Rock hall settles with Jewish rockers
It won't be called the 'Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,' but that's what it will be - online at least
LOS ANGELES - A new website honoring Jewish rockers with a "Shul of Rock" and "Challah Fame" is open for business after settling a trademark infringement suit with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.
The suit was dismissed when the founders of Jewsrock.org agreed to refrain from using the phrase "Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" in connection with their site, a lawyer for the site told Reuters.
That didn't stop sponsors of the site from establishing a "Challah Fame" to label their alphabetical listing of Hebraic-born pop stars, among them Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Lou Reed, Carole King and David Lee Roth.
- Read a Ynetnews interview with Elli Wohlgelernter,
the writer charged with inscribing Jewish rockers in the new edition of Encyclopedia Judaica, and the discussion it prompted on who should be in and who should be out
Visitors to the site also can link to various essays on Semitic rockers under the heading "Shul of Rock."
One article chronicles the origins of the all-Jewish L.A. band the Knack and its 1979 hit single "My Sharona." Another charts the rise of celebrity tailor "Nudie" Cohn, who designed suits for Elvis Presley and Hank Williams.
Readers can also take the "Jew or Not?" quiz. For the record, Bruce Springsteen is not Jewish. But according to Jewsrock.org, his drummer, Max Weinberg, is and has been "proving that Jews do have rhythm since 1974, when he auditioned for the E Street Band."
The Cleveland-based rock museum sued founders of site in U.S. District Court in February, claiming the name Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would infringe on the museum's trademark and confuse the public.
The two journalists and radio company executive who started the nonprofit site disagreed, but they ultimately decided that a protracted legal dispute was not worth the money or the effort.
As co-founder Jeffrey Goldberg put it, "These guys are an enormous establishment and institution, and we're just three Jewish guys with a computer."
In the end, publicity surrounding the legal dispute helped bolster interest in the site, said Goldberg, a Washington-based correspondent for The New Yorker magazine. It helped in other ways, he added.
The Cleveland museum's own lawsuit "listed all the Jews who were in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," said Goldberg. "And thanks to their lawsuit, we discovered people we didn't even know who were Jewish, like the Flamingos, for instance. Who knew?"
