black and white.
The book of love: Simmons was Adam Duritz before there was a Duritz—his little black book over the years has included Cher, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Jessica Hahn and countless others.

J. Geils Band was enormously popular and one of the great live touring bands of the ’70s—often referred to as the “Jewish Rolling Stones.” With the exception of J., the band was all-Jew: Vocalist Peter Wolf (Blankfield) who often appeared on stage in his underpants and nylons, harmonica wiz Richard (Magic Dick) Salwitz, Danny Klein (Dr. Funk) and organist Seth Justman.
The name game: The band, originally named the J. Geils Blues Band, could just as easily have been named the J. Geils Jews Band.
Geils grab bag: Love Stinks, Looking For A Love, Give It To Me, Freeze-Frame and Centerfold

Graham Gouldman, born in 1946 in Broughton, UK, started his first band at the Jewish Lad’s Brigade, a youth club in Manchester. A few years later, he joined fellow Jews Lol Crème and Kevin Godkey and formed 10CC, whose big American hit was I’m Not In Love. Gouldman became a songwriter of some renown, writing hits for the Yardbirds (For Your Love, Heart Full Of Soul) and The Hollies (Bus Stop)
Go with the flow: The name 10CC refers to the supposed volume of an average male ejaculate.

Jay and the Americans was an all-Jewish pop group from Belle Harbor, Queens, who fortuitously jettisoned their original name Binky and the Americans to chart with a string of memorable hits in the mid-’60s.
Good timing: The Americans were at the Brill Building complaining about being offered only leftover songs when they heard the demo for Only In America slated for the Drifters. They begged executives for the song, at first to no avail. But then word came down that Atlantic Records suits decided it wouldn’t work to have a black group singing about “becoming president” in those pre-civil rights days. J&A got the song and the first in a string of big hits.
Who’s the Jews?: Marty Sanders, Sandy Deanne (Yaguda), Howie Kane (Kirschenbaum) and Kenny Vance (Rosenberg).
Pete Best, take note: There were actually two Jays—the original John “Jay” Traynor left the group and Jay Black (David Blatt) took his place and led the band in their heyday.
J&A essentials: Cara Mia, Come A Little Bit Closer, She Cried and Let’s Lock The Door
The one that got away: The band recorded a Yiddish song, Vi Iz Dus Gesele, that never made the charts…anywhere!

The Jefferson Airplane was a pioneering psychedelic rock band, effectively the Jewish house band of the late ’60s Haight-Ashbury hippie scene in San Francisco. As key players in 1967’s “Summer of Love,” they performed at the three most notable rock festivals of the era: Monterey Pop, Woodstock and Altamont.
Who’s the Jews?: The band was Jewish to the core with the exception of shiksa Grace Slick. Singer Marty Balin (Martyn Buchwald), guitarist Jorma Kaukonen (who later founded Hot Tuna), bassist Jack Casaday and drummer Spencer Dryden were all tribesmen. And even though guitarist Paul Kantner was not, with a last name like that he should have been!
Airplane essentials: Somebody To Love, White Rabbit, Wooden Ships and Volunteers

Jim Croce, born in 1943 in South Philadelphia, unfortunately died in a plane crash in his prime at age 30. He was elected posthumously to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in recognition of his folky soft-rock hits. In between toiling nearly anonymously at gigs at Greenwich Village coffee houses before his songs caught on, Croce had stints as a truck driver, a telephone lineman and a special ed teacher.
Croce’s catalog: Bad Bad Leroy Brown, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, Time In A Bottle and I Got A Name
Standing on ceremony: Croce, who was raised a Catholic, became a practicing Jew when he studied under an orthodox rabbi. He married his Jewish wife Ingrid Jacobson in a traditional Jewish ceremony (one that his parents refused to attend) and was buried at Haym Salomon Memorial Park in PA.

