(JTA) – Franz Kafka was a devotee of Yiddish theater, fell in love with his Hebrew teacher and once encountered the owner of a brothel he frequented in synagogue on Yom Kippur. The broad strokes of Kafka’s biography have long been known to historians, but a new English translation of the Czech author’s complete and […]
Continue Reading
(JTA) — In a shocking development, the embattled founder of Germany’s non-Orthodox rabbinical schools has relinquished his ownership stake in them to the Jewish Community of Berlin. The 25,000 euro transaction means that Rabbi Walter Homolka is no longer in control of the Reform Abraham Geiger College and the Conservative Zacharias Frankel College at the […]
Continue Reading
(JTA) — Turner Classic Movies admits that capturing the “Jewish experience” in a series of films is a daunting task, but the network is attempting to do so anyway. Every Thursday night in January, the channel is showing movies spanning from the 1930s through the 1990s on the theme. According to an article on the […]
Continue Reading
(JTA) — Andrew Bridgen, a member of British Parliament, has been booted from the Conservative Party after calling COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom “the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust” in a tweet on Wednesday. Starting on Tuesday, Bridgen has already been serving a five-day suspension from parliament for a breach of lobbying […]
Continue Reading
(JTA) — A prize established to honor a single inspiring Jew with a lifetime of achievements has been awarded this year to a nameless group whose work is ongoing: Jewish activists in war-ravaged Ukraine. The Genesis Prize Foundation said the war in Ukraine required a change in the approach it has taken since creating the […]
Continue Reading
(JTA) — Steven Spielberg said he was the sixth-happiest person in the world after he won best director at this year’s Golden Globes awards for “The Fabelmans,” his autobiographical film about his Jewish family. “I think … there’s five people happier than I am,” he said in his acceptance speech, which he said he had […]
Continue Reading
(New York Jewish Week) — When a fire devastated the Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village two years ago, East End Temple, a nearby Reform synagogue, welcomed church-goers to worship in their sanctuary. Since then, a relationship has blossomed between the synagogue and the church, which has remained homeless due to the six-alarm fire that […]
Continue Reading
(JTA) — Adolfo Kaminsky, the French-Jewish photographer, forger, smuggler and resistance fighter who saved thousands of people during the Holocaust as part of the French underground, died at 97 in his home in Paris on Monday. Kaminsky’s improbable and heroic story was detailed in a book by his daughter, written in his voice, and in […]
Continue Reading
(New York Jewish Week) — A revival of “Parade,” a musical about the 1915 lynching of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, will arrive on Broadway this spring, following a successful seven-performance run last November. Ben Platt, the Jewish Tony-award winning actor who originated the title role in the Broadway hit “Dear Evan Hansen,” will star […]
Continue Reading
(JTA) — An exodus of Jews from Russia since President Vladimir Putin invaded neighboring Ukraine has drawn widespread attention over the last year. But according to statistics released recently by Russia’s official statistics bureau, the country’s Jewish population had fallen sharply long before the tanks began rolling. The statistics, published last month by Russia’s Federal […]
Continue Reading
