About jewishbanjo.org
Jewishbanjo.org provides inspiration and awareness about playing the banjo in a Jewish context. Everything you find on this website is offered for free, but done in spare time, so please be patient. You can find out about the usage of the materials on this website by visiting the songs page.
About Menasheh Fogel
I’ve been playing 5-string clawhammer banjo for about 30 years, mostly American folk and mostly by ear. Over this time, I played a few Jewish songs in services or accompanying a Shabbat dinner. I recently began playing in our Jewish group Ohel Hachidusch in what we lovingly call our Temple Band. Thanks to the vast collection of sheet music from one of our members Joshua Davidowitz, I was able to convert tab notation arrangements for clawhammer banjo. This led to the realization that I am probably one of the very few banjo players in a Jewish context and the idea for this website was born.
I am an IT professional living and working in Berlin (Profiles: MuseScore, YouTube, LinkedIn, komoot). In my free time, I like hobbies which are a bit obscure. I particularly like creating something from nothing, where not too many others have taken the time to explore or put together in an understandable way. My creative writing teacher once described me as having a superpower called a multipotentialite. Said another way, I’m moderately good at many things. Jewishbanjo.org is my second project which I have made publicly available. In my first project, continental-divide.eu, I created the first comprehensive map of the European Continental Divide with topographical detail. Happy exploring!
About the Artwork
Jack Fogel designed the images shown on jewishbanjo.org. Jack is a collage artist, combining multiple images into his designs. You can find more of his work at his Instagram and YouTube.
The profile photo on this page was taken by Alan Fogel.
Contact
Please leave your comments and suggestions on our Discussion Board. If you would like to contact us directly, you can also send an email to info<at>jewishbanjo.org.
About Jewish Clawhammer
Learn about Jewish Clawhammer, a type of playing Jewish music on banjo using the clawhammer style
Sample Songs
A collection of Jewish songs using the clawhammer style, including tab notation and sample recordings
Join the Discussion
Give feedback and join in on the discussion for playing banjo in Jewish music settings