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10 Jewish Amy Winehouse moments (and photos) from a new book on her life

(JTA) — Amy Winehouse, the Jewish singer and songwriter whose soulful tunes about her dark personal life became influential pop hits, would have turned 40 this year. Her debut album “Frank” also turns 20 next month.

To mark the moment and to raise money for the Amy Winehouse Foundation, Winehouse’s family collected never-before-seen photographs, handwritten lyrics and excerpts from her diaries — from childhood to adulthood — and wrote “Amy Winehouse: In Her Words,” a biography of sorts to accompany them. On its website, the foundation lists recovery housing for women, music therapy and substance abuse education among its services.

Some have argued that Winehouse’s family — especially her father, Mitch, and her husband Blake Fielder-Civil — enabled her issues with drugs and alcohol. Winehouse first overdosed in 2007, and her father continued encouraging her to travel and perform, even filming documentary footage of an overdose recovery in Saint Lucia in 2009. The pop star died in 2011, and in “Amy,” a well-received documentary about her life from 2015, funeral-goers can be seen wearing kippahs.

But controversy aside, the Winehouse clan has faithfully chronicled Amy’s childhood and young adult years, when she attended a Jewish kindergarten, went to bat mitzvahs and enjoyed singing Jewish spiritual music in her free time. Although she was never observant as an adult (and said she hated going to Hebrew school on Sundays), Amy enjoyed Jewish holiday gatherings. She was also spotted wearing a Star of David necklace at times. In 2013, the Jewish Museum in London devoted an exhibit to her.

Here are 10 Jewish moments from the book, which was published this week.

She attended a Jewish nursery school.

Photos of an infant Amy. (Courtesy of The Amy Winehouse Foundation)

From the book: “[She] went to nursery at Yavneh School, which was attached to [London’s] Southgate Synagogue. She was never hard to spot, singing at the top of her lungs.”

She sat in the synagogue’s front row at her brother’s bar mitzvah.

(Courtesy of The Amy Winehouse Foundation)

Jewish music was a core part of her musical journey.

In addition to jazz, Jewish music was a big influence on Amy in her early years. She especially loved the Hanukkah song “Ma’oz Tzur.”

From the book: “Music also seeped effortlessly into Amy’s consciousness and she could recite lyrics and sing tunes after hearing a song maybe just once or twice. At her nan Cynthia’s house she was surrounded by jazz music: anyone from Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald to Sarah Vaughan. And at home she performed songs from the musical Mary Poppins or Jewish hymns that we’d taught her. She repeated one hymn, ‘Maʼoz Tzur’, over and over until she got it right. ‘Okay, Amy. Enough,’ was a familiar expression in our house as she sang continuously at the top of her voice.”

She once sang Jewish spiritual music on a Miami beach.

In 1997, Amy traveled to Miami with her mother, Janis, for a family bar mitzvah.

From the book: “Privately, however, Amy was honing her writing talent. Her notebooks from this time showed the reflections of a typical teenage girl trying to find her way in the world: going to parties and having crushes on boys. In 1997 for a break Janis took her to visit her family near Miami, where they attended a bar mitzvah on the beach. Amy set scribbling into her notebook and singing Jewish spiritual songs with her cousins.”

She sent her brother a letter with Hanukkah stamps.

(Courtesy of The Amy Winehouse Foundation)

The letter read: “Dear Ally, Miami great we’re great bar mitzvah great Cochrans great. You great? Weather good today beach & shopping! Miss you! Love Amy x + Mummy x PS. I can play the guitar! (Well, 5 chords) To Mr A. Winehouse London, ENGLAND

From the book: She learned five chords on the guitar and she couldn’t wait to tell her brother Alex. As much as Amy was failing at school, her musical and lyrical talent was developing.

She had American Jewish relatives in Florida.

Winehouse, in the yellow shirt on left, seen at a family gathering in Florida. (Courtesy of The Amy Winehouse Foundation)

The caption for this photo, from the book: Amy with Janis and her American family in Florida at her twin cousins’ Bar Mitzvah. Amy spent much of that holiday either practicing guitar chords from Alanis Morissette songs or jotting down her own compositions. 

She connected with her producer, Mark Ronson, over their shared Anglo-Jewish identity.

Ronson — who would go on to work with other superstar artists such as Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars — also seemed to give her the creative freedom she needed. Amy felt an affinity with him as a Jewish boy from North London and responded well to his quiet manner.

She didn’t feel that Jewish identities were represented enough in theater or music.

She subsequently didn’t think she could be part of those worlds.

From a quote in the book: “When I was a little kid it was my dream to go to drama school, but it was never something I thought would happen to me…I was a Jewish girl from North London and things like that don’t happen to Jewish girls from North London called Amy Winehouse.”

She hoped that girls would see their most difficult experiences represented in her music.

