Yonah and their gang had a very good time at Jewlicious 6.0 held in Long Beach last week. The LA Jewish Journal has covered it, and included an interesting clip of WBC world welterweight boxing champion (and rabbinical student?) Yuri Foreman giving a brief boxing lesson to the tall and fit Matisyahu at this year’s festival.

From Ryan Torok’s Jewish Journal article:

His [Matisyahu's] 45-minute set was the final performance of the festival, though he had made surprise appearances over the weekend. On Saturday, he joined comedian Smooth-E for a parody of “King Without a Crown.” He could also be seen walking with his family in the main hallway, gym, auditorium and the several event rooms of the JCC.

During the concert, one of Matisyahu’s children, dressed in a Superman costume, went up to the stage and said, “Hi, Daddy.” To which his famous father replied: “Hi, Superman,” a simple, normal exchange that captured the spirit of the weekend.

Adam Weinberg, music director for the festival, reinforced that there should be no preaching at the festival—that attention, instead, should be on the music. “I think music should speak for music’s sake,” Weinberg said.

Weinberg, also a musician, accompanied Matisyahu on acoustic guitar, as did Dave Holmes, a member of Matisyahu’s band.

Matisyahu spoke afterward about how strongly the performance resonated with him. “When you have an audience listening, taking the journey with you, it’s pretty special,” he said. “For some reason, we seem to be having these kinds of performances at Jewlicious shows.”

There’s also some more coverage in The Forward, where Gordon Haber finds some flaws with the festival, but still asks to be invited back next year…which perhaps tells us a little about just how flawed it really was. Our own Rabbi Yonah, co-founder of Jewlicious Festivals, responded to and corrected some of Haber’s assumptions, but I found Yonah’s report on the survey of the people attending Jewlicious 6.0 more fascinating. Here are the details he provided about the make-up of the 900 or so people in attendance:

How do you define your Jewish affiliation?

Unaffiliated 8.3%
Other 9.7%
Reform 30.6%
Conservative 34.7%
Orthodox 16.7%

Seems fairly representative of the Jewish community at large, if one excludes the unaffiliated which make up about half of American Jewry these days.

UPDATE: More Jewlicious 6.0 videos from Jewish Journal

OK so you jokers put up a pic of me in a tux, presented absolutely no context and of course the conversation inevitably devolved into football and Brett Favre. Before that happened though, one of our readers left a comment stating that our Night of Unity fundraiser was “epic.” That it was. I had just flown in the night before after a whirlwind tour of New York and Montreal via Rome and Tel Aviv. Of course our crew in LA had worked like crazy people to organize the event and by the time I walked in, everything was basically done. The El Ray Theatre was packed to capacity with fancy shmancy LA Jews who donated big time to JConnectLA and Jewlicious and who enjoyed an awesome evening in honor of fellow Moroccan Jew David Suissa. Suissa who is a columnist for the LA Jewish Journal, a community activist and philanthropist, received our first annual Jewish Unity Award and we all enjoyed the open bar, yummy food, various entertainers and the musical stylings of Moshav and Matisyahu.

OK so really? I was totally overwhelmed and tux or no tux I felt completely out of my element. Everyone was all fancy and dressed up! The one thing that stood out in my mind though was that none of this would have happened, none of it, without the support and imagination of the Jewish community of modest little Long Beach, CA. Both on a communal and individual level, the Jewlicious Festival has benefited from the sort of support for innovation that many talk about endlessly, but few actually bring to fruition. Except for those guys down in the ELBEE.

It’s no secret that we’ve always wanted to do a Festival on the East Coast. I’ve even managed to start basic discussion on the issue with some communal leaders here and there, but after 6 years, the Jewlicious Festival is still available only in Long Beach. This despite many requests from young Jews around the country. Only modest lil’ Long Beach has been able to pull this off year in year out, both in times of plenty and times of economic distress. So yeah, big ups to the Alevys and the Alperts and the Booksteins and the inumerable volunteers who help make our Festival happen and prosper.

The Night of Unity provided an opportunity for the Jewish Community of Los Angeles to step up and put in their 2 cents, so to speak. Truth is we didn’t make a massive amount of cash, but we did increase our local profile significantly. That’s been a problem as even after 6 years, many people still think we’re some kind of Chabad program.

