Jew Shook Me All Night Long

I can't tell if this website is really funny or immensely cheesy. It's called Jews Rock, and it provides background and information on who's Jewish in rock and roll. Which is, I'll admit, a great idea for a website, if a somewhat misleading name. Though individual Jews may, in fact, rock out on occasion, we're hardly what I'd consider to be an overall rockin' kind of people. Remember, we're the enthnicity responsible for Fiddler on the Roof.

But, mislabeled though it may be, the site is informative. I didn't know Beck was a Jew, or Pink, or the Bangles, or every member of J. Geils Band except J. Geils himself, and that is all vitally important information. I found all this out by taking the Jews-in-Rock quiz, where you guess whether an individual rock act is made up of a Jewish majority or not. I scored less than 50%, even though I thought I knew a bunch about this stuff. Namely, rock music and Jewry. Who knew every member of the Knack was a member of the tribe?

And I enjoyed the list of the very Jewy original names of some really famous musicians. Here are some interesting ones:

Marc Feld: Marc Bolan (T-Rex)
Kenny Gorelick: Kenny G (ha ha!)
Love Michelle Harrison: Courtney Love
Jeffrey Hyman: Joey Ramone (Ramones)
Lou Rabinowitz: Lou Reed
Gary Lee Weinrib: Geddy Lee (Rush)
Manfred Lubowitz: Manfred Mann

You know what? On second thought, we really don't need to claim Manfred Mann. Enough people hate Jews already...

But there is a lot of stuff I don't like about the site. It's full of really bad puns playing off of Yiddish (as opposed to really bad puns playing off of the word "Jew," as in my own headline up there). Like the list of all the Jewish rockers? Its' called the Challah Fame. Ba-zing!