Sounds Jewish radio show

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Sounds Jewish radio show Themed radio program of Jewish music & comedy hosted by Andy Muchin. Sundays & streaming on MPB Music radio. Also on Radio-J.com & other stations.

Weekly themed radio show showcasing Jewish music and comedy. Sundays and streaming on MPB Music Radio. Also on Radio-J.com and other stations.

If you’ve been celebrating Khanike (i.e., Chanuka[h]/Hanuk[k]a[h]) this past week, you’ve probably lit a boxful of candl...
20/12/2025

If you’ve been celebrating Khanike (i.e., Chanuka[h]/Hanuk[k]a[h]) this past week, you’ve probably lit a boxful of candles, eaten mounds of latkes (potato pancakes) or sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), exchanged gifts, spun your dreidel, and noshed on bisl chocolate gelt (bit of coin-shaped candies).

No doubt you’re also still grieving the 15 Australians who were murdered by gunmen while attending or walking past a Khanike celebration December 14th at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. One way to deal with that anguish is to share the light of Khanike. Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show as I bring you an hour of Khanike songs that I hope you’ll find meaningful.

You’ll hear tracks by singer/songwriters Debbie Friedman, Basya Schechter with Pharaoh’s Daughter, Cantor Laura Berkson, and the trio of Peter, Paul & Mary; liturgical singers Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, Jo Amar with the Mizmor Shir Choir, and Cantor Moshe Haschel and the New London Children’s Choir; Yiddish vocalists Socalled with the Kaiser Quartet, and Jordan Wax; the Grammy-winning Klezmatics; rockers Yo La Tengo; rappers Hip Hop Hoodios; reggae band The Temple Rockers; and the jazzy Frank London Big Band.

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.

Khanike -- the Festival of Lights that you may know as Chanukah, Hanukkah or Januca -- is a multi-faceted Jewish celebra...
14/12/2025

Khanike -- the Festival of Lights that you may know as Chanukah, Hanukkah or Januca -- is a multi-faceted Jewish celebration of religious freedom and carrying light into the world. The eight-day celebration features fried treats such as latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) and four-sided spinning tops called dreidels. Khanike isn’t really about the gifts, though I wouldn’t say no to a ‘55 Thunderbird. Powder blue, if possible.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for the first of two programs celebrating Khanike with classic festival recordings – old and new. You’ll hear tracks by Cantors Moishe Oysher (with daughter Shoshanna) and Pierre Pinchik; The Klezmatics in a newly released live take on a Woody Guthrie tune; Judeo-Spanish singer/songwriter Flory Jagoda; Yiddish vocalist Martha Schlamme; actors and actresses performing a Khanike play on a 1953 set of 78 rpm records; women’s ensemble Divahn; humorous singer/songwriters Tom Lehrer and Adam Sandler; comical rockers The LeeVees; the jazzy Trio Globo; acoustic guitarist Jeremiah Lockwood; folksinger Malvina Reynolds; and the rockin’ duo of Peter Himmelman and David Broza.

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.

You might think that every month would be Jewish Book Month for the People of the Book. Actually, we’re in the midst of ...
06/12/2025

You might think that every month would be Jewish Book Month for the People of the Book. Actually, we’re in the midst of "only" the 100th Jewish Book Month in the United States – and then only in a manner of speaking.

In the early 1920s, Boston public librarian/bibliographer/editor F***y Goldstein created Jewish Book Week to celebrate Jewish literature. In 1925, Jewish communities across the country signed on. In 1943, Goldstein’s National Committee for Jewish Book Week expanded the celebration into Jewish Book Month – slotting it into the 30 days preceding Chanukah.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” for a centennial Jewish Book Month celebration featuring bookish songs, recitations of Jewish literature by A-list actors and authors, and a spot-on bit from the 2,000 Year Old Man. You’ll hear Eli Wallach and Howard Da Silva reading Yiddish stories in translation; Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and Talmudist Judah Goldin reciting from their works; Yiddish songs by Adrienne Cooper with Malkah Lerner, and Emil Gorovets with Zalmen Mlotek; klezmer from Canadian band Oktopus; jazz from Canadian reedman Moe Koffman; biblical rock from Girls in Trouble; biblical pop from Stereo Sinai; tongue-in-cheek maternal advice from comedienne Gertrude Berg; and Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner discussing ancient “literature.”