Seriously. I mean do I fucking look like a Chabadnik?

I know Rabbi Yonah is well, a Rabbi. And that’s been obvious in all the publicity he’s been getting of late, from being featured in Vanity Fair, to being a Jewish Heroes Finalist to his selection in the Forward 50. But message to secular Jewish America: NOT ALL RABBIS ARE LUBAVITCHERS, ok? And the Jewlicious Festival is the only gathering in the world where you will find everything from Breslav Chassidim to Lesbian Peace Activists. OK? OK! Now give us some money so that we can help spread the love!

So, back to the original point of the post. Our fundraiser. It was an old skool affair featuring an honoree, VIP tables, big donations, sponsors and all that. But it wasn’t stuffy. People mingled, shmoozed and rocked out. All our student and young adult leaders were in attendance and rubbed shoulders with the attendees. It really was an old skool meets new skool kind of thing and please shoot me if I use the term “skool” one more time. Whatever, it was fun. Now we’re in full Festival prep mode. Oh what fun awaits. Yay. Stay tuned!

We are just four days away from a watershed moment in our young organizational history. On January 20, we present A Night Of Unity, featuring music, comedy, magic, games, opulent food, drinks, and a special acoustic performance by Grammy Nominated, Gold Record recording artist MATISYAHU.

This benefit will not only support Jewlicious, Jewlicious Festival, JConnectLA, Shabbat Tent, and other programs, but also introduce what we do to America’s second largest Jewish community in a way we have never done before.

We will be honoring David Suissa, founder of Olam.org, columnist for the Jewish Journal, and one of Jewish LA’s great personalities.

This event is a tikkun on the normal benefit dinner. There will be no rubber chicken, open seating, complimentary bar, casino games, silent auction, food from around the world, and desserts from the finest dessert company in Los Angeles. All our performers, vendors, and organizers are doing this for free or for song – because they know that this is an important fundraiser, and want to support our work.

Even if you cannot make this event – consider making a donation, a tribute, or sponsor someone else to go.

On Wednesday, January 20, at 6:30pm, we will celebrate Jewish unity with music, comedy, and poetry at an unforgettable, delicious, cabaret-style event at LA’s famous El Rey Theater. This Night of Unity is our first ever Gala fundraiser. Please join in our effort to make this a night to remember while helping to raise funds to keep Jewlicious Festival, JConnect and our other projects going.

We are honoring DAVID SUISSA with the Jewish Unity Award. Suissa, an advertising executive and LA Jewish Journal Columnist, is founder of OLAM magazine, Meals4Israel.co, Ads4Israel.com and the newly launched OLAM.org. Suissa speaks up for justice, Jews, and israel, bridging communities and cultures. He embodies Jewish unity in bringing together the many parts of our community to solve problems and provide mutual support.

There will be great entertainment at this cabaret-style event, headlined by a special acoustic performance by Grammy Nominated, Gold Record Recording Artist MATISYAHU.

Our Night of Unity Honorary Dinner Chair is STANLEY GOLD, the outgoing chairman of the board, Jewish Federation of Los Angeles

This is no rubber chicken fundraiser dinner. There will be an speak-easy style Casino, Silent Auction, live music all evening, wine and a wide variety of delicious food. For VIP ticket holders there will be bottle service and complimentary drinks as well.

Special appearances have been confirmed by Craig Taubman, Rhoda Weissman, David Sachs, Adam Weinberg, Marcus Freed and others! It is a snazzy night, so dress code is – Black Tie Optional

You can buy tickets, or make a tribute – tickets and tributes start at $180. We have a few sponsorship opportunities for individuals or companies that would like to participate in this event. Please contact us as soon as possible – we have only a few left.

*$50 of ticket cost is not tax deductible.

