CLEVELAND – Michael Belkin knows plenty about the music industry; he was born and raised in it.

More than 40 years ago, his father Mike and his uncle Jules founded Belkin Productions, which helped launch the careers of such artists as Johnny Carson, Tiny Tim, Janis Joplin, Wild Cherry, Joe Walsh, Maureen McGovern, and The Michael Stanley Band.

That is why Belkin, senior vice president of Live Nation, was looking forward to the 27th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions ceremony at Public Hall in downtown Cleveland last Saturday.

This year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee class included eight Jewish musicians and artists, many of whom set the stage for future bands in their respective genres, said Belkin.

WARNING: Although no profanity actually appears in this article, it may be obvious to readers what these words are. We apologize, but this story would not be possible without them. — ed.

WASHINGTON – Thanks to hip-hop superstar Drake’s latest music video, there are now far more eyes focusing on Temple Israel’s bimah than there are even during the High Holy Days.

And although the song’s lyrics are decidedly more profane than sacred, the Reform synagogue’s president said he hoped the video would help Jewish youth connect to Judaism.

Dear Nathan (if I may call you that; we recently have been close, you and I; as close, that is, as reader and writer can get).

The Hebrew and Bible scholar Robert Alter has been fumfering about your “moral unseemliness” and your “weakness of moral imagination.”

In fact, in his recent New Republic review of your new book “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” (Alfred A. Knopf, $24.95), he writes, “These stories are neither courageous nor outrageous. They are merely bad.”

Pay no attention. Well, maybe a little. It doesn’t hurt to listen to honest criticism, which I believe this is, as long as you have a solid sense of what you are doing, or trying to do.

Despite last summer’s “tent protests” against the high cost of food, shelter, and items such as baby formula, Israel is a child-centered culture and it always has been — long before Israeli branches of Toys R Us hit the malls.

According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2010 there were 2.52 million children up to age 17 in Israel, accounting for approximately a third of the state’s population. That year, 166,000 babies were born, 120,700 of them Jewish.

Our adopted hometown of Ma’aleh Adumim, which is roughly the same size as Teaneck, has 22 elementary and secondary schools serving 10,400 kids from kindergarten to 12th grade, plus 77 daycare centers and preschools.

The deals he signed were largely symbolic, and the connections he made were more friendly than financial. Nevertheless, Gov. Chris Christie’s five-day visit to Israel was considered a success by the Jewish leaders who were invited to tag along.

“Although no formal agreements have yet been announced, there were some significant high-level meetings on the business front,” Mark Levenson, chair of the New Jersey-Israel Commission (NJIC), said in an April 9 phone interview. “We believe these meetings will lead to growing Israeli businesses with a presence in New Jersey.”

For much of his April 1-5 trip to Israel and later Jordan, the media focused on the political impact of the visit. They speculated what it might mean for the popular Republican governor’s vice-presidential or presidential prospects.

Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola has been barred from California.

California’s new state laws on toxic chemicals are keeping kosher for Passover Coke out of the state, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported a company spokesman as saying.

Coke was required to change the way it manufactures caramel due to the high levels of the chemical 4-methylimidazole, or 4-MEI, which California has listed as a carcinogen under its new guidelines. The manufacturing changes in California affected the kosher for Passover status of the cola, according to reports.

The company expects to offer the kosher for Passover variety of Coke in California by 2013, the newspaper reported, again citing the company spokesman.

The Passover version of Coca-Cola uses sugar in place of corn syrup, which is not kosher for Passover for most observant Ashkenazi Jews.

Some kosher stores in California carried limited amounts of kosher for Passover Coke, which bears a yellow cap, that was imported from other states.

JTA Wire Service

The synagogue, school, and center division of the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) has set out “standards of excellence” for Jewish libraries, embracing areas from a facility’s library committee to its mission statement, record-keeping, staffing, collection, and catalogue. [http://www.jewishlibraries.org/ajlweb/accreditation/accreditation_guidelines.pdf]

According to these guidelines:

“The library should have the support and guidance of a library committee, which serves as “the liaison to the Board of the parent institution and provides advice, support, and guidance to the professional staff of the library.”

WASHINGTON – Emotional. Raw. Frustrating.

That’s how Oz Fishman describes his reaction to “Bully,” a documentary that follows five students who face bullying daily. The movie also focuses on two victims of bullying who killed themselves.

“I think every single person who wants to be a member of any community should see this film,” Fishman said.

As international co-president of the Jewish youth group BBYO, Fishman has been in a position to help make “Bully” available to Jewish teens and their parents throughout the country.