Homecoming premiere for Jewish cool's mother

Jewish band Pharaoh's Daughter will be coming to Israel this week for a series of performances.

With all the fuss over the latest international Jewish cultural initiatives, it's easy to forget that the Semitic identity's journey toward cool started over a decade ago at the Knitting Factory. Founded with money that producer Michael Dorf had saved from his bar mitzva gifts, the Greenwich Village live-music club became the nerve center of a flowering scene that included acts such as John Zorn, Piamenta, the Klezmatics and Pharaoh's Daughter. When Dorf sold most of his Knitting Factory shares and stepped down from the club's leadership in 2001, many thought it was the end of a renaissance. With hindsight, however, it's clear that this was only the beginning. Today, Zorn's Tzadik label is a bastion of avant-garde Jewish music, the Klezmatics are Grammy winners, and Pharaoh's Daughter has gone international and will be coming to Israel this week for a series of performances.