Sounds Jewish radio show (2025)

04/01/2025

Oy, winter sure packs a wallop – actually and metaphorically. In Jewish song, the frigid temperatures and recurrent blizzards evoke loneliness, cruelty, growing old (quickly, in retrospect), and death. Oh, but a gentle dusting of snow and a breath of crisp, clean air inspire joy, hope, and (in one case) ardor for a youngish female Jewish partisan who disabled a N**i vehicle with a pistol shot one quiet, snowy night.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for a global Jewish playlist evoking winter’s wide-ranging impact. You’ll hear recordings by Yiddish vocalists Daniel Kahn with the Painted Bird, Isabel Frey, Emil Gorovets, Basya Schechter, Theresa Tova, Michael Alpert with Brave Old World, Eléonore Weill with Tsibele, Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Olga Avigail Mieleszcuk, and the Children’s Choir of Yiddish Summer Weimar; Moroccan singer Solomon Siboni offering a Hebrew piyyut (tune in to the show for a definition); Lenka Lichtenberg singing her English translation of her grandmother’s Czech poetry; pianist Anthony Coleman; klezmorim Veretski Pass; and comic Myron Cohen.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 2 pm and 8 pm ET and Monday at 2 am and 8 am ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

28/12/2024

Shalom aleichem from deep inside Khanike. If you’re celebrating the Festival of Lights, by now you’ve probably lit a bunch of candles, eaten piles of latkes (potato pancakes) and/or sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), exchanged a few gifts, and spun your dreidel (the traditional four-sided top).

And allow me to suggest another festive activity: Tune in to my next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for an hour of classic and modern-classic Khanike tunes and tales. You’ll hear a 1953 dramatic retelling of the Khanike story featuring Hollywood Walk of Fame actor John Conte, as well as holiday tunes by Jewgrassers Nefesh Mountain, indie rockers Yo La Tengo, rappers Hip Hop Hoodios, vibraphonist Mitchell Shiner and band, vixenly vocalist Michelle Citrin, transoceanic rock duo Peter Himmelman and David Broza, somewhat cynical singer/songwriter Geoff Berner, contemporary balladeer Cantor Laura Berkson, soulful Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Judeo-Spanish crooner Sarah Aroeste, self-described All-American Jewish le***an folksinger Phranc, a Peter-Paul-and-Mary-infused singing-and-candle-lighting trio, and quizmaster Gladys Gewirtz,

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 2 pm and 8 pm ET and Monday at 2 am and 8 am ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

21/12/2024

Khanike, the imminent Festival of Lights, comes with candles to ritually light, fried foods to shamelessly devour, dreidels to giddily spin, and -- in more recent decades -- gifts to generously exchange.

Back in the day, my boyhood synagogue hosted an annual Khanike play starring the Religious School students. One year I even was part of a pre-play group publicity photo in the local daily newspaper. I should add that the newspaper’s publisher was a leading member of the synagogue.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show as we welcome Khanike 5785 with great festival tunes from around the globe, a cooking demo, and tracks reflecting this year’s Khanike-Christmas confluence. You’ll hear recordings by Yiddish performers Martha Schlamme, ensemble Simkhat HaNefesh, and Moishe Oysher with daughter Shoshanna; Judeo-Spanish singer/songwriter Flory Jagoda; Hebrew vocalists Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, Jo Amar with the Mizmor Shir Choir, and ensemble Divahn; latke cook Harriet Segal (who merits induction into the Fryers’ Club); good ol’ English singers Adam Sandler, Mark Rubin-Jew of Oklahoma with the Panorama Jazz Band, parodist Tom Lehrer, and the rockin’ LeeVees; surf-rockers Meshugga Beach Party; reggae band The Temple Rockers; and holiday-convergence celebrants Emma’s Revolution, the Klezmonauts,, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and comic Stanley Adams.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 2 pm and 8 pm ET and Monday at 2 am and 8 am ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

14/12/2024

Our daily dose of sunlight is steadily decreasing as we traipse toward the winter solstice. And soon we'll celebrate Khanike (which you may spell Chanukah or Hanukkah), the Festival of Lights that arrives just in time to dispel the darkness.

