There is tons of “new” music being produced and presented as “new Jewish music”, but is it either? Can it be considered “new” when it it draws so heavily and obviously on traditional Jewish music? And what makes music, or any art for that matter, “Jewish”?
Are music and art Jewish because they are made by Jews, draw on Jewish themes either in terms of what inspires the artist or that which they present? Does it even matter if the artist is Jewish? What if the Jewishness of the art is seen only by the artist? Would that make it “less Jewish”?

It seems to me that any work produced and labeled by an artist as Jewish, is by definiton, Jewish art. Then it’s up to the rest of us to consider the realtionship between that artist’s Jewishness and our own sense of what it means for anything or anyone to be Jewish.
This way, we reserve the right to make Judgments, but never make the presumption that the judgments which we make, are anything more, or less, than a measure of our own beliefs, and not some objective measure of the essence of what it means to be Jewish.
Here are some examples of new Jewish music, which I am certain are Jewish, and are probably new. What do you think?
The first link is to the work of Eugene Marlow and his Heritage Ensemble, and the next is to the work of Jeremiah Lockwood and the band Sway Machinery. Enjoy!