Yiddish lullaby “Unter Beymer” performed by Isle of Klezbos (Melissa Fogarty sings) at Joe’s Pub NYC on June 24, 2025. This melody by Alexander Olshanetsky is back-engineered to resemble an aria from “Halka”: Both songs from Moishe Oysher’s 1940 Yiddish film “Overture to Glory” youtu.be/_f0DwUswAvw

A musician, Oriana Korol, was peacefully playing clarinet with her protest band outside ICE facilities in Portland, OR. When the band started playing “Ghostbusters,” ICE thugs suddenly poured outside, slammed her into the mud, arrested her and took her to a jail 9 miles away in Vancouver, WA.

Greta Thunberg: “Israeli soldiers hit, kicked, starved, and tortured me” • They placed a flag next to me, and anytime the flag touched me, they kicked me • Whenever I raised my head to look at Ben-Gvir, I was kicked • She was filmed while stripped naked Aftonbladet: tinyurl.com/a33vxatc

looks interesting, I registered. the author is one of the original klezmer revival dudes of the 70s & interviewed a lot of old timers when they were still around.

this rocks. when indiana edu killed the student newspaper, Purdue stepped up, printed the forbidden issue, drove it to Bloomington and stocked the boxes.

Hundreds of folks this morning in Larchmont NY #nokings So much honking in support including enormous trucks on I-95

Earlybird $10 discount this holiday weekend only: Isle of Klezbos plays Westchester’s Emelin Theatre on Sunday afternoon, Dec 7th. Use code FALL10 (til noon this Tuesday). Tell your friends! We’ll bring our all-gal sextet to this Mamaroneck NY stage 2pm all ages. Tickets: emelin.org/event/isle-o...

Sun, Nov 2 “The Front” screens at Borscht Belt Film Fest www.borschtbeltfilmfest.org/films2025 Zero Mostel’s McCarthy-era showbiz role resembles his real life story in a Catskills resort episode. I’m a guest panelist for this all-too-relevant, brilliant movie also ft Herschel Bernardi & Woody Allen

I’ll be a guest panelist for “The Front” screening Nov 2nd at the Borscht Belt Film Festival: Set in Blacklist-era showbiz, starring Zero Mostel on location in da Catskills (directed by Martin Ritt, with Woody Allen in the title role) borschtbeltfilmfest.org/films2025

We’ll play Symphony Space on Thursday, Dec 11: Isle of Klezbos debut for the Revelry concert series on NYC’s Upper West Side! Tickets now www.symphonyspace.org/events/revel...

oof, my research took me here... this is Milton Kestenbaum (1914–2004), a well known orchestral bassist & one of the sons of the Kestenbaum musician families from Przemyśl I'm looking into. here he was being interrogated by the Committee on Un-American Activities in '56😮‍💨 archive.org/details/sim_...

It’s not a crime to be in this country as an undocumented person. It’s a civil violation. But you know what is a crime? Taking a bribe from undercover agents in exchange for the promise of government contracts WHEN YOU’RE THE FCKING BORDER CZAR.

Isle of Klezbos latest video “Mosholu Barbecue” at Joe’s Pub: Original klezmer boogaloo by our reedplayer Debra Kreisberg. Featuring Debra on sax, Pam Fleming trumpet, Shoko Nagai piano, Dave Hofstra upright bass & me on drums. I love this piece! Great lines, solos, grooves youtu.be/LWATZqNL0P0?...

My small contribution to writing on Ukraine, published thanks to the @forward.com At the end you can also read my translation of Dovid Hofshteyn’s poem “Ukraine” forward.com/yiddish-worl...

Truly insane post from The Federalist, which includes the recommendation that the government pressure tech companies to limit access to BlueSky because of the reaction to Kirk's death thefederalist.com/2025/09/15/w...

Klezmer Brunch weather today! Isle of Klezbos plays City Winery NYC 12pm-2pm. Doors just opened. Tickets: citywinery.com/new-york-cit...

Prepping for my talk this Saturday at Borscht Belt Museum festival, found this @jewishcurrents.bsky.social retro blog. Henry Foner had also presented this memoir in 1997 at Phil Brown’s Catskills Institute conference (where I was also a participant, invited with Metropolitan Klezmer to play too!)

Support Mohammed And Family in Gaza To Survive And Rebuild! via a friend who knows him personally for years. She relays: Mohammed has been losing his teeth to malnutrition & has gone in vain to “aid” death traps, donation buys exorbitant black market flour which he shares chuffed.org/project/1227...

They smashed his window & beat him & left him bloodied with 9 stitches because he didn’t have his lights on. During the day.

‘How Are You Going to Survive?’: Doctor Describes ‘Horrific’ Humanitarian Situation in Gaza zeteo.com/p/how-are-...

This Sunday at noon: Isle of Klezbos returns to City Winery Klezmer Brunch! $5 off advance tickets (our last show this summer). Doors open 11am for nosh & bar, 5-piece band 12pm-1:30pm on CW’s Loft Stage citywinery.com/new-york-cit...

Our @citywinery.bsky.social NYC Klezmer Brunch this coming Sunday, July 27 is a Brooklyn Vegan music pick! This will be our last public show of the summer & you can save $5 with advance reservations. 12 noon Klezbos showtime, doors open 11 AM. Tickets here: citywinery.com/new-york-cit...