Many Jewish songs play with themes of darkness and light, but rarely in binary terms describing darkness as inherently bad or light as necessarily good. Because Jews rarely do simple.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for tunes from around the Jewish world expressing the upsides and downsides of darkness and light. You’ll hear recordings by vocalist Lenka Lichtenberg, whose new album features tunes based on the writings of her Holocaust-survivor grandmother; singer/rapper Matisyahu; klezmorim Brave New World and Andy Statman; Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen; Judeo-Spanish artists Flory Jagoda and Salamander; Yiddish vocalists Arkady Gendler, Fraidy Katz, Anthony Russell with Tsvey Brider and Baymele, Leo Fuld, and Basia Frydman (channeling Frank Sinatra); indie band Girls in Trouble (channeling the Book of Exodus); holistic singer Miriam Raziel (channeling the Zohar); and 1960s folkies The Feenjon Group.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET and Monday at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

07/12/2024

The Hebrew word "mitzvah" literally means commandment, as in Divine. Religiously observant Jews dedicate themselves to performing all of the Torah’s 613 mitzvahs that still apply. (For currently inapplicable mitzvahs, see: the laws of animal sacrifice.) Less religiously observant Jews see mitzvahs either as rubrics for a righteous life or as good deeds that merit doing. Even secular Jewish values have roots in the mitzvahs.

Tune in to the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for tunes inspired by mitzvahs big and small, easy and challenging, personal and interpersonal. You’re not obligated, dear potential listener, but don’t you think it’d be the right thing to do? You’ll hear recordings by klezmorim the Epstein Brothers Orchestra, The Klezmatics, Michael Winograd, and -- news flash! -- Veretski Pass with Joel Rubin playing a suite from their brand new album; Yiddish vocalists Martha Schlamme and Jane Peppler; Judeo-Spanish singer Fortuna; Israeli hip hop outfit HaDag Nachash; a British announcer and choir hawking the Jew's Temporary Shelter 75th Anniversary Appeal 64 years ago; jam band Chillent; singer/songwriters Debbie Friedman, Joe Glazer (labor’s troubadour), and Linda Kates; and Kirtan Rabbi Andrew Hahn.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET and Monday at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

30/11/2024

You’ve probably noticed our planet’s increasingly severe and destructive weather. The tropical storm season is longer, battering us with fiercer winds and heavier rain. Summer is dangerously hotter and drier. Winter blizzards are deadlier. (Thank goodness that the autumn leaf piles still provide a joyful landing spot.)

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for songs and shtick from around the Jewish world voicing concern about extreme weather. (After all, it was co-religionist Bob Dylan who sang, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”) You’ll hear recordings by klezmorim Veretski Pass, Danny Rubenstein, and Mames Babegenoush; Yiddish vocalists Emil Gorovets (with pianist Zalmen Mlotek), Fraidy Katz, Psoy Korolenko and Isaac Rosenberg, the New Yiddish Chorale (conducted by Zalmen Mlotek), and David Wall co-headlining with pianist Marilyn Lerner; gospel belters The Klezmatics with Joshua Nelson, and Louis Armstrong with his trumpet; Judeo-Spanish singer (this time) Shura Lipovsky; singer/songwriters Mark Rubin-Jew of Oklahoma, Alicia Jo Rabins with her band Girls in Trouble, and Mira Awad with Achinoam Nini; Jewish rapper Socalled with Bless and Killa Priest; piyyut chanter Solomon Siboni; and comic Myron Cohen.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET and Monday at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

23/11/2024

The coming Thanksgiving holiday celebrates the harvest and the Pilgrims’ hardly-guaranteed survival in 1621. The national day-off also bids Americans -- our history of colonization notwithstanding -- to gather with family and friends and appreciate the positives in our lives.