Joey Ramone (Jeff Hyman) was born 1951 in Forest Hills, NY, probably without his trademark worn leather jacket, high top sneakers and red sunglasses. Joey was the heart, soul and lead singer of the Ramones, who, although they never had a single in the top 40, more than any other band defined brash New York punk-rock during its golden age.
Hey, ho, let’s go: The immortal refrain from Blitzkrieg Bop may be the most commercially enduring snippet of punk culture. The Ramones played their three chord songs like I Wanna Be Sedated and Beat On The Brat loud and buzz-saw fast.
Street fighting man: New York City honored Joey by renaming 2nd Street between Bowery and 2nd Avenue Ramone Street. It’s right near the beloved punk club CBGB’s where the Ramones got their first big break.

Keith Reid, born in 1946 in Hertfordshire, UK, did not sing or play an instrument, yet he was singularly important in the success of one of the great bands to come out of Great Britain, Procol Harum. He founded the group with Gary Brooker and was always considered a full member of the band.
A night to remember: Reid’s father was arrested in Germany on Kristallnacht in 1938 and, unlike the rest of the Reid family, was lucky enough to survive the war.
Bach to the future: Procol Harum’s music, often categorized as  symphonic rock, did often have a distinct classical influence. The Reid-Brooker classic Whiter Shade Of Pale was set to a melody ripped in part from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite #3 in D major.
The best of Procol: Conquistador, A Salty Dog and The Devil Came From Kansas

Richard S. “Kinky” Friedman, born in 1944 in Chicago, is the “Texas” country singer, songwriter, politician and author of 23 novels who founded the politically incorrect band Kinky Friedman and The Texas Jewboys. Kinky claims to be the first full-blooded Jew to take the stage at the Grand Ole Opry. The Jewish cowboy ran unsuccessfully for governor in Texas in 2006, losing to Rick Perry.
Constant comment: Both Jews and gentiles may find Friedman’s work, laced with satire and social comment, both hilarious and at the same time highly offensive…and he couldn’t care less. His best songs include They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore, Ride’ Em Jewboy (a tribute to holocaust victims?) and Asshole From El Paso (a parody of Merle Haggard’s Okie From Muskogee)
Oh, no…not now!: Friedman was named Male Chauvinist Pig of 1974 by NOW for his raucous song, Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In Bed.

Lenny Kravitz, born in 1964 in NYC to TV producer Sy Kravitz, has a resumé that includes singer (his big hit was Fly Away), songwriter (Madonna’s Justify My Love), actor (Cinna in The Hunger Games), fashion designer (his clothes won him a Vogue Award for Most Fashionable Male Artist) and multi-instrumentalist.
School of rock: Kravitz, AKA Romeo Blue, attended Beverly Hills High School (90210) where his classmates included future musicians Slash, Chynna Phillips and Maria McKee.
Did he really say that?: “The toughest part of being Jewish is keeping a yarmulke on an afro.”

Leonard Cohen, born in 1934 in Montreal, is an oft-published poet, novelist and enigmatic Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter. Cohen has developed a devout cult following over his more than five-decade music career.
Founding fathers: Cohen’s father Nathan owned one of Montreal’s largest clothiers, and his grandfather was founding president of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
By the rules: Cohen is a devout and observant Jew (and also a legit Zen monk) who observes the Sabbath even while on tour and who performed for Israeli troops during the 1973 war. (He reconciles the Zen foray as OK with Judaism because it is non-deistic and hence there is no conflict.)
Cohen’s catalog: Cohen’s songs often explore religion, drawing upon Judaic imagery as in Story Of Isaac. His most commercially popular song may be Suzanne, covered often but most famously by Judy Collins. Hallelujah, written nearly 30 years ago, has recently been performed by almost 200 artists in various languages.

Leslie Gore (Goldstein), born in 1946, was the teen idol of the ’60s who DJs called “the sweetie pie from Tenafly.” Gore was only a high school junior when her song It’s My Party became a #1 hit in 1963—she heard the song played for the first time on the radio while driving home from school a few days after it was recorded. Discovered and mentored by a young, virtually unknown producer named Quincy Jones, Gore was soon appearing on TV’s Hullabaloo and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Leslie’s lovelies: Her hit parade included Judy’s Turn To Cry, You Don’t Own Me and Maybe I Know
Holy cow, Batman!: Gore appeared on the TV show Batman (produced by her uncle Howie Horwitz) in the role of Pink Pussycat, one of Catwoman’s minions. The show gave her a forum to introduce the last of her big hits, California Nights.