HOST COMMITTEE
Tom and Jill Barad Brett Barenholtz Stanley & Joyce Black Michael Borkow Etan and Emily Cohen Brad and Amy Conroy Daniel Eisenstadt Rachel Ephron Yosi and Wendy Finn Noah Flom Selwyn & Glynis Gerber Stephen Grynberg Bob Hale Josh and Stefanie Kaplan Mellissa Lewkowicz James and Debbie Lustig Nick Meyer Tahlia Miller Larry and Carol Mizel Courtney Mizel Maxine Morris Dr. Sharon Musher Gal & Rabbi Elissa Ben Naim Harry & Dorit Nelson Mark and Renee Phillips Sheri Porath Rockwell Roz and Jerry Rothstein David and Judy Sachs Dr. Rami and Sofia Sadeghi Evan Schlessinger Lou Sokolovsky Alan and Lisa Stern Dubby Teichman Sari Tuschman Gary and Dana Wexler Shawn Landres Joshua Avedon

MATISYAHU was on Letterman Thursday night, the seventh night of Chanukah. Check out the enormous custom disco driedel MATISYAHU uses for his Festival of Lights! The crowd at the end of his performance on Letterman go nuts. One Day is a great song – it’s simple, the message is pure and awesome. Repost, replay, download.

Dear Friends,

On Wednesday, January 20, at 6:30pm, we will celebrate Jewish unity with music, comedy, and poetry at an unforgettable, delicious, cabaret-style event at LA’s famous El Ray Theater. This Night of Unity is our first ever Gala fundraiser. Please join in our effort to make this a night to remember while helping to raise funds to keep Jewlicious Festival, JConnect and our other projects going.

We are honoring DAVID SUISSA with the Jewish Unity Award. Suissa, is an advertising executive and LA Jewish Journal Columnist, is founder of OLAM magazine, Meals4Israel.com and Ads4Israel.com. Suissa speaks up for justice, Jews, and israel, bridging communities and cultures. He embodies Jewish unity in bringing together the many parts of our community to solve problems and provide mutual support.

There will be great entertainment at this cabaret-style event, headlined by a performance by Grammy Nominated, Gold Record Recording Artist MATISYAHU.

Our Night of Unity Honorary Dinner Chair is STANLEY GOLD, the outgoing chairman of the board, Jewish Federation of Los Angeles

This is no rubber chicken fundraiser dinner. There will be an speak-easy style Casino, Silent Auction, live music all evening, wine and a wide variety of delicious food. For VIP ticket holders there will be bottle service and complimentary drinks as well.

Special appearances have been confirmed by Craig Taubman, Rhoda Weissman, David Sachs, Adam Weinberg, Marcus Freed and others! It is a snazzy night, so dress code is – Black Tie Optional

You can buy tickets, or make a tribute online at jconnectla.com/gala/ , and tickets & tributes start at $180. We have a few sponsorship opportunities for individuals or companies that would like to participate in this event. Please contact us as soon as possible – we have only a few left.

HOST COMMITTEE IN FORMATION
Tom Barad Brett Barenholtz Stanley & Joyce Black Michael Borkow Etan and Emily Cohen Brad and Amy Conroy Daniel Eisenstadt Rachel Ephron Yosi and Wendy Finn Noah Flom Selwyn & Glynis Gerber Bob Hale Josh and Stefanie Kaplan Mellissa Lewkowicz James and Debbie Lustig Nick Meyer Tahlia Miller Larry and Carol Mizel Courtney Mizel Maxine Morris Dr. Sharon Musher Gal & Rabbi Elissa Ben Naim Harry & Dorit Nelson Mark and Renee Phillips Sheri Porath Rockwell Roz and Jerry Rothstein David and Judy Sachs Dr. Rami and Sofia Sadeghi Evan Schlessinger Lou Sokolovsky Alan and Lisa Stern Dubby Teichman Sari Tuschman Gary and Dana Wexler

New Matisyahu Album is now out: LIGHT. Purchase information available here!

And now just to switch it up a little, how about Matisyahu and the crystal Method?

Crazy…

One Day (new single)

Check out Rob Eshman’s article “ONE DAY” in the Jewish Journal for a backstage look at Matisyahu’s tour this year.

I have seen the Jewish future — it’s loud, and hypnotic, and it reeks of pot.

Last week, for two nights, I became a groupie. The singer Matisyahu came into my life just when I needed him most, and I followed him, like a Deadhead after Jerry Garcia, for two days and two nights.

Matisyahu has a few more shows before his tour is over – it’s been a great tour. Hope you can catch it.

One of the single best Summer Music Festivals in the country is June 4-7 in Arkansas. The Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival is a 4-day foot-stomping party born in 2004. Music loving folks from all 50 U.S. States and several countries are expected this year and as many as 100 artists, on 7 stages, with 4 days of non-stop music and entertainment.