Tune in to the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show as I bring you Jewish tunes and shtick evoking gratitude, blessings, hospitality – and, of course, dinner. You’ll hear recordings by the pioneering Klezmorim, supergroup Brave Old World, Danish ensemble Mames Babegenoush, and clarinet maven Joel Rubin with the Epstein Brothers Orchestra; hospitable Yiddish vocalists Michael Alpert and Ben Schaechter, and the multi-lingual Eartha Kitt; the grateful Touré-Raichel Collective of Mali and Israel, the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda, Judeo-Spanish singer/songwriter Nani, the East Coast’s Barry Sisters, Toronto’s Theresa Tova, and the ironic Nathan (or is it Nick?) “Prince” Nazaroff; Jewish-mother-on-steroids Gertrude Berg; and comedic singers Triumph the Insult Comic Dog with drummer Max Weinberg, Mickey Katz and His Orchestra, and Slim Gaillard and his Flat Foot Floogie Boys.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET and Monday at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

16/11/2024

This past week on Veterans Day, the United States honored those who have served in its armed forces. At the same time, nations around the world honored their war dead on Remembrance Day. Because, as they rightly say, freedom isn’t free.

Tune in to the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for songs from around the Jewish world honoring and appreciating our war heroes and urging an end to war. You’ll hear recordings by Yiddish singers Theodore Bikel (with guitarist Daniel Kempin), Canada’s The Travellers, the international Semer Ensemble, Misha Aleksandrovich (with the Moscow State Yiddish Theatre Orchestra), Maria Ka, Wolf Krakowski, and Sophie Millman; the comedy duo of Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner; guitarist Jeremiah Lockwood; rock 'n' roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe; drummer Shelley Manne and combo; peacenik rockers The Fugs; Israeli vocalist Hillel Raveh; Hebrew folksinger Mark Olf; Russian-language singer/songwriter Nick “Prince” Nazaroff (AKA Nathan “Prince” Nazaroff); and cabaret crooner Stewart F**a (with the New Budapest Orpheum Society).

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET and Monday at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

09/11/2024

We’ve just about reached the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. On the dark side of Nov. 9th to 10th, 1938, German paramilitary forces and civilians inflicted a massive pogrom on the Jews of Germany and Austria, killing at least 91 Jews and forcing 30,000 Jewish men into concentration camps.

Attackers ransacked Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools, smashing buildings with sledgehammers. More than 1,000 synagogues were burned – 95 in Vienna alone – and more than 7,000 Jewish-owned businesses were damaged or destroyed. Broken glass from the damaged buildings littered the streets. Kristallnacht was a turning point in N**i persecution of Jews, moving from discriminatory laws toward the Holocaust.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for music expressing the horrors of Kristallnacht and other manifestations of antisemitism. You’ll hear recordings by Yiddish music artists Semer Ensemble, Shoshana Damari, Brave Old World, Wolf Krakowski, and Rafael Frieder (with Yehudi Wyner); vocalists Bob Dylan, Adrienne Cooper, and Mark Rubin-Jew of Oklahoma with troubling tunes in English; the jazzy Afro-Semitic Experience with Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi, and Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble; pianist Daniel Wnukowski playing a piece by Kristallnacht survivor Walter Arlen, the Krakow Philharmonic performing Morton Gould’s “Crystal Night,” and Jewish Alternative artists shredding on John Zorn’s “Barzel.”

