by Elaine Durbach
NJJN Bureau Chief/Central

March 5, 2009

It seems like time has tested the music our parents hated and it has withstood that test; for some of us at least, rock still rules. And the cool thing is the next generation seems to like it, too.

This weekend the JCC of Central New Jersey is offering the second in its Split Level Concert series, featuring younger-generation rocker Natalia Zukerman on Saturday, March 7.

The concert series, the brainchild of local music lovers Mark and Arlene Klemow, drew a capacity crowd for its opening concert featuring folk rocker Willie Nile on Jan. 31. A performance by Arlan Feiles at the YM-YWHA of Union County on March 14 is also drawing an eager audience.

Zukerman emerged from a family immersed in classical music but, like a true rock rebel, she took another route. Her parents are renowned in the classical music world — violinist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman and flutist and writer Eugenia Zukerman — and her sister Arianna is an opera singer. Natalia grew up studying the violin, but once she began playing the guitar and writing her own songs, her musical horizons erupted. She blends all kinds of guitar styles with deeply personal lyrics, producing what she dubs “diary rock.”

Rock icons

The event this Saturday at the JCC also marks the start of “Jews Rock! A Celebration of Rock and Roll’s Jewish Heritage,” a three-week-long exhibition of photographs by photojournalist Janet Macoska.

The pictures celebrate all those icons who dispelled the notion that Jewish kids were too nerdy to be cool. They range from Bette Midler and Janis Ian to Paula Abdul, from Neil Diamond to Bob Dylan and Gene Simmons of KISS, from Lou Reed to Kenny G., to Orthodox performer Matisyahu.

The list runs so long, it begins to look as if Jews dominate rock the way they prevailed in the comic book industry. But Macoska, who grew up as an avid rock fan in Cleveland in the ’60s and ’70s, said she had never registered just how many of the stars she photographed were Jewish. It was pointed out to her by Cleveland businessman and a fellow fan Brad Pyner.

She wasn’t alone in her ignorance. Macoska suggests most of the musicians kept a low profile about their religious identity so as to be accepted by the American mainstream. But six decades of success “allow for revelation and celebration.” When she thought about sharing that success story with the Jewish community, she says, “a megawatt light bulb exploded over my head.”

She had already photographed just about everyone Pyner listed for her. The result was this new show, a book of the same name, and a DVD featuring yet another rock fan, Rabbi Brian Leiken of Temple Shalom in Norwalk, Conn., who uses the story of rock and roll as a teaching tool with his congregants.

Leiken himself will speak at the JCC on Sunday, March 29, presenting a multimedia “musical journey” with behind-the-scenes anecdotes about Jewish rockers and the Jewish influences that steered their rise to stardom.

Exhibit photos, catalogue photos, and the companion book — all signed by Macoska — will be available for purchase throughout the exhibit. Proceeds will go to the JCC.

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