Lewis “Lou” Reed (Rabinowitz), born in 1942 and raised in Freeport, Long Island, was just a typical suburban Jewish kid (subjected to electroshock therapy as a teen, at his parents’ insistence) who would soon become synonymous with avant-garde rock. His gritty odes to junkies, transvestites and hustlers were written for his seminal band, The Velvet Underground, co-produced by mentor Andy Warhol in his quest to champion experimental artists. Although the band only recorded four albums (albeit milestones), Reed’s genius was recognized with his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and his ranking by Rolling Stone Magazine as #19 on their greatest artists list.
The velvet touch: Walk On The Wild Side was Reed’s concession to commercial success. His best know tunes include Heroin, Sweet Jane, Rock And Roll, Femme Fatale (recorded with German chanteuse Nico), White Light/White Heat and I’m Waiting For The Man.
Mama Cass Elliot (Ellen Naomi Cohen), born in 1941, was the voice behind The Mamas And The Pappas, the superstar group whose lush harmonies topped the charts in the ’60s. Despite success with hits like California Dreamin’, Monday, Monday and I Saw Her Again, Mama Cass professed to prefer jazz and Broadway show tunes to rock (she lost out to Streisand when competing for a role in Broadway’s I Can Get It For You Wholesale). Her robust figure and flowery dresses marked her reign as “Queen of the hippies.”
Sorry, wrong number: Her career ended abruptly when she died in 1974, the result of a heart attack and not by choking on the chicken sandwich of legend. She died in the same room, #12, at the London hotel where Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, would die four years later.
A penny for her thoughts: Julia Phillips described in her book, You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again, how Elliot, who hated the IRS, paid them a $10,000 debt with a truckload of pennies (the caper cost her $3,000 to pull off).

Manfred Mann (Lubowitz)—Here’s one instance where the circle remained unbroken. Mann, a Jewish South African keyboard player, launched his career with the song, Do Wah Diddy Diddy, which was written by the prolific Jewish Brill Building songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. Mann’s Earth Band followed up with a few more hits including Sha La La La and a cover of Dylan’s The Mighty Quinn.

Marc Bolan (Marc Feld), born 1947, was no doubt greatly influenced by the style of his Russian father, a tailor by trade. Bolan became the poster boy for the era of glam rock as founder, singer and guitarist of T. Rex. Performing their classics like Bang A Gong (Get It On) and Jeepster, Bolan served as fashion icon of the glitter scene, taking the stage in outrageous clothes, such as a top hat and feather boa. His career was cut way too short; he was only 29 when he died in a car crash.
Sharp dressed man: Bolan had forged his fashion career by modeling John Temple suits in London, eventually becoming the face of the cutout displayed in store windows.
Did you know?: That was Elton John on keyboards on Bang A Gong.

Mark Knopfler, born in 1949 in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a Jewish Hungarian refugee, is lauded as the greatest fingerstyle guitarist—eschewing a pick. The four-time Grammy winner and lefthander (who plays righty) is ranked #27 on Rolling Stone’s greatest list.
Member of the band: Before embarking on a solo career, he founded and fronted the British band Dire Straits, which included his younger brother David. Among their greatest hits are Sultans Of Swing, Money For Nothing, Tunnel Of Love, The Bug and, arguably his most loved song, Romeo And Juliet. Knopfler has since added movie scores to his resumé, including The Princess Bride and Local Hero.
Underground tribute: Knopfler had a dinosaur named after him when bones were discovered by a group of paleontologists who happened to be listening to Dire Straits in the field.

Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (Kaplan) were the Jewish founding members of the ’60s band The Turtles, who sold over 60 million records. Post Turtles, the pair, as Flo and Eddie, joined and became the epicenter of Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention. Over the years Flo (Volman) and Eddie (Kaylan) could be heard singing on literally hundreds of records, backing the likes of Marc Bolan, The Ramones, John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen (who they joined for 18 live shows and an album).
Turtle tunes: Happy Together, It Ain’t Me Babe, She’d Rather Be With Me
Legal limbo: As a result of more than a few lawsuits, the pair found that they could no longer use the name The Turtles. Even more incredible was the decision that Volman could no longer use his own name for professional purposes…hence the invention of Flo and Eddie.

Matisyahu (Matthew Miller), born in 1979 in West Chester, PA, is one of the most electrifying live performers on tour today. The Hassidic reggae superstar is also a prolific songwriter (King Without A Crown, One Day and Darkness Into Light), whose lyrics (a mix of English, Yiddish and Hebrew) draw heavily on symbolism from the torah. Matisyahu is a pioneer among crossover artists, mixing raps about Judaism, beatboxing and classic rock with a dancehall style sound that’s as Jamaican as can be.
It must be the shoes: In true orthodox fashion, Matisyahu performs live in a broad brimmed black hat worn over a yarmulke, white shirt and sneakers.
All will be revealed: Matisyahu set off an internet frenzy last year when he shaved off his famous hair and beard.

Max Weinberg, born in 1951 in Newark, NJ, is Mighty Max, the Minister of the Big Beat. He honed his drumming skills as a 7-year-old backbeating the hora in a mohair suit as part of Herbie Zane’s bar mitzvah band in South Orange, NJ. But it was as a permanent member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and later as bandleader of the Max Weinberg 7 on late night TV’s Conan O’Brien that Weinberg tasted fame and more than a little fortune.
Mike Bloomfield, born in 1943, grew up in the affluent Jewish northside of Chicago. Credit his rabbi for jumpstarting his career when he introduced the young guitarist to legendary talent scout John Hammond Sr. (and it was a good thing, too, as Mike had no intention of joining the family catering business). Bloomfield became one of the great session musicians of the era and one of the first rock stars to gain recognition for guitar playing only—he rarely, if ever, sang. He played jaw dropping solos with Paul Butterfield (East/West), teamed with Al Kooper on the Super Sessions, went groundbreaking electric with Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival and ended up ranked #22 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list. Bloomfield even released 2 Jews Blue with Barry Goldberg in 1969. It ended all too soon when he was found dead in his car of a heroin overdose in 1981.
Mountain—Two Jews, the larger-than-life Long Island guitarist Leslie (The King of Tone) West (Weinstein) and Canadian drummer Lawrence “Corky” Laing, were joined by former Cream bassist Felix Pappalardi and keyboardist Steve Knight to form this explosive rock group. Hits included Mississippi Queen, Nantucket Sleighride, Theme From An Imaginary Western and Long Red (whose drum break has been sampled in over 100 hip hop songs).
Right place, right time: Laing got his big break playing drums for the legendary vocal group, The Ink Spots. West began with a Stratocaster, which he bought with his bar mitzvah money.
He doesn’t look Jewish…: Although he wasn’t Jewish, Pappalardi gets an honorary nod for Yiddish fluency, which he picked up over many summers at a Jewish summer camp—his father was the resident physician.

Neil Diamond, born in 1941 in Coney Island, is the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland. His gold sequined pants notwithstanding, Diamond’s career has been both lauded and reviled by critics. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying the numbers—Billboard ranks him behind only Streisand and Elton John for chart successes, and he became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
Eight is enough: Diamond, who started his career as a songwriter at the Brill Building (he penned numerous hits including I’m A Believer for the Monkees), had eight #1 singles as a performer, plus a trove of other hits, most instantly recognizable such as Solitary Man, Cherry Cherry, Sweet Caroline (now a ubiquitous presence at countless ballparks and sporting events), Cracklin’ Rosie and Song Sung Blue.
Join the chorus: At Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, Diamond sang in the school chorus with another music icon, Barbra Streisand. They later teamed on the hit You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.