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET and Monday at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

02/11/2024

I probably don’t need to remind you that US election day is nearly here. You have your daily personalized email from a vice presidential candidate’s wife for that. Meanwhile, the country never has seemed so divided during my lifetime, which is exactly what I said four years ago, according to the saved script from my Nov. 1, 2020 radio show.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show when, recognizing that American Jews get involved with the democratic process, I bring you Jewy songs and jokes from across the decades inspired by American politics and values. You’ll hear recordings by vocalists Mandy Patinkin Yiddishizing Paul Simon, Seymour Rechtzeit and the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus both with Yiddish takes on patriotic tunes, Paul Robeson channeling lyricist Abel Meeropohl, Michael Alpert and company with the socialist anthem in Yiddish, and Jane Peppler with an optimistic Yiddish tune – or is it satirical?; comics Jackie Mason, Danny Davis (as the first Jewish president), Larry Best, and Jack Gilford with Bob McFadden; real-life elected official David Ben Gurion proclaiming Israel’s Declaration of Independence; activist Rabbi Arthur Waskow with singer Gretchen Reed recalling a key political moment; and pianists Lambert Orkis playing a Louis Moreau Gottschalk arrangement, and Irving Fields rearranging “Yankee Doodle.”

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET and Monday at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

26/10/2024

Happy almost-Halloween to those who celebrate. Technically, we Jews don’t commemorate the pagan-derived, candy-filled spookfest. But, hey, Jewish folklore is full of scary creatures.

We People of the Book see your goblins and raise you our disembodied souls called dybbuks, our heroic but ultimately uncontrollable mud man called the Golem, our plethora of ghosts, and a 1960s-era Frankensteinish monster. Additionally, the nighttime wedding ceremony that some Eastern European Jewish shtetls desperately held in a cemetery probably felt more than a bissel macabre.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for Jewish music and comedy that just may scare the skullcap off of you. (Bwa ha ha ha ha…) You’ll hear dybbuk tunes by fiddler Alicia Svigals, composer Leonard Bernstein, and the klez-lounge Kabalas; dark comedy by funny-mensch Lenny Bruce and the cast of “You Don’t Have to Be Jewish”; songs of darkness by Yiddish bands Tsibele and Klezmania, and veteran klezmorim the Khevrisa Ensemble; ghostly tunes by experimentalists Negativland, parodist Mickey Katz, and the Grammy-winning Klezmatics; a howl-out to Jewish werewolves by comics Jeff Richmond and Tracy Jordan; Golem odes by vocalist Geoff Berner, ensemble Davka, and composer Joseph Achron; and an authentically scary 1916 Yiddish tune about an actual plague revisited by crooners Sveta Kundish and Daniel Kahn.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can hear "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET and Monday at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

19/10/2024

The packed Jewish holiday season culminates this week with Simchas Torah, the day for Rejoicing with the Hebrew Bible. Jews complete the annual cycle of public Torah readings and begin anew by chanting from the first chapter of Genesis. There’s singing and dancing with the Torah scrolls. Some revelers may drink a toast.

Whether you believe the Torah to be the literal word of God, human writings inspired by God, or a multi-sourced document compiled over the centuries, the Torah remains central to Judaism. Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show as we mark Simchas Torah with a celebratory global Jewish playlist plus a mash-up of Torah-derived African-American spirituals.

You’ll hear newly released Torah-parading music by composer/trumpeter Frank London and his All-Star Hakafos Band, plus a variety of recordings by klezmer artists Leon Schwartz, Abe Katzman’s Bessarabian Orchestra (from Brooklyn), and The Klezmatics; vocalists The Barry Sisters and Jan Bart, a choir of Rusape Jews of Zimbabwe, Rabbi Michel Twerski, a choir of Abayudaya Jews of Uganda, Maurice Friedman accompanied by Susie Michael, and a choir from the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue; rockers Moshav Band and The Messengers; early Yiddish revivalists Simkhat Hanefesh; jazz cats David Chevan and Warren Byrd; and spiritual singers Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Louis Armstrong, The Dixie Hummingbirds, Paul Robeson, and The Ames Brothers.