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.

In Israel, November 30th is the annual Day of Commemoration for the 850,000 Jewish refugees who were displaced from Arab...
29/11/2025

In Israel, November 30th is the annual Day of Commemoration for the 850,000 Jewish refugees who were displaced from Arab countries and Iran in the 20th century. In the United States, the non-profit organization JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa has designated November as Mizrahi Remembrance Month. The goal: to honor the histories and descendants of Jewish communities from North Africa, Central Asia, West Asia, and the North Caucasus mountains.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for a wide-ranging playlist of historic and contemporary songs featuring Jews with Mizrahi roots. From Israel, you’ll hear songstress and Yemeni descendant Ofra Haza, Moroccan-born crooner Jo Amar, singer/songwriter Shye Ben Tzur with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Rajasthan Express, Moroccan-born bandleader Shlomo Bar with his band Natural Gathering, rocking Dudu Tassa & The Kuwaitis reworking a tune by Tassa’s Iraqi great-uncle, as well as choruses of Tunisian, Moroccan, and Uzbeki immigrants. From the United States, you’ll hear Iraqi-born violinist Hakki Obadia, singer/songwriter Galeet Dardashti with her late Iraqi grandfather Hazzan Younes Dardashti, Bukharan ensemble Shashmaqam, and Mizrahi band Za’atar. You’ll also hear a dance tune from a Caucusus Mountains-based button accordionist, and a North African Jewish liturgical tune from French band Naguila.

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.

Thanksgiving, which arrives next week, has its pros and cons. While celebrating the autumn harvest and the Pilgrims’ sur...
22/11/2025

Thanksgiving, which arrives next week, has its pros and cons. While celebrating the autumn harvest and the Pilgrims’ survival in 1621, the holiday’s traditional turkey dinner also marks a turning point in Native Americans’ loss of the lower-48 — not to mention the accelerated victimization of barnyard fowl. At least Thanksgiving annually reminds us humans (as opposed to the turkeys) to offer gratitude for the positives in our lives.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio program for a global playlist of Jewish songs and shtick about thankfulness, hospitality — and dinner. You’ll hear tracks by Yiddish singers the Barry Sisters, Michael Alpert and Ben Schaechter, Nathan “Prince” Nazaroff, and Fraidy Katz; klezmorim The Klezmatics and Dave Tarras; Yinglish parodist Mickey Katz; singer/songwriters Noam “Nani” Vazana, Mark Rubin-Jew of Oklahoma, and Daniel Cainer; comic vocalist Billy Hodes; Hebrew singers Martha Schlamme, Idan Raichel with Vieux Farka Touré́, and a group of Abayudaya Jews of Uganda; hospitable crooner Purim Abramova of the Caucusus; and comedienne and TV pioneer Gertrude Berg.

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.

A great attribute of Jewish music – and, frankly, much of Judaism – is its capacity to evolve. Composers and musicians e...
15/11/2025

A great attribute of Jewish music – and, frankly, much of Judaism – is its capacity to evolve. Composers and musicians express Jewish ideas and beliefs through a genre that changes with time and place – yet maintains core rhythms, sounds, or lyrics.

Jewish music has continued to develop in 5785-5786. Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for an hour of some of the most intriguing new releases of North American Jewish songs and instrumentals – everything from klezmer to electronica, jazz to folk, and liturgical to political.