Organized by the Shabbat Tent Team (including yours truly), and sponsored by Birthright Israel NEXT, Matisyahu and friends will be setting up prayer services, meals, and parties throughout the weekend.

No knowledge of Shabbat is required, and all activities are open to everyone who wants to attend.

Festival Campers can stop by the Shabbat Tent at anytime throughout the festival simply to hang out, take shelter, nosh, or get into a heated conversation.

Follow Shabbat Tent on Twitter, for more Tent News as the Festival nears, and some more Shabbat Tent projects that are coming down the pipeline.

THAT JEWLICIOUS FEELING!

On stage in the final hour of the record breaking 2009 Festival, BEN PERLSTEIN (LA), Festival Production Manager, and long time Tour Manager for MATISYAHU, steps in on guitar. REB LEIBISH, Montreal’s Ghetto Shul Rabbi on Sax. ADAM WEINBERG (Miami), Matisyahu’s acoustic accompaniment of choice, and Jewlicious Festival’s National Music Director. Filmed by Scott Drucker.

Three days of non-stop fun, music, food, films, workshops, and games. You have to experience Jewlicious to know what its about.

Four more videos and updated YouTube Channel – check it out.

… and you can too!

Uh… visit dancewithmatis.com to create your own made up memory video. What the hell was that dancing guy on??

Anyone in the vicinity of the Alpert JCC in Long Beach last week may have witnessed somewhat of a bizarre sight – a grammy nominated, Hassidic hip hop/reggae artist puttering around the parking lot in a totally sweet Vespa scooter. The Vespa LXV 150 to be exact. It’s a sweet machine, with long standing hipster cred, a highway safe maximum speed of 59 miles per hour and, in keeping with the Greenkeit element of our Festival, capable of 70-75 miles per gallon. Wow. And did I mention that it was hellaciously fun to ride too? Yeah… sometimes running the Jewlicious Festival can be loads of fun! How much fun? Well, Matisyahu owns a Harley and he was still all giggly riding the Vespa. Thank you good people at Vespa for lending us your awesome scooters! As for the rest of the Festival? Check out the pics below:

www.flickr.com Jewlicious’ Jewlicious Festival 5.0 photoset

Obviously more to come later…

LimmudLA was a terrific success and the organizers and their sponsors should be thanked again and again. LA brought out its best and brightest for this weekend retreat. The program was alive, the vibe good, and the entertainment first rate. Sunday’s concert featured a variety of Jewish performers for a PBS style showcase. It was a unique feat, created by Robbie Helperin. Kudos to Linda Fife & Shep Rosenman, conference co-chairs, & Ruthie Rotenberg, Executive Director of LimmudLA, and all the dozens of volunteers.

The LA Times covered the Limmud LA conference, where Rabbi Yonah, Festival Director and Rachel, Program Director, taught sessions this past Presidents Day Weekend. Jewlicious Festival presenters MATISYAHU and Adam Weinberg brought the crowd to their feet with an inspiring acoustic set on Saturday night, then invited everyone to join them at Jewlicious for another round. The LA Times interviewed another JF5 presenter, Avi Averbach, of Jewish World Watch:

“It’s been an amazing weekend. It’s very relaxed, and you’re meeting all these new people from different areas and different parts of Judaism,” said Ari Averbach, 25, who works with Los Angeles-based Jewish World Watch, an organization focused on ending genocide…. Most of the conference sessions were rooted in Jewish traditions with modern adaptations and messages. Read More,,,

Thanks LimmudLA — it was a great weekend.

[Facebook Event]

FRIDAY NOV 21: SHABBOS WITH MATISYAHU!
Come join one of the most famous American Jewish musicians for a FREE SHABBAT DINNER.
Join us for a brief, private service at 6pm, followed by dinner at 6:30.

LOCATION: Chabad at 1261 S Arville St, Las Vegas 89102

SAT NOV 22: MATISYAHU IN CONCERT!
Shavua Tov! Shabbat’s over and it’s time to celebrate the new week by seeing Matisyahu in Concert! Hillel will be subsidizing tickets, but the amount will be dependent upon student interest.