Neil Sedaka, the “King of Brooklyn,” was born in 1939 in Brighton Beach to a Sephardic/Ashkenazi family. Composer, performer and arguably the first big male Jewish pop star, Sedaka is credited with writing or co-writing over 500 songs (many written as part of the Brill stable), including eight #1 hits.
Piano prodigy: Sedaka studied classical piano at Juilliard, was selected by Arthur Rubenstein to play on WQXR and, in 1965, took part in the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, where he lost out to winner Van Cliburn.
Songs still sung: Probably covered by more artists than any other songwriter, his hits include The Diary, Oh! Carol, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Calendar Girl, Stairway To Heaven and Laughter In The Rain

Pat Benatar (Patricia Mae Andrzejewski), the mezzo-soprano with the rare ability to produce notes above C#6 was born in 1953 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She was classically trained in music and theater and slated to follow her mother Millie, who sung with the New York City Opera. But after a breakout amateur night stint at Catch A Rising Star, the NYC comedy club, Benatar instead reigned as the spandex clad queen of the Grammys. She won an unprecedented four consecutive awards, was nominated for Best Female Rock Performance eight times and became one of the top selling female artists of all time.
I want my MTV: Benatar’s signature song Hit Me With Your Best Shot and big hits like Love Is A Battlefield, Fire And Ice, Heartbreaker and We Belong were staples of the fledgling MTV network. Her You Better Run was the only second video aired on the day the station premiered in 1981.

Paul Simon, born in 1941, joined his Forest Hills High School pal Art Garfunkel, to record a few songs as Tom and Jerry. And were a colossal commercial failure. But after one last try in 1964 with The Sound Of Silence, which became a #1 hit, Simon and Garfunkel never had to look back, producing soft-rock classics that included Mrs. Robinson, Homeward Bound and Bridge Over Troubled Water.
All by myself: The duo split up at the peak of their popularity. Simon has since earned himself 12 Grammys, and many critics have found his solo releases Graceland and The Rhythm Of The Saints even better than the S&G catalog. Simon was inducted into both the Songwriters and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame as a solo artist.
Did he really say that?: “I’d hate to be remembered for the song Feelin’ Groovy.”
Did you know?: The very religious Garfunkel, son of Romanian Jews, performed as a cantor at his own bar mizvah…for over four hours.

Randy Newman, born in 1943 in Los Angeles, a singer/songwriter known for irreverent and often politically incorrect pop songs, has won both Oscars and Grammys for his work.
Randy’s risqué recordings: They include Short People, Sail Away, Political Science, Rednecks and New Orleans Wins The War, which explored the anti-Semitism his father experienced as a Jew in the South. Much of Newman’s catalog has been covered more famously by other artists; for instance, Mama Told Me Not To Come was a big hit for Three Dog Night.
Perfect Pedigree: Music, especially scoring films, is in the Newman’s blood. His Uncle Al scored films for Fox for over four decades (and had a record 45 Oscar nominations), while Uncle Lionel ran Fox’s music department; Al’s sons Thomas and David are also Oscar-nominated film composers.
A dubious record: After setting the record for most Oscar nominations without winning at 16, Randy finally grabbed two statuettes for scoring Toy Story and Monsters, Inc.

Robbie Robertson, born in 1943 in Toronto, is best known as the songwriter and guitarist for The Band. The half Mohawk, half Jewish Robertson was honored recently in his native Canada, appearing on a commemorative stamp.
The leader of the band: As primary songwriter, Robertson penned such classics as The Weight, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Up On Cripple Creek, Stage Fright and Chest Fever.
Right place, right time: Robertson was part of a seminal bit of rock and roll history when Bob Dylan chose The Band (formerly The Hawks) as his backup band on tour when he made the controversial transition from folk to rock by playing electric. The Band went on to a Hall of Fame career, becoming one of rock’s premier acts.