You can hear “Sounds Jewish” Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can stream "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 2 pm and 8 pm ET and Monday at 2 am and 8 am ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can stream archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

11/10/2024

If you’re thinking about a Jewish holiday, probably your mind is on Yom Kippur. But the loaded autumn Jewish calendar soon brings us Sukkos – and Jews must transition quickly from the Day of Atonement to the Festival of Ingathering, from seeking forgiveness for missing the mark to locating the screwdriver for building the sukkah, the Sukkos holiday’s celebratory and utilitarian hut.

Sukkos -- pronounced by many as Sukkot and a few as Sikos -- is a major pilgrimage holiday also known as the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Season of our Joy. No wonder it lasts a week. Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show as I bring you a global playlist of Jewy tunes articulating Sukkos’ varied themes.

You’ll hear recordings by vocalists Anthony Russell with klezmer trio Veretski Pass, Martha Schlamme, Matisyahu, an Uzbeki Jewish chorus, Cantor Louis Danto, Arik Einstein, Ruth Rubin, Ilana Robina with Hadudaim, Aaron Bensoussan, Consuelo Luz, Geula Gil with the Oranim Zabar Troupe, Alica Jo Rabins with Girls in Trouble, and hip-hoppers Y-Love and Yuri Lane; composer/trumpeter Frank London and band; and the Bingham Quartet playing a Jacob Weinberg piece.

You can hear “Sounds Jewish” Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can stream "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 2 pm and 8 pm ET and Monday at 2 am and 8 am ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can stream archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

05/10/2024

I don’t mean to sermonize, but we're coming up on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement®. A fast day that seems to proceed ever so slowly, Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year and the last official Jewish chance to get yourself right with the universe as the proverbial Book of Life closes for the coming year.

The soul-searching Yom Kippur liturgy inspires some of Judaism's most haunting and beautiful music. And that’s what you’ll hear on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show. I’ll share recordings by classic Cantors Yossele Rosenblatt, Selmar Cerini, Maurice Ganchoff, and Hermann Jadlowker; women’s band Divahn; vocalists Leonard Cohen (riffing on liturgy), Fortuna (with a Sephardi prayer), Basya Schechter (singing text by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel), Sasha Lurje (with the Zisl Slepovitch Ensemble), Rabbi Gershom Sizomu (with Abayudaya congregants), a North American Federation of Temple Youth choir, and Ben Sidran (who’s also on piano); clarinetist Andy Statman; pianola-ist Bob Berkman; and the jazzy Afro-Semitic Experience.

You can hear “Sounds Jewish” Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can stream "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 2 pm and 8 pm ET and Monday at 2 am and 8 am ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can stream archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

28/09/2024

Rosh Hashanah – literally, the head of the Jewish year – arrives this week. Rosh Hashanah is the world’s birthday, according to Jewish tradition, and begins the Ten Days of Awe that culminate in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

This is our time to work on becoming our best selves as individuals, family members, friends, and community participants. In part, that means seeking forgiveness from those we’ve wronged. And we shouldn’t neglect to forgive ourselves for missing the mark. Heck, I’m several-plus decades into this life thing and I’m still nowhere near perfect.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” as we welcome the new year 5785 with Rosh Hashanah and Rosh Hashanah-adjacent music from many Jewish traditions. You’ll hear recordings by classic Cantors Zavel Kwartin, David Roitman, and Ben Zion Shenker with a chorus and orchestra; contemporary Cantors Ramon Tasat with Ladino songstress Flory Jagoda, and David Abikzaer; singers Leonard Cohen with Cantor Gideon Zelermeyer and a synagogue choir, Fortuna, Daniel Kahn with The Painted Bird, Lynette with jazz cats Ben Sidran and Lew Soloff, Rabbi Michel Twerski, Marcel Lang with the Bait Jaffe Klezmer Orchestra, and the team of Psoy Korolenko, Sophie Milman and Sergei Erdenko from the Grammy-nominated album “Yiddish Glory”; pianist Marilyn Lerner; and the Afro-Semitic Experience with trumpeter Frank London.

