Jewish and African-American folk music traditions to entwine at the Brooklyn Fiddle Summit

(New York Jewish Week) – Two folk music traditions that developed on opposite sides of the world from one another will come together for a one-night-only performance in New York City.  The Brooklyn Fiddle Summit, which will take place on Thursday at Brooklyn venue Littlefield, will showcase violinist Zoë Aqua’s klezmer virtuosity as well as […]

Continue Reading

Meet Argentina’s Axel Wahnish, the first rabbi ever to be appointed as an ambassador to Israel

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JR) — Argentina’s senate is on the brink of confirming President Javier Milei’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel: his personal rabbi, Shimon Axel Wahnish. Wahnish, 42, has been close to Milei as the Catholic “anarcho-capitalist” made a meteoric rise to power and is widely understood to be responsible for Milei’s recent philosemitism, […]

Continue Reading

Series finale of HBO’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ reunites Larry David-Jerry Seinfeld Jewish comedy duo

((JR)) — Those who might have described “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as a kind of “Seinfeld” on steroids got a fitting conclusion on Sunday, as the last episode of Larry David’s landmark 12-season sitcom was essentially a reprise of the much-maligned “Seinfeld” finale 26 years ago. Except one thing. (Spoilers follow.) In the finale, which aired […]

Continue Reading

Jewish tradition sees eclipses as bad omens. Many American Jews are seeking totality anyway.

((JR)) — The rabbis of the Talmud are famous for their disagreements. But they presented a united front on eclipses, calling the celestial event “a bad omen for the whole world.” The attitude was common across the ancient world, when eclipses could not be predicted and were experienced as frightening, though astronomy was more developed […]

Continue Reading

Guernica editor who published Israeli writer’s coexistence essay resigns, saying she disagreed with retraction

((JR)) – The editor-in-chief of the prestigious literary magazine Guernica whose decision to publish an Israeli writer’s essay about the war in Gaza last month led to the mass resignation of the magazine’s staff has herself resigned from the publication, saying she disagreed with the decision to retract the essay. Jina Moore announced her resignation […]

Continue Reading

Alex Edelman’s ‘Just For Us’ premieres on HBO and Max, with Jewish identity and antisemitism again in the spotlight

((JR)) — Alex Edelman’s acclaimed comedy special “Just For Us,” about his experience as a Jew attending a white supremacist meeting in New York City, first premiered at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in the summer of 2018. Months later, the worst antisemitic attack in American history occurred when a white supremacist killed 11 worshippers […]

Continue Reading

On the Lower East Side, a corporate ‘fixer’ honors his Jewish roots with a unique, NYC-centric bookstore

(New York Jewish Week) — It’s called P&T Knitwear, but you won’t find any cardigans or scarves for sale inside this colorful shop on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side. Instead, you’ll find a one-of-a-kind New York City-centric bookstore that’s also a coffee shop and an event space, with amphitheater-style seating for 80. Nearly […]

Continue Reading