House of Blues – Mandalay Bay
3950 Las Vegas Blvd South
Doors open at 6pm. on Sat. Night. Nov 22

So Matisyahu’s in Jerusalem for the holidays. Saw him at a show two nights ago – Samuel Nelson’s new band Semantra was performing at Canaan on Shamai street (they were pretty good!) – all the usual Nachlaot suspects were in attendance. So Matisyahu ambles over and tells me about a show he put together at the last minute – just him, his guitarist who was in town and a couple of locals. The show was in a small retrofitted Cafe near the shuk – it barely fit 50 people and there was a huge overflow crowd outside – folks who didn’t heed the warning that the show would sell out in like… a minute. Hippies… what do you expect? So yeah. Great show.

Sasha, who shot this vid, and I know Matisyahu well from his time hangin’ at the Jewlicious Festival. The locals were all “how you know Matis?” after they saw him talking to us. Sasha lied and said they used to date and I told them that I met him in Jail. Anyhow the Festival is coming up at the end of February. One of the things we want to do to promote it is to put together a compilation CD of some of the artists who have appeared at Jewlicious. That’s why this post has the schnorrer box. We’re still a little short of the $2500 we’ll need to produce 1000 CDs. Now’s your chance to help us out and get some phat toonzes. Donate $18 or more and get a free CD! Yay!

In order to attract new donors and provide a memorable prize for participants, we are creating a limited edition Best of Jewlicious Festival CD featuring artists who have performed at our Festivals in the past. This compilation will be professionally produced by our National Music Director, and crafted with beautiful eco-friendly packaging

Consider helping to fund this CD with a tax deductible donation.

All the musicians are donating their songs for this project, and the CD will be used for promotional purposes only. For donations of $18 or more we will send you a CD.

I get requests like that every day. Being linked to from established blogs is perceived to be a great way to get traffic to a new blog. I tend to dismiss most of these requests because I’m not likely to link to a blog that doesn’t have an established history – many blogs begin with god intentions and then peter out after just a few posts – adding and deleting blogs from our blogroll is not something I really have time for. I also prefer to link to a blog whose author I have some familiarity with. This can be accomplished simply by hanging out at Jewlicious for a bit and offering incisive and relevant comments to the posts. If you do that, I’m likely to add you to the blogroll without being asked first.

OK, boring geek stuff aside, I recently got a request from Dave to add his Matisyahu blog. A blog about Matisyahu? I mean I like him and his music, but an entire blog dedicated to him? I did my due diligence and went to his site where I saw a post about an ad Matisyahu recently did for Kenneth Cole. Never saw that before. And Matis looked sharp rockin’ what looks like a black tux! Even with his very Hassidic close cropped ‘doo.

Not only that, but the blog was not all about Matisyahu. There was all kinds of content relating to cool indie Jewish bands as well. While checking out the blog I found the Web site of a UK band called Ghetto Plotz. Described as “The Prodigy with Violins,” this band verily kicked ass and I spent the afternoon preparing for the Sabbath while getting my ass whupped by their awesome beats. So here for your listening pleasure is a live set by Ghetto Plotz. Seriously, listen to it. It’s awesome shtetl techno. Those Ashkenazim are SO exotic huh? Dave’s Matisyahu Web site can be found here, or on our blogroll.

Join Maitsyahu and Rabbi Yonah at the Beale Street Music Festival on May 2 4, 2008. Beale Street is one of the premier music festivals in the US —The Black Crowes, Santana, My Chemical Romance, Matisyahu, and many others— with three days of music and street parties in downtown Memphis. It’s a weekend not to miss!

*Matisyahu is headlining Saturday night, and will join festival goers Friday night, May 2 for a free shabbat dinner, just blocks from the festival stages.

*This event is FREE and geared towards Jewish college students and young professionals (ages 18-26)
and sponsored by Jewlicious, Birthright Israel NEXT, and Hillel of Memphis.

*Seating is limited to 150 — registration is strongly recommended.

RSVP For Dinner | Learn More About the Festival | Facebook Event

I’ve started coming across reports on Jewlicious 4.0. Looks like a good time was had by all.

Here is one reporter, Sue Fishkoff, writing in the Jerusalem Post about Matisyahu at Jewlicious.

But there he sat on a Sunday afternoon, perched on a high-backed stool in his trademark black sweats and Nikes, blue button-down shirt and black hoodie, peering out through small, rectangular spectacles at more than 200 people who had crammed into the cafe at the Long Beach Jewish Community Center to hear him.