The Tokens—The Flamingos notwithstanding (see Part I, Chutzpah Winter 2012), The Tokens, a ’50s doo-wop vocal group, was arguably the first commercially successful all-Jewish group. The group was founded in 1955 by Neil Sedaka and classmates from Lincoln High School in Brooklyn—they were originally called The Linc-Tones in the school’s honor. By 1960, Sedaka had embarked on a solo career and the classic configuration of the band was set.
Who’s the Jews?: The Tokens were led by Jay Siegel (lead singer) along with brothers Mitch and Phil Margo and Hank Medress.
A wimoweh, a wimoweh: The group had a big hit with the classic Tonight I Fell In Love, but were immortalized thanks to their rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight (which may have been the first song to be #1 in both New York City and Tel Aviv).

Twisted Sister’s two big-haired Jewish boys, Dee Snider and JJ French (John Segall) were founding members of this glam-heavy metal band in 1973, who gave us the songs We’re Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock. Snider, Twisted’s frontman and erstwhile radio host notorious for his electric hairdo, exaggerated eyeliner and filed-to-a-point teeth, co-hosted a VH1 Passover special Matzo and Metal with French, Leslie West and Scott Ian of the band Anthrax, during which the group swapped stories about past seder experiences.
Didn’t leave a tip: Dee took on the government and Tipper Gore when she decided to put the band in her sights and get their album banned for obscenity. Contentious Senate hearings resulted in the advent of parental advisory stickers.

Warren Zevon (Zivotovsky), born in 1947 in Chicago, the son of a Russian/Jewish gangster and lifetime sufferer from various compulsive disorders, learned to play the piano under no less than Igor Stravinsky. He then prospered as one of rock’s great (and offbeat) singer/songwriters, noted for his often dark, slightly humorous and always sardonic take on almost everything.
Looking for a place called Lee Ho Fook: Zevon’s remarkable catalog is headed by his signature song Werewolves Of London. Other significant compositions include Lawyers, Guns And Money, Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Carmelita and Mr. Bad Example.
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: When diagnosed with terminal mesothelioma, he used his final months to record one last album, The Wind, and typically quipped before the end, “I guess I made sort of a tactical error by not going to the doctor’s in 20 years…just one of those phobias that didn’t pay off.” He died in 2003.

Yo La Tengo—Jewish frontman and former music critic for The Village Voice, Ira Kaplan (AKA The Jewish Jimi Hendrix) and his drummer wife Georgia headline one of indie rock’s most beloved bands, noted for an encyclopedic catalog of classic covers.
Tradition, tradition!: The band is famous for their eight nights of Chanukah series, which they annually perform around a big menorah centerpiece at Maxwell’s in their hometown of Hoboken, NJ. You can also catch them on special radio shows on WFMU.
All hits, no field: The band, named after the cry of Latin outfielders (“I got it!”), has had more than a few solid hits including Autumn Sweater, You Can Have It All and Stockholm Syndrome.

About Janet Macoska.
Since 1974, Janet Macoska has been capturing rock’s greatest on film. Among the publications that have used her photos are Rolling Stone, People, US, Vogue, American Photo, Creem, 16 Magazine, The New York Times and The London Times.  VH1 and other TV and film productions regularly use Macoska’s vast rock archive for their rockumentaries, and her work is in the permanent collection of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum where she is the primary photographer, The National Portrait Gallery in London and in Hard Rock Cafe restaurants, casinos and hotels all around the planet. Macoska frequently speaks on Jews in rock with a touring exhibition, “Jews Rock,” featuring her work. To learn more about Janet, go to www.janetmacoska.com and www.jewsrockonline.com/. Prints of her work are available at www.rockpaperphoto.com

