Within hours of her release from captivity in Gaza, Emily Damari’s hand had become a new Israeli icon. Damari was injured on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists shot her and took her hostage. It became clear after she was released on the first day of a ceasefire on Sunday that she had lost the […]
Continue Reading
Of the 150 psalms in the book known in Hebrew as “Tehillim,” the 23rd may be the best known: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” The late rabbi Adin Steinsaltz explained that the verse compares the speaker to a lamb, and that God the shepherd “will lead him on a secure path […]
Continue Reading
Sasha Chanoff recalls the day he was forced to make one of the most painful decisions of his life. It was 2000, only six years after the genocide in Rwanda, and Chanoff — a Finnish-born Jew working with the International Organization for Migration — was sent to neighboring Congo on a risky mission: drive to […]
Continue Reading
Hosting “Saturday Night Live” in its final broadcast before the inauguration of Donald Trump, comedian Dave Chappelle concluded with advice for the new president. “Do not forget your humanity,” Chappelle said. “And please, have empathy for displaced people, whether they’re in the Palisades or Palestine.” The line represented Chappelle’s signature mix of humor and serious […]
Continue Reading
Like many people during the pandemic, Asher Lovy became addicted to TikTok. After watching numerous videos on the social media platform, he asked his organization’s social media manager to start an account of their own. Today Lovy’s group, Za’akah, has around 9,000 followers on the platform — a paltry amount compared to its most popular […]
Continue Reading
Jewish stand-up comedian Gary Gulman is trying a new approach in his new, one-man off-Broadway show, “Grandiloquent.” Between the usual moments of hilarity, Gulman, 54 — a “Last Comic Standing” finalist whose most recent comedy special, “Born on Third Base,” was released on Max in 2023 — takes a more serious, vulnerable approach to storytelling […]
Continue Reading
For six years, singer and actor Ari Axelrod has been performing a one-man musical show about Jews and Broadway in front of sold-out audiences around the country. It is a remarkable accomplishment, especially considering that Axelrod — who grew up in a Conservative Jewish home and has fostered a deep love of musicals since high […]
Continue Reading
For years following his highly publicized antisemitic outbursts, Mel Gibson couldn’t find much work in Hollywood. But now he’s back in the filmmaking capital — as Donald Trump’s “special ambassador.” The president-elect announced Thursday he was appointing the actor-director, along with fellow conservative celebrities Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone, to the newly created role of […]
Continue Reading
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s Jewish community is mourning after Isak Haleva, chief rabbi since 2002, died at 84 on Tuesday. Haleva was the 35th person to hold the title of Hahambaşi, by which the chief rabbis of both the modern Turkish Republic and the Ottoman empire have been known since the position was established after the […]
Continue Reading
In the early 1920s, a Jewish filmmaker set out to create a movie that would counter the rising antisemitism of the time. The result was “Breaking Home Ties,” a silent film about Russian Jewish immigrants in the Lower East Side that depicts Jews and Jewish practice in a sensitive light. “Breaking Home Ties” premiered at […]
Continue Reading
