A Hot-Ticket Benefit Supports “Jews, Rock & Roll” at City Winery, NYC
This coming Tuesday, May 26, there will be a benefit fundraiser in New York City for the “Jews, Rock & Roll” pop-up museum, a new exhibit that will be traveling the country over the next two to three years. In addition to raising money to support the museum, the event will be honoring legendary songwriter and producer, Mike Stoller. Stoller will be presenting the museum with a signed score of the hit song “Hound Dog,” co-written with his longtime partner, Jerry Leiber. The benefit will also feature the world premiere of a 30-minute film about the history of Jews in popular music by Dr. Ben Sidran, Exhibit Consultant and author of the National Jewish Book Award Finalist There Was a Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream, and himself a musician, performer and journalist.
A private donor has graciously provided initial support for “Jews, Rock & Roll” to briefly open its doors for this one night, for a launch benefit at the venerated New York music venue, City Winery. Music impresario of 30 years, City Winery owner Michael Dorf, founder of the Knitting Factory, is executive producer and co-creator of the museum, along with David Franklin, curator and co-creator. Franklin, a Jewish communal professional with more than 25 years of Jewish non-profit and arts promotion experience, is director of the International Jewish Presenters Association and the Schmooze: The Jewish Culture Conference.
The museum will feature untold stories about Jews in popular music from the 1930s to the present. “Even as the Jews were searching for America, America was searching for the Jews,” says Sidran, pointing out that few observers know the true story of the Jews behind the hits in American popular music. “Jews wrote it, published it, performed it, produced it, promoted it and even named it. Now is a good time for them to claim it, not just to memorialize their past but to insure their future.”
This exhibit also explores how a small group of immigrants had such a significant and positive influence in shaping American pop culture. Says Sidran, “Jews comprise only 20% of the general US population, and yet they have contributed to 80% of all aspects of the music industry.” This exhibit will include stories of great musicians, but also of the people who helped make American popular music what it is: the Chess Brothers and Rick Rubin, Greil Marcus and Clive Davis, Milt Gabler and Moe Asch. Focusing on the stories of these people and their role in the evolution of American popular music, opens a rich conversation about the intersection between ethnicity, religion, and popular culture, and how the margins of American culture help define the mainstream.
“The music we call rock and roll didn’t come out of nowhere,” adds Dorf. “Its roots go deep into the American experience and you don’t have to dig too far to discover a strong Jewish presence in the rock and roll ecology. Our goal is to shine a light on that presence.”
Curator Franklin adds, “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tells a lot of great stories, many of which have Jewish components that are not told there. This exhibit tells not only the story of the Jews in America, but the story of their cultural entrepreneurship. Some of them embraced their Judaism, some rebelled, but their overall influence on entertainment generally and on rock & roll specifically cannot be underestimated.”
REBEAT will be presenting a more in-depth article about this exciting project, which is expected to reach more than half a million people when it begins its cross-country tour in the spring of 2016, after the benefit.
To get tickets for Tuesday night’s benefit at City Winery in NYC, please visit jewsrockandroll.com.