Wow—the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (named after Raphael Lemkin, a Holocaust survivor who coined the term genocide) says plainly: "No more discussions, meetings, reports, sessions, summits…IF YOU HAVE THE POWER, YOU MUST USE IT." "HISTORY WILL DETERMINE THE RECTITUDE OF YOUR ACTIONS."

Hudson Valley mini-tour starts tomorrow! Mohonk 9pm Thursday & @rosendaletheatre this Friday 8pm: ISLE of KLEZBOS fabulous quartet special Debra Kreisberg - clarinet and saxophone Pam Fleming - trumpet Shoko Nagai - accordion and piano Eve Sicular - drums |bandleader Klezbos.com for all info

thanks all who came to our garden concert this Sunday. Isle of Klezbos sextet “Full Blossom” show at El Sol Brillante NYC was graced also by poet/activist Irena Klepfisz — more on her amazing readings soon. We played two “Music from Yentl” songs by Jill Sobule & “My Zelda” too to honor Jill’s memory

Setting up for today’s free concert! Isle of Klezbos & Irena Klepfisz at El Sol Brillante Garden, East Village NYC 4pm-6pm outdoors. elsolbrillante.org/event/isle-o...

Isle of Klezbos plays our free concert 4pm-6pm Sunday in NYC’s East Village at El Sol Brillante Garden. Full sextet & our special guest, Yiddishist /activist Irena Klepfisz: winner of the Audre Lorde Lesbian Poetry prize & the Adrienne Cooper “Dreaming in Yiddish” award. evccnyc.org/blog/2025/07...

Hmmmm

About our special guest Irena Klepfisz for Sunday’s FREE concert at El Sol Brillante Garden 522 E 12 St with Isle of Klezbos sextet 7/13, 4pm-6pm East Village NYC. Band photos here by Albie Mitchell from summers past (“Full Blossom” rain location: Sixth Street Synagogue) evccnyc.org/blog/2025/07...

“Trump is creating a secret police that will be better funded than the Marines” should be the all caps headline every Democrat is running with, and only partly because I’m sick of having to be the one who tells friends and family about it.

Two weeks ago today, Donald Trump’s ICE agents arrested me. Now, he’s threatening to put @zohrankmamdani in a prison camp he’s building in a Florida swamp. It’s frightening. It’s essential to fight back. It makes me proud of how New Yorkers voted last week – and how we’ll vote again in November.

#1 in Social Networking Apps. Let’s keep it that way. Tell everyone you know about ICEBlock!

Seeing a lot of racist pinkwashing bullshit about Muslims and homosexuality and it’s a good time to share how I was on the gay marriage beat for a decade and racist gays never believed me when I shared how US Muslims favored equal LGBT rights (52%) over Christian evangelicals (34%)!

I know the media is going to unthinkingly start using “Alligator Alcatraz,” but it’s disgusting and sadistic and I intend to call it what it is, a fucking concentration camp, and fuck those people who are doing this and giving it a cutesy name.

Exactly. Few know Collins’ MO better.

IU has the oldest Folklore Department in the country--no longer a major. Cognitive Science? gone! PhD programs also sacrificed. Full list here: www.in.gov/che/files/In...

Many of the programs are revered or unique. It’s clear that legislators in Indiana do not even understand what some of these fields even are, including some in the sciences. That they would dismantle 1/5 of the programs at a respected flagship institution shows profound ignorance about higher ed.

If a bill kicks millions off Medicaid, shuts down rural hospitals, and hikes the deficit—why the hell would you vote for it? Just a crazy idea: vote NO on a Big Bullshit Bill.

Free outdoor concert: East Village “Full Blossom” Isle of Klezbos sextet at El Sol Brillante Garden! Sunday 7/13 4pm-6pm, with Yiddishist poet activist Irena Klepfisz as our MC. Open to the public: 522 E 12th St NYC, Aves A/B (rain location Sixth Street Synagogue) elsolbrillante.org/event/isle-o...

Tom’w night Sun 6/29 Metropolitan Klezmer in Beacon NY: Our Towne Crier six-piece band graced Joe’s Pub NYC stage this week too. Tix: townecrier.com/events/metro... Special for this show, two songs remembering Jill Sobule & her “Music from Yentl” we played together. Photos @qbertplaya.bsky.social

brilliant clarity thanks @mashagessen.bsky.social

People in wheelchairs are getting arrested right now in the Russell Senate Office Building in DC. They showed up to tell Congress not to cut their Medicaid, because they cant afford health care without it. If you look closely you can see the zip ties on their hands. #WeWontGetOverLosingMedicaid

Our highest court has endorsed the administration’s right to disappear people to potential torture in third party countries without due process. This is authoritarianism, period.

The story is not yet written about our political future as a nation.

the woman who made Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala, and Monsoon Wedding somehow also blessed us with this 😭

Big Balls has resigned! Let their DOGE involvement follow them all for the rest of their lives! His name is Edward Coristine.

In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it’s done. My friends, it is done. And you are the ones who did it. I am honored to be your Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City.

There’s just so much: the victory of a new political talent, the loss of an old tyrant, the possibilities of alliance & positive strategizing, the hope for a more just future, the cracking of the last generation’s stranglehold on power. Also the joy and force of Tish James! Listen to her voice!

There really is something special about what Zohran and Brad are showing the rest of the world what it still means to be a New Yorker and an American. A Jew and a Muslim modeling a politics of mutual respect, rejecting cynicism. Human decency has been taking a beating but she's not out just yet!