Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Amy Winehouse, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, and Matisyahu are just some of the artists who have made musical history. “God Bless America,” the unofficial anthem of the USA, and “White Christmas” were written by Irving Berlin, the son of a Jewish immigrant from Byelorussia. Jewish musicians have influenced the music business in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and continue to make an important contribution to entertainment culture. ”Stars of David” looks at some of the main exponents.
Musical composers like George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim have had box-office hits and created classics of film music, winning many Oscars and Grammys on the way. In jazz, Jewish musicians like Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Stan Getz, and John Zorn have become icons. In rock and pop, punk and rap, groups like Kiss, the Ramones, and the Beastie Boys stand out.
The Vienna music scene is represented by musicians expelled in 1938 who made a new career for themselves in Hollywood, and by Geduldig und Thimann, and Arik and Timna Brauer.