You’ll hear tracks by Yiddish performers Jordan Wax, Éléonore Weill, Hal Aqua and the Lost Tribe, Brivele, and Ira Khonen Temple; Cantor Arie Ovadia; DJ Chaia; klezmorim Yene Velt, Adrianne Greenbaum, Michael Winograd and Ira Khonen Temple, Siach Hasadeh, Joseph Moskowitz, Levitt & Son, and the duo of Jake Shulman-Ment and Abigale Reisman; the jazzy Hazzan Jeremy Stein & Mitchell Shiner; and singer/songwriter Mark Rubin-Jew of Oklahoma.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on Mississippi Public Broadcasting 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. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

We’re approaching the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. On the dark side of Nov. 9th to 10th...
08/11/2025

We’re approaching the 87th 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. They burned more than 1,000 synagogues and damaged or destroyed more than 7,000 Jewish-owned businesses. Broken glass littered the streets. Kristallnacht signaled the Nazis’ shift from anti-Jewish laws to the butchery of the Holocaust.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for a global playlist that conveys the horrors of Kristallnacht and recalls the oppression of Jews throughout history. You’ll hear tracks by Yiddish performers Bente Kahan, Olga Avigail Mieleszczuk with the Payadora Tango Ensemble, Brave Old World, and Black Rooster Kapelye; Hazzan Albert Mizrahi with David Chevan and the Afro-Semitic Experience; flutist Adrianne Greenbaum; Yiddish/English performers Brivele and Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird; instrumentalists Anthony Coleman, Marc Ribot, Mark Feldman, and William Winant wailing on a John Zorn tune; singer/songwriters King Virtue and Charlie King; pianist Daniel Wnukowski performing a piece by Kristallnacht survivor Walter Arlen; Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble playing a piece dedicated to Marlow’s Kristallnacht-surviving aunt; and the all-star Semer Ensemble performing a tune originally recorded on the Semer record label, which was severely damaged on Kristallnacht.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on Mississippi Public Broadcasting 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. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

Rock ‘n’ roll owes more than a bisl (little) to Jewish performers and promoters, and not only because traditional Jews a...
01/11/2025

Rock ‘n’ roll owes more than a bisl (little) to Jewish performers and promoters, and not only because traditional Jews are known for rocking (shuckling) while praying.

Alan Freed, the Cleveland disc jockey who popularized the term “rock ‘n’ roll” and brought African-American rhythm ‘n’ blues to white audiences, had a Jewish father. The “king of rock ‘n’ roll,” Elvis Presley, came from a maternal line of Jewesses. Even Nobel laureate Bob Dylan – born Robert Zimmerman to Jewish parents in Hibbing, MN – has toured the world singing his folk, rock, and Americana tunes when he wasn’t leading a gospel band.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show as we celebrate the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame’s 40th annual induction ceremony on Nov. 8th with Jewy tracks by Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famers – some Jewish and some not. You’ll hear popular and obscure songs by new inductees Warren Zevon and Chubby Checker; veteran inductees Dylan, Elvis, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Rush, Lou Reed, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Randy Newman, The Beastie Boys, and The Ventures; and great-if-not-Hall-of-Fame performers The Fugs, Spirit, and Noa with Mira Awad.

You can hear "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on Mississippi Public Broadcasting Music Radio and its livestream. You also can stream "Sounds Jewish" on Radio-J.com on Sunday at 1 pm and 7 pm CT and Monday at 1 am and 7 am CT – 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.

Halloween arrives this week. Technically, we Jews don’t celebrate the spooky holiday. Yet Jewish folklore is full of sca...
25/10/2025

Halloween arrives this week. Technically, we Jews don’t celebrate the spooky holiday. Yet Jewish folklore is full of scary creatures – including disembodied souls called dybbuks, the heroic but controllable clay avenger called the Golem – plus ghosts and monsters that are thought to haunt the dark nights. Also of note: All sorts of Halloween candy are certified kosher.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for a global playlist of Jewish music and comedy that just may scare the skullcap off of you. Hoo-hoo-ha-ha-ha-ha! You’ll hear tracks by klezmorim The Klezmatics, the Cherniavsky Yiddishe Jazz Band, The Kabalas, Frank London, Davka, and Yid Vicious; comedians Jeff Richmond and Tracy Jordan from TV, and LP artists Mickey Katz and his Orchestra, and Betty Walker and Bob McFadden of the “When You're in Love the Whole World is Jewish” cast; Yiddish vocalizers Daniel Kahn and Psoy Korolenko with Oy Division covering The Rolling Stones, Shura Lipovsky, and the bands Tsibele and Kabbalah; and singer/songwriter Geoff Berner.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on Mississippi Public Broadcasting 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. And you can hear archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

