(New York Jewish Week) — The true story of a formerly Hasidic Baltimore man who encouraged Jews to convert to Christianity during the Holocaust serves as the unlikely jumping-off point for a new, Yiddish-language play beginning previews this week in Manhattan. “The Gospel According to Chaim” is based on the life of missionary Chaim Einspruch, […]
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((JR)) — In the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, waves of prominent people have made their way to Israel to bear witness to what happened there. Foreign dignitaries, Diaspora rabbis and business leaders have all toured ravaged kibbutzes, met with hostage families and participated in the country’s sweeping volunteer effort. Now, the […]
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(New York Jewish Week) — In 2006, Rabbi Deborah Prinz was on a trip to Europe with her husband, Rabbi Mark Hurvitz, when they wandered into a chocolate shop in Paris. While meandering about the store, Prinz picked up a brochure and read a line that, given her rudimentary French, she was sure she misunderstood: It […]
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((JR) and New York Jewish Week) — The Tikvah Fund, a Jewish conservative think tank, is launching a Jewish day school that will aim to give students an education that emphasizes “the majesty of Western civilization.” Emet Classical Academy, whose name is Hebrew for “truth,” will open next fall on the Upper East Side of […]
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(JR) — As a child, Mauricio Avayu wasn’t allowed to pursue art — his father thought he should study something more practical, like math or engineering. Avayu grew up in the conservative Jewish community of Santiago, Chile, the capital city home to most of the country’s 18,000 Jews. But by now, Avayu has seen his […]
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PORTO, Portugal (JR) — In an apartment overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, 95-year-old Marilyn Flitterman habitually sits at her piano to play tunes by George Gershwin and Irving Berlin — long ago committed to memory — while looking back at the past 50 years of her life in Porto. Born in Brooklyn, she moved to the […]
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((JR)) — Jewish communal mourning was defined in large part this year by Oct. 7. But other notable losses occurred throughout the year, of people who have left outsized legacies on politics, the arts, sports and everything in between. In chronological order, here is a selection of obituaries of 20 of the most famous Jews who […]
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(JR) — A narrow window is open now through Dec. 31 for Lithuanian Holocaust survivors and their descendants to apply for restitution, under the terms of a law passed last year. A similar law enacted in Latvia has also taken effect, giving Holocaust survivors from that country the chance to secure one-time payments of about […]
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((JR)) — Automated content moderation tools deployed amid “a surge in violent and graphic content” on Facebook and Instagram after Oct. 7 went too far in removing posts that social media users should have been able to see, an independent oversight panel at their parent company, Meta, ruled on Tuesday. The finding came in a […]
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(New York Jewish Week) — The late Brooklyn klezmer musician Pete Sokolow would sometimes take the stage as “Klezmer Fats.” But many players used a different sobriquet to refer to the pianist, who served as link between generations: “the youngest of the old guys.” Sokolow started playing klezmer in the summer of 1958 with older […]
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