On August 19, 1884, legendary western figure Doc Holliday engaged in his last bit of gunslinging while employed as a FARO dealer at Mannie Hyman’s saloon in Leadville, Colorado. One month later, on September 19, Rosh Hashanah, the Temple Israel, located several blocks away, was formally dedicated, presumably with Mannie, proprietor of Hyman’s Club Rooms, in attendance. We might assume that Doc was otherwise preoccupied while the Jews of Leadville observed the New Year in their newly completed house of worship, grateful for the new life that brought them prosperity in this high place amid the Rocky Mountains.
At 10,152 feet above sea level, Leadville is the highest-elevation incorporated town in the United States. With a current population of approximately 2,750, it remains a place of magnificent vistas, Victorian architecture and a testament to the 19th-century mining boom of the American West. On Rosh Hashanah 1884, Leadville boasted a population of 30,000, drawn to the cold heights by the silver lode, gold and other minerals that helped fuel a burgeoning post-Civil War American economy.
Among the inhabitants were approximately 300 Jewish pioneers, predominantly of Germanic origin. On the perimeter of America’s “democratic experiment,” the absence of anti-Semitism and the atmosphere of tolerance that marked the western frontier acted as a catalyst. Ultimately, most thrived as respected storeowners and tradespersons, actively engaged in the social events and politics of the town. The dedication of Temple Israel, situated on a block known as “Millionaires Row,” with its stained glass windows illuminated by gas burners, cushioned pews and carpeted floors, was a most notable event. The ceremonies undoubtedly marked the strength of this energetic band of immigrants and their impact on the culture of their adopted home.
But shortly afterward, Leadville would witness a decline, brought on by the flattening of the mining economy and the decimating silver panic of 1893. Leadville’s Jews were not immune to the vagaries of boom and bust, and most left in search of brighter horizons. With their departure, accompanied by a split between reform and orthodox members in the 1890s, religious services at Temple Israel would end by 1912, its congregation all but gone, the building an obscure footnote to the history of American Jewry.
Almost 75 years later Bill Korn arrived. He had been living near Denver for years, an avid skier and motorcycle enthusiast, and had visited Leadville and its environs often. In 1983 he purchased a vacation home in town, but within a couple of years got hooked on the high country and settled permanently, working in real estate investment and “completely unaware” of Leadville’s Jewish history. As a descendant of German Jews who settled in New York City in the mid-1800s, he says it was fate that led him to embark on the restoration of “Jewish Leadville.”
Fate took the form of a rabbi from California. Visiting in 1986, the rabbi inquired if “someone Jewish” could take him to the cemetery, to the graves of his aunt and uncle. That someone was Korn, who found “an overgrown jungle in the middle of the forest,” a Hebrew cemetery dating to 1880, whose records would show held about 130 gravesites. The rabbi urged Bill to “do something” and, spurred by a strong Jewish identity and academic and philanthropic interests, Bill did. Beginning with what he considers the “fun part”—research and interviewing people, the Temple Israel building, sitting on the old Millionaires Row as an indiscriminate four-unit apartment house, was rediscovered.
In 1987, the Temple Israel Foundation was formed and, in October 1992, it acquired the building. In 1993, the Foundation was awarded title to the cemetery and, as a result of volunteer efforts by Denver B’nai B’rith, restoration of the cemetery proceeded rapidly, culminating in its reconsecration in August 1999.
In 1994, the Foundation received the first of four matching grants from the Colorado State Historical Fund for building restoration. Under the stringent requirements of the grants and Korn’s own pursuit of historical authenticity, construction of the front exterior façade was completed in 2001 after a dedicated period of intensive research, structural assessment and architectural design. An electrical fire in 2006 caused major damage to the structure, but spurred completion of the full exterior and interior restoration. By the end of December 2008, the work was complete and, in January 2009, a “tired and gratified” Bill Korn stood among his friends, family and colleagues, as Mannie Hyman might have, while the Temple was rededicated as a place of worship, a museum and a memorial to the Jews of Leadville and the American West.
Today, the Temple is open by appointment for visits and special events. Twenty-five years after fate brought the frontier Jews of Leadville to his attention, Bill Korn continues his diligent work in developing the museum, gathering artifacts of Jewish life in Leadville and maintaining the Foundation and its purpose.
A fully developed, excellent presentation of Leadville Jewish history, the cemetery and building history and restoration and the Temple Israel Foundation is available on their website, www.jewishleadville.org. The author gratefully acknowledges, thanks and credits Bill Korn for his time spent in interviews and for the use of factual information and photographs compiled on the Temple Israel Foundation website.
To explore Leadville and other Jewish heritage sites, Rocky Mountain Jewish Frontiers has created an historical journey through 19th century from Denver to the heart of the high country.
To learn more, go http://www.jewishheritageevents.com