iTunes Categorizes Jewish Music as Christian
Apple Inc.’s popular online digital media outlet iTunes classifies many of the most well-known Jewish performers and their albums as “Christian & Gospel” material and does not have a separate category for Jewish melodies, The Jerusalem Post has found.
Albums by Avraham Fried, an Orthodox Jew, with titles such as Yiddish Gems Volumes 1 & 2, My Fellow Jew and The Baal Shem Tov’s Song all appear under the “Christian & Gospel” category. Other songs of his appear under the heading “World.”
Similarly, Mordechai Ben- David’s collections Just One Shabbos and Yerushalayim Our Home, as well as songs such as “Yom Tov Medley,” are all listed as “Christian.”
And the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s album Shaarei Shabbat – Songs and Blessings for your Jewish home” which includes the song “Am Yisrael Chai” (“the People of Israel live”), is included in the Christian category.
Music for Jewish children and cantorial works by Joseph Malovany of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Synagogue are also not exempt from Apple’s unusual classification system, which deems them to be Christian.
Contacted by the Post, Fried expressed astonishment. “Why would they put Jewish and Hassidic music under the ‘Christian and Gospel’ category? It makes no sense,” he said.
“I don’t understand where they are coming from and what the point is of doing this,” Fried said. “I would hate to think this is an attempt to bury Jewish music under a Christian or Gospel label.”
Repeated requests for comment to Apple’s corporate headquarters in California and its UK branch went unanswered.
Fried said Apple should change its policy and create a Jewish grouping.
“It is time to have Jewish and Hassidic music stand on its own,” he declared. “It should have its own category and be called by its right name – Jewish music.”
Apple’s iTunes is said to be the largest online music and video vendor in the world. In February 2010, the company announced that more than 10 billion songs had been purchased and downloaded from the site since its inception in 2003.
CHEFKE
it is gospel….
The reason why
The reason why is because the concept of jewish music was invented in the last 40 years or so, no official genres is labeled as “jewish music” nothing to do with religion, or judiasm, its just that, it is unrecognized in the music world.
The closest sort of music would be christian.
to #2
When was iTunes invented ???
AA
To #2: hip-hop and rap are pretty new genres too, and they have their own category at the iTunes store.
Music??
Most of it comes from who knoes where, truly any resemblence to Jewish aidele music is accidental.
Ben Melech
chefke:
It is NOT gospel!
Gospel is specifically xtian.
Besides:
Is ‘Jewish’ a sub-category?!
NO!
Only to faith and noahidism is Jewish secondary.
That Apple does not have a category for Jewish music (as it is separate from all other music, religious or otherwise,) is a grave disrespect to the engineers of civilization, Jews.
Even moreso, to stick Jewish music under xtian music is even more disgraceful, considering xtianity is a subtext of Judaism if anything, not the other way around!!!
For such a perfectionist company, there is NO EXCUSE!
The reason why
genres dont consider jewish music, “jewish” it considers it meaningful, spiritul, and so is christian, and mind u there are a lot more christian music then jewish music, therefore its marked “jewish”
not the end of the world
As long as the don’t take Chrixian music and call it Jewish…
Apple-s got a worm
Listed this way it fakes out Jews and xtians
Out of Towner
why don’t they just call it Religious music?
....
It works electronically, it hears what type of song it is and places it under that category automatically.
the Technologically gets mixed up and can not differentiate between xtian and jewish.