From a quote in the book: “I’m not a girl’s girl. I was never part of a scene where I was the leader of a bunch of Jewish girls that sang jazz. I don’t know anyone like myself. I know that if I’m honest about myself and honest about my time and what I do with my life, I know that there are girls that will hear that and be like: I thought that, I’m not a dickhead. I’ve been through times I’ve been so fucked up about a situation that I’ve had to write everything down, and feelings I’ve had to acknowledge. Someone else might hear that and feel I’m not a mug for feeling those things about this man.”

Even during her grunge rock phase, her mom made her dress like a “normie” for this family bar mitzvah.

(Courtesy of The Amy Winehouse Foundation)

From the book: “Amy went through a teenage grunge phase but whenever she got dressed up she always looked lovely.”


The post 10 Jewish Amy Winehouse moments (and photos) from a new book on her life appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Germany’s Halt to Arms Exports to Israel Is Response to Gaza Expansion Plans, Chancellor Says

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen

Germany’s decision to curb arms exports to Israel comes in response to Israel’s plan to expand its operations in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday in an interview with public broadcaster ARD.

“We cannot deliver weapons into a conflict that is now being pursued exclusively by military means,” Merz said. “We want to help diplomatically, and we are doing so.”

The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s plans to expand military control over the enclave have pushed Germany to take this historically fraught step.

The chancellor said in the interview that the expansion of Israel’s operations in Gaza could claim hundreds of thousands of civilian lives and would require the evacuation of the entire city of Gaza.

“Where are these people supposed to go?” Merz said. “We can’t do that, we won’t do that, and I will not do that.”

Nevertheless, the principles of Germany’s Israel policy remain unchanged, the chancellor said.

“Germany has stood firmly by Israel’s side for 80 years. That will not change,” Merz said.

Germany is Israel’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the US and has long been one of its staunchest supporters, principally because of its historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”

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Newsom Calls Trump’s $1 Billion UCLA Settlement Offer Extortion, Says California Won’t Bow

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference, accompanied by members of the Texas Democratic legislators, at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento, California, U.S., August 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Saturday that a $1 billion settlement offer by President Donald Trump’s administration for UCLA amounted to political extortion to which the state will not bow.

The University of California says it is reviewing a $1 billion settlement offer by the Trump administration for UCLA after the government froze hundreds of millions of dollars in funding over pro-Palestinian protests.

UCLA, which is part of the University of California system, said this week the government froze $584 million in funding. Trump has threatened to cut federal funds for universities over anti-Israel student protests.

“Donald Trump has weaponized the DOJ (Department of Justice) to kneecap America’s #1 public university system — freezing medical & science funding until @UCLA pays his $1 billion ransom,” the office of Newsom, a Democrat, said in a post.

“California won’t bow to Trump’s disgusting political extortion,” it added.

“This isn’t about protecting Jewish students – it’s a billion-dollar political shakedown from the pay-to-play president.”

The government alleges universities, including UCLA, allowed antisemitism during the protests and in doing so violated Jewish and Israeli students’ civil rights. The White House had no immediate comment beyond the offer.

Experts have raised free speech and academic freedom concerns over the Republican president’s threats. The University of California says paying such a large settlement would “completely devastate” the institution.

Large demonstrations took place at UCLA last year. Last week, UCLA agreed to pay over $6 million to settle a lawsuit by some students and a professor who alleged antisemitism. It was also sued this year over a 2024 violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters.

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Trump Nominates State Dept Spokeswoman Bruce as US Deputy Representative to UN

FILE PHOTO: U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce speaks during her first press briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was nominating State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce as the next US deputy representative to the United Nations.

Bruce has been the State Department spokesperson since Trump took office in January.

In a post on social media in which Trump announced her nomination, the president said she did a “fantastic job” as State Department spokesperson. Bruce will need to be confirmed for the role by the US Senate, where Trump’s Republican Party holds a majority.

During press briefings, she has defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy decisions ranging from an immigration crackdown and visa revocations to US responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza, including a widely condemned armed private aid operation in the Palestinian territory.

Bruce was previously a political contributor and commentator on Fox News for over 20 years.

She has also authored books like “Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda” that criticized liberals and left-leaning viewpoints.

In a post after Trump’s announcement, Bruce thanked him and suggested that the role was a “few weeks” away. Neither Trump nor Bruce mentioned an exact timeline in their online posts.

“Now I’m blessed that in the next few weeks my commitment to advancing America First leadership and values continues on the global stage in this new post,” Bruce wrote on X.

Trump has picked former White House national security adviser Mike Waltz to be his U.N. envoy. Waltz’s Senate confirmation for that role, wherein he will be Bruce’s boss, is still due.

Waltz was Trump’s national security adviser until he was ousted on May 1 after he was caught up in a March scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump national security aides on military strikes in Yemen. Trump then nominated Waltz as his U.N. ambassador.

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