You can hear “Sounds Jewish” Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can stream "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 2 pm and 8 pm ET and Monday at 2 am and 8 am ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can stream archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

Have a sweet, happy, healthy, and soon peaceful Jewish new year 5785!

21/09/2024

The Gregorian calendar is flipping to autumn with its colorful and falling leaves – or metaphorical “baskets full of gold,” as Yiddish songwriter Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman put it. Of course, there’s also an uptick in rain and an increasing chill in the air. And let’s not forget raking, that metaphorical “butt full of pain.”

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show as we welcome autumn with Jewish songs of the season in Yiddish and Hebrew plus a vintage interview with Jewish football great Sid Luckman, who deftly hurled the ol’ pigskin every autumn from 1936-1950.

In addition to Luckman, you’ll hear tracks featuring klezmorim Veretski Pass, The Burning Bush, the San Francisco Klezmer Experience with vocalist Jeanette Lewicki, and You Shouldn’t Know from It with vocalist Sasha Lurje; Mizrahi Persian-influenced women’s ensemble Divahn; Yiddish vocalists Chava Alberstein, Yankl Falk with Yale Strom and Hot Pstromi, the Barry Sisters, Nathan “Prince” Nazaroff, Wolf Krakowski, Michael Alpert with Janet Leuchter, and Basia Friedman; and Hebrew singers Shye Ben Tzur with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and Avram Grobard with the El Avram Group.

You can hear “Sounds Jewish” Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can stream "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 2 pm and 8 pm ET and Monday at 2 am and 8 am ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can stream archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

14/09/2024

We find ourselves in the Hebrew month of Elul, hurtling toward Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement™). Traditionally, Jews use Elul as a time for identifying and admitting our sins in order to atone (which can be emotionally and psychologically cleansing, albeit not the least bit fun).

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for an eclectic playlist of songs about sinning. It’s all meant – as a public service, mind you – to gently remind us all of some of the sins we may need to cop to at the close of this Hebrew year 5784.

You’ll hear tracks by Judeo-Spanish singers Gerard Edery with oudist George Mgrdichian, and Glory Levy; the ribald Sophie Tucker; Yiddish vocalists Martha Schlamme, Theodore Bikel, Fraidy Katz, and Wolf Krakowski; comic singers Tom Lehrer and Lee Tully; Israeli world-music band Esta (with your Elul shofar blasts); klezmer kapelyes Finjan and Frank London's Klezmer Brass AllStars; the cast of the opera “Gimpel the Fool”; and singer/trumpeter Louis Armstrong (with your Bible lesson).

You can hear “Sounds Jewish” Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can stream "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 2 pm and 8 pm ET and Monday at 2 am and 8 am ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can stream archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

07/09/2024

We've entered the Hebrew month of Elul, which some Jews utilize as an annual personal turning point. Elul kicks off the 40-day period in which we’re urged to seek teshuva – repentance – through self-reflection that leads to asking forgiveness from those we've wronged. Some of us recite selichos, penitential prayers. This process culminates in the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Okay, today’s mini-lecture is complete, but please join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for a an eclectic and inspiring global Jewish playlist about getting yourself right with God (if you so believe) and other people. You’ll hear stirring instrumental tracks by clarinetist Giora Feidman & Ensemble, guitarist Yosi Piamenta with his flutist brother Avi, and London’s Yiddish Twist Orchestra; and recordings of prayer or contemplation by vocalists Galeet Dardashti, Cantor Maurice Ganchoff, Nina Simone, Zusha, Cantor Ramon Tasat with Marcelo Moguilevsky and Cesar Lerner, Cantor Louis Danto, Nani Vazana, Jo Amar, H. Borbolis, Eli Mellul, Miriam Raziel, and Ben Sidran.

You can hear “Sounds Jewish” Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on MPB Music Radio and its livestream. You also can stream "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 2 pm and 8 pm ET and Monday at 2 am and 8 am ET – at www.radio-j.com. And you can stream archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

Sounds Jewish radio show