Hebrew Melodies

NOTES
1. Jewish mother, non-Jewish father (folk singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie).
2. Jewish father, non-Jewish mother.
3. Jewish father.
4 Jewish father, non-Jewish mother.
5. Vernon Duke is frequently assumed to have been Jewish because his real name was Vladimir Dukelsky and he was closely associated with Jewish composers such as George Gershwin. However, his autobiography, Passport to Paris, describes the backgrounds of his four grandparents in detail and he does not appear to have been of Jewish descent.
6. See Ismerjük''oket?: zsidó származású nevezetes magyarok arcképcsarnoka, by István Reményi Gyenes (Ex Libris, Budapest, 1997, p. 146).
7. Born Bernard Weissman.
8. See Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now, by Mark Steyn (Routledge, NY, 1999, p. 87). According to Steyn, "Cameron Mackintosh isn't Jewish, but his writers on Les Miz and Miss Saigon, Boublil and Schonberg, are. 'Claude-Michel Schonberg,' he says, 'is Hungarian-Jewish.'"
9. See Who's Who in World Jewry 1965: A Biographical Dictionary of Outstanding Jews, edited by Harry Schneiderman and I.J. Carmin Karpman (McKay, New York, 1965, p. 716).
10. See entry in Marquis Who's Who in America.
11. Born Irwin Michnick.
12. Jewish mother, non-Jewish father.
13. Convert to Judaism.
14. Born Annette Kleinbard; see The Jewish Celebrity Hall of Fame, by Tim Boxer (Shapolsky, NY, 1987, pp. 92-95).
15. This may be an error, however, see "Sultans of Song, Part II," by Paul Zollo in Reform Judaism Magazine, Spring 2003 (third to last paragraph of section on Jerome Kern): http://reformjudaismmag.net/03spring/sultan.shtml.
16. See http://www.geocities.com/brplatters/Buck.html.
17. Born Steven Barry Lipkin, Brooklyn, NY.
18. See The Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography: Volume One, edited by Jacob Rader Marcus and Judith M. Daniels (Carlson Publishing, Brooklyn, NY, 1994, p. 221).
19. Walter Kent was born Walter Maurice Kaufman. See also: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6216124. Nat Burton, who wrote the lyrics for The White Cliffs of Dover, was born Nat Schwartz (see the 29 March 1945 obituary notices for Nat Burton and for Nat (Burton) Schwartz, both in the New York Times).
20. Maltby notes, however, that "my wife is Jewish, my children are Jewish, I'm the head of a Jewish household. Where does that leave me?" See "Musical high-flyers," by John Nathan on page 33 of the 27 July 2007 issue of The Jewish Chronicle (London).
21. Jewish mother, non-Jewish father; see sixteenth question in http://spectropop.com/EllieGreenwich2/index.htm.
22. Jewish mother, non-Jewish father. In an interview with Francine Cohen published in the Arts and Leisure Guide of the 4 November 1994 issue of The Jewish Chronicle (London), Newley stated concerning his 'Jewish genes': "My mum's side is Jewish and so is Joan Collins's dad's side, so I suppose you could say we had a full set between us."