arts & culture
Andrew Esenstein | JTA.org
T here is a Grammy Award for
just about every kind of music
— from pop to metal to New Age to
Contemporary Christian — but there’s no
Jewish category. Two Jewish musician
friends hope to change that.

Joanie Leeds, a children’s musician
and Grammy winner in New York City,
and Mikey Pauker, a self-described
“devotional rock” artist from Southern
California, are working on a formal
proposal to add “best Jewish music
album” to the list of Grammys awarded
each year. They submitted their proposal
to the Recording Academy, the body
that governs the Grammys.

In the past, albums of what is tradition-
ally considered to be Jewish music have
been nominated in a variety of catego-
ries, including best contemporary world
music. The Klezmatics’ “Wonder Wheel”
album won in that category in 2006, and
some referred to the award as “the fi rst
Jewish Grammy.”
But musicians who produce albums
of Jewish music often fi nd themselves
caught between categories, Leeds
said. The global category is not a fi t for
American musicians, and categories for
religious music, even if expanded, are
also not an easy fi t, she said.

“‘Jewish’ is complicated, because it’s
not just a religion like Christianity,” Leeds
said. “It’s also a culture.”
To strengthen their proposal, the
pair consulted with rabbis and Jewish
educators about what constitutes
Jewish music.

“We’re doing our best to be as clear
as possible and as inclusive as possi-
ble because not everybody knows that
Jewish music is diverse,” Pauker said.

“It’s transdenominational, it’s based in
spirituality, it’s based in culture and it’s
not just Ashkenazi.”
In their proposal, Pauker and Leeds
make the case for a new category that will
22 MARCH 9, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Mikey Pauker, seen here performing in Berkeley, California, is one of the
musicians behind a petition to add a Jewish music category to the Grammys.

encompass Jewish religious music, such
as cantorial music, nigguns and Mizrahi
music, as well as secular music, such
as klezmer, Yiddish, Ladino and Judeo-
Arabic music. Albums with Christian
themes, including those produced by
Messianic Jews, would not be eligible.

“It needs to have some sort of Jewish
content in it to make it Jewish music,”
Leeds said. “If there’s a song in Israel
about some guy meeting a girl at a
bar, or whatever it’s about that has no
grounds in text or liturgy or anything,
then it wouldn’t be considered Jewish
music.” “Our goal is really to educate not just
the Recording Academy about what
Jewish music is, but also educating
the public as to what Jewish music is,”
she said.

The Recording Academy regularly
adds and modifi es Grammy categories.

This year, it added fi ve new ones, includ-
ing best score soundtrack for video
games and other interactive media and
best spoken-word poetry album.

Pauker said this is not the fi rst time
musicians have petitioned the Recording
Academy to add a Jewish category. But
this time, he said, he and Leeds can point
to the consistent output of high-quality
Jewish music in recent years. He noted
that in the past two years alone, more
than 100 albums were released that
could have been nominated in such a
category. “We’re at a point in music history
where we’re having a Jewish renais-
sance, and the market has arrived,” he
said. “We have enough artists where we
can get this done.” He added that the
Recording Academy has been support-
ive of him and Leeds in their endeavor.

To raise awareness about their
proposal, they have launched a petition
on the Change.org website. By Friday, it
had more than 1,800 signatures, includ-
ing from non-Jewish musicians.

Among the signers is Sephardic singer
and activist Sarah Aroeste. She said
she supports the push to add a Jewish
category at the Grammys because her
albums, including 2021’s “Monastir,” do
not fi t cleanly into the other categories.

“Jewish music crosses so many
musical boundaries, yet we get lost, or
are ineligible, in existing categories,” she
wrote. “As a Ladino musician specifi cally,
I’ve always been put in the global music
category. I am literally up against musical
acts from all around the globe!”
She added: “Having our own category
— much like other ethnic or religious
groups have them — would highlight the
breadth and diversity of Jewish music as
a genre and would allow those Academy
members knowledgeable about the
music to be able to vote.”
Pauker, 37, recently launched a
folk-rock-reggae-chant record label
called Beautiful Way Records. He will
help lead Shabbat services during
Wilderness Torah’s upcoming Passover
in the Desert festival.

Leeds won a 2021 Grammy in the
Best Children’s Music Album category
for her ninth album, a compilation of
secular children’s music called “All the
Ladies” that included a song about
Jewish Supreme Court Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg. She has also released
multiple albums of Jewish kids’ music,
including “Meshugana” and “Challah,
Challah,” as well as a Christmas record
called “Oy Vey” in collaboration with the
rapper Fyütch.

Pauker said the two became close
friends during the pandemic, when they
spent many hours on the social media
app Clubhouse discussing Judaism and
music. As the Recording Academy considers
their proposal in the coming weeks,
Pauker said he and Leeds will hold
community conversations about trends
in Jewish music.

“One of our hopes is this will launch
hundreds of new artists, new records
and collaborations that can really help
push this genre forward,” he said. ■
This story originally appeared in J. The
Jewish News of Northern California
and is reprinted with permission. Jackie
Hajdenberg added reporting for JTA.

Courtesy of Mikey Pauker
There’s a Grammy for Christian Music.

These Musicians Want Jewish Music
to Get One, Too