Tom Lehrer never identified closely with his ancestral Judaism. But the famed satirist and mathematician, who died Saturday at 97, wrote one of the first popular songs about the Jewish holiday. “(I’m Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica” debuted in 1990, well after Lehrer’s peak as a performer, on a come-from-retirement performance on Garrison Keillor’s radio […]
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NUREMBERG, Germany — On a spring evening in Nuremberg, an orchestra of New York students gathered for a concert celebrating 80 years since the end of World War II. They also came with a peace mission. Bard College’s The Orchestra Now, or TŌN, was invited by the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and made its first overseas […]
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Japan’s far-right Sanseito party emerged triumphant in the country’s latest parliamentary election this week, signaling the rise of a nationalist, anti-immigrant movement with a history of decrying “Jewish capital.” Sanseito, which flies a “Japanese First” banner explicitly inspired by President Donald Trump, gained 14 seats in the country’s upper house elections on Sunday — a […]
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President Emmanuel Macron says France plans to recognize a Palestinian state during his appearance at the United Nations’ General Assembly in September. The move is “consistent with [France’s] historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Macron wrote in a post on X announcing his decision. The post was accompanied by […]
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Award-winning actor and singer Billy Porter sparked controversy while promoting his new lead role in the revival of “Cabaret” on Broadway when he stated that “Black people have replaced the Jews.” The revival of Cabaret, the 1966 musical about the fate of a Berlin nightclub and its patrons during the rise of the Nazism, will […]
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Canada’s envoy for combating antisemitism is leaving her job early, partly out of exhaustion from “waking up every day to a fight.” Deborah Lyons had been serving as Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism since she took the job soon after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Her term was […]
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The Hamburg State Opera has announced plans for a new opera house, backed by a donation from a German billionaire whose family grew its fortune by collaborating with the Nazi regime. The flashy new home for the state opera is set to be built near the city’s waterfront and is expected to cost approximately 340 […]
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On this day in 1849, Jewish writer and activist Emma Lazarus was born in New York City. Lazarus is, of course, most famous for “The New Colossus,” the sonnet with the famous lines “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” that’s practically synonymous with the Statue of Liberty. The poem […]
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The Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Radio City Music Hall. One thing these iconic New York buildings all have in common: They’re all built in the art deco style, which is characterized by geometric forms, bold colors and lavish ornamentation. These famous buildings may be timeless, but as it happens, the art deco movement […]
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An official commemoration of the AMIA Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires took place in Congress this week for the first time, amid increased tensions with Iran, the country understood to have been behind the attack. The July 18, 1994, car bomb attack killed 85 people, injured over 300, and completely destroyed the AMIA […]
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