Seth Rogovoy frequently writes about the intersection of popular culture and Jewish themes, affinities, personalities, and other less well-known connections. The majority of these pieces have been published in The Forward as part of the ‘Secret Jewish History’ series.
Rock historian Seth Rogovoy and Boston University music professor Jeremy Yudkin will talk about the Jewish affinities of Bob Dylan and the Beatles in upcoming virtual conversations for Toronto’s Virtual J.(TORONTO) – Rock historian Seth Rogovoy and Boston University music professor Jeremy Yudkin will join forces in February for two virtual, multimedia explorations of the…
by Seth Rogovoy (FORWARD) – Actor Patrick Stewart, who turned 80 on Monday, July 13, 2020, isn’t Jewish. But that didn’t stop him from assuming — incorrectly — for well over half his life that a mohel, or someone with a very sharp implement, had removed his foreskin shortly after birth. On a TV…
by Seth Rogovoy Ringo Starr isn’t Jewish, but that didn’t stop a group of Canadian separatists from issuing a death threat against Starr for “being Jewish” in September 1964, before the Beatles were scheduled to perform in Montreal. Starr reportedly wound up playing the concert with an armed bodyguard seated beside him, with his ride…
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Author Seth Rogovoy will deliver a virtual multimedia presentation called “The Kabbalah of Bob Dylan” on Thursday, June 18, at 7pm, as part of the Yiddish Book Center’s ongoing series of Virtual Public Programs. In the talk, which includes narration, song clips, and video, Rogovoy will review Bob Dylan’s life and career…
by Seth Rogovoy (HUDSON, N.Y., April 24, 2020) — In the past few weeks, Bob Dylan has released two new songs, “Murder Most Foul” and “I Contain Multitudes,” which people have combed for references to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Never mind that these songs were most likely written and recorded months if not years…
by Seth Rogovoy In the new documentary film, “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band,” Robertson – The Band’s main songwriter and guitarist – tells the story of how he finally learned of his Jewish heritage and how his Jewish relatives in Toronto embraced him and opened a whole new world of “vision” to…
by Seth Rogovoy (April 17, 2020) – Oops, he did it again. In the deep, dark, blackness of the night, the Mystic Oracle of Hibbing let drop a new utterance. Today, we awoke to the new sounds of Bob Dylan’s “I Contain Multitudes,” just three weeks after Dylan stunned believers and non-believers alike with a…
by Seth Rogovoy Bob Dylan’s ‘Murder Most Foul‘, a newly released, 17-minute ballad about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, is not only a work of epic genius – formally, structurally, and otherwise – but, like the Talmud itself, it veritably demands a close reading in order to comprehend fully what the Nobel…
by Seth Rogovoy World-renowned Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki – widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the last half-century — died on Sunday, March 29, at the age of 86. While you may have never heard of Penderecki, you almost definitely have heard his music, and probably more than once. Penderecki has…
by Seth Rogovoy Is U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a Talmudic scholar or a Bob Dylan fan? Or both? Close students of Dylan and the Talmud immediately recognized Guterres’s assessment that “a wind of madness is sweeping the globe” as an allusion to one or both of these original sources. Read more at The…