After opening with a niggun, or hassidic melody, which segued into his early hit “Close My Eyes,” Matisyahu addressed the crowd in his trademark quiet voice, which has lost the adult onset Yiddish inflection that marked it even a year ago.

“OK, so I was supposed to talk about spirituality,” he began, breaking into a sardonic half-grin. “But I realized I’m not so good at that, so I’m going to sing a couple more songs.”

Matisyahu, aka Matthew Miller, is still very much a work in progress. And he’s the first to admit it.

Now 28, he grew up Reconstructionist in White Plains, N.Y., and has only been frum, or religiously observant, for eight years. His meteoric rise to fame only began when he emerged from yeshiva four years ago in full hassidic regalia, incorporating hassidic melodies and references to Hashem and Jerusalem in his reggae and dance hall music.

“I know that in my life, when I really gave myself over completely to God, He really blessed me,” Matisyahu told the Jewlicious crowd.

NOTE from ck: Hey! You missed the Forwards Bintel Blog piece that featured Matisyahu’s haircut! Also the Jerusalem Post story you quoted originated in the JTA with a pic by… me! It was on the front page of the JTA blog yesterday and will be presumably picked up by many other Jewspapers. Monica over at the Jewspot must have taped the entire show because she has a full transcript of the Q&A session. I’m sure there’s more coming and we appreciate the Matisyahu-generated press but really the stuff I like the best is posts that mention the entire fest and what that was like – like the awesome coverage provided by Oy-Bay here and here.

Here is another reporter videotaping parts of the event:

Rav Shmuel singing “The Elders of Zion” live:

Add Jewlicious Festivals to your page

See Matisyahu do a live set, Rav Shmuel, Moshav, Y-Love, DJ Handler and more perform at this weekend’s Jewlicious Festival. More videos to come as they get online! Thanks to Shemspeed.com for the heads up and the videotaping as well as all the others who uploaded their vids.

We are proud and honored to announce that Matisyahu and Tahli Miller will be joining us as presenters this year at Jewlicious Festival4.0! Tahlia will be previewing her documentary film, Can’t Touch This at our Documentary Film slam. Matisyahu will be discussing spirituality and joining us for a weekend of programs. Matisyahu and Tahli bring a great vibe and everyone is psyched they will be representing again at Jewlicious!

You can read bios of the many other presenters, a run down of the bands, and more over at JewliciousFestivals.com.

Not that you needed ANOTHER reason to come to the most amazing Jewish Festival of its kind in the world today, but you might never get another opportunity. There are still non-camping tickets for students under 26 available ($54) and Festival Stage concert tickets ($25) for March 1st. All other tickets are SOLD OUT!

*Sorry folks, if you do not have a ticket you cannot be let in.

Secure the endorsement of an Orthodox Jew…

That’s kind of, sort of what James (Jamie) Kirchick implied in a recent oped piece in the New York Daily News about Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman’s endorsement of Republican Presidential candidate John McCain:

The Connecticut senator – who, besides his hawkish stance on foreign policy, continues to caucus with Democrats – has for several years now been a regular fixture on conservative talk radio. In 1998, he became a hero to the right wing for openly denouncing Bill Clinton’s misconduct. Just as Lieberman’s obvious comfort talking about religious faith irritates many on the left, it endears him to evangelical Christians, as does his campaign against violence and sex in movies and video games.

Why is this distinction – Lieberman’s appeal to conservatives more than independents – so important now? Because McCain has a famously rocky relationship with the Christian right. If he doesn’t start smoothing it out now, he cannot win the nomination. If, on the other hand, he does start to repair the rift, he can string together a broad Republican coalition and continue his improbable comeback.

Lieberman’s endorsement was meant to help McCain get more votes from independents, but in the long run, an improved stature with religious conservatives is going to be more productive. Frankly, the likelihood of a Republican being the next President seems very low to me. The whole Giuliani/McCain/Romney/Huckabee thing strikes me as uninteresting because none of them have a snowflake’s chance in hell of getting elected. But what is instructive is how this can be applied more broadly.

I’m just thinking out loud here… religious conservatives, Second Amendment, Orthodox Jews… Penelope! Get me Colt Firearms on line 1 and Matisyahu’s people on line 2. I have an idea…