We're nearing Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year, the last official Jewish chance to g...
27/09/2025

We're nearing Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year, the last official Jewish chance to get right with yourself and the universe as the proverbial Book of Life closes for the coming year. Yom Kippur culminates the 10 Days of Awe and really a 40-day period of self-reflection that's meant for seeking forgiveness for our misdeeds and granting forgiveness to other folks.

Yom Kippur’s existential themes and intense liturgy inspire some of Judaism's most beautiful, soulful, and creative music. And that’s what you’ll hear on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio program. I’ll share tracks by jazz cats the Afro-Semitic Experience; liturgical singers Cantor Yosele Rosenblatt, Cantor Selmar Cerini, Sidor Belarsky, Galeet Dardashti, Ugandan Rabbi Gershon Sizomu, Cantor Hermann Jadlowker, The Sway Machinery, and L'ensemble De Musique Hebraïque de Paris; baroque Yiddish stylists Di Tsaytmashin; pianolist Bob Berkman; reggae bassist/bandleader David “Solid” Gould; and Basya Schechter singing her setting of a Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel poem.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on Mississippi Public Broadcasting Music Radio and its livestream. And you can listen to archived programs at the PRX radio exchange – at https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish.

Rosh Hashanah, the holy day ringing in the Jewish new year 5786, arrives next week. Meaning “head of the year,” Rosh Has...
20/09/2025

Rosh Hashanah, the holy day ringing in the Jewish new year 5786, arrives next week. Meaning “head of the year,” Rosh Hashanah begins the Ten Days of Awe -- that time to return to our best selves, listen to long sermons, and nosh on apples and honey.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show as we welcome 5786 with a worldwide Jewish playlist inspired by the holiday's contemplative liturgy and joyous spirit of renewal. You’ll hear recordings by liturgical singers Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, Cantor David Roitman, Flory Jagoda and Cantor Ramon Tassat, Fortuna, Ben Baruch, Machtenberg’s Male Choir, and Ben Zion Shenker with a Modzitzer choir; Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Leonard Cohen; singer Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird covering a Leonard Cohen classic; vocalist Galeet Dardashti singing a composition by her father the cantor; trumpeter Frank London; klezmorim Oktopus; the kid-centric Gladys Gewirtz with Eve Lippman, plus The Macaroons; and guitarist/singer Nathan Salsburg.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on Mississippi Public Broadcasting 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.

Tonight Jews the world over will offer penitential prayers at the Selichot service. It’s part of the annual Jewish High ...
13/09/2025

Tonight Jews the world over will offer penitential prayers at the Selichot service. It’s part of the annual Jewish High Holy Days’ teshuva process, in which Jews seek to return to their best selves by seeking forgiveness for their sins.

Join me on the next “Sounds Jewish” radio show for songs from the Selichot service and inspired by the principle of teshuva as Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, approach. You’ll hear recordings by liturgical singers Cantor Samuel Malavsky and his family choir, Mike Tabor, and Yigal Calek and Jeffrey Craimer with the London School of Jewish Song choir; jazz mavens Amos Hoffman and Noam Lemish, as well as David Chevan and The Afro-Semitic Experience with guest Frank London; Yiddish vocalists Molly Picon, F***y Schreiber, and Shura Lupovsky; popular singer/songwriters Matisyahu and Peter Himmelman; and comedic crooner Rick Moranis.

You can find "Sounds Jewish" Sunday at 3 p.m. CT on Mississippi Public Broadcasting 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.

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