The Jewish non-profit record label JDub Records announced plans to close Tuesday after a nine-year career bringing Jewish musicians into the world of modern American culture.

Billboard reports that the label, which proved instrumental in Matisyahu’s early career and helped launch artists including Balkan Beat Box, Sway Machinery and Socalled, opted to shut down due to financial pressures. However, despite what CEO Aaron Bisman described as insurmountable challenges to the company’s business model, JDub nevertheless leaves a successful legacy of artistic fellowship and cultural outreach in its wake.

Felicia Herman, the Executive Director of JDub’s most loyal contributor, the Natan Fund, explained, “JDub’s stakeholders should feel nothing except ‘mission accomplished.’” Over the course of the  non-profit’s nine-year lifespan, JDub inspired support from foundations and individual donors – an channeled those revenues into forging what the organization describes as “vibrant connections to Judaism through music, media and cultural events.”

Herman went on to note that JDub impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people through its events and albums; and in doing so, “changed the communal conversation, and made the community aware of the need to adapt to 21^st-century American realities.”

In a letter addressed to supporters and published on the JDub website, Bisman expressed his pride in the non-profit’s greatest accomplishments – an impressive list underscored by one event participant’s telling confession: “I’ve never felt Jewish until tonight.”

Bisman told Billboard that the organization is currently seeking a new home for its catalogue of artists, as well as a new administrative partner for the JDub affiliate website Jewcy.

Read more stories from the Uncategorized SDJJ edition.
You can leave a comment to this story by using the form below.
You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.