Author: Sara Wood

(JTA) — If you know any young children or fidgety adults, chances are you’ve seen, heard, or coveted a handheld piece of dimpled silicone known as a “pop-it.” The must-have toy was originally created in the 1970s by an Israeli couple with a penchant for playthings, according to a BBC report that calls the pop-it […]

(JTA) — The Ben Stiller-Diego Schwartzman bromance is still going strong. While Schwartzman was eliminated from the U.S. Open in New York on Sunday, he snuck in some more quality with Stiller, the Jewish actor who happens to be one of Diego’s biggest fans. On Wednesday, the Jewish tennis star’s girlfriend posted a photo of […]

(JTA) — The adventurers arrived at Morgur’s Mound, an archaeological site ringed with dragon bones. There they stumbled upon some treasure: a fire giant’s gold-plated tooth. They grabbed the tooth and tried to leave the site, but suddenly the ground began to shake. “Four animated thunder beast skeletons erupt from the mound and attack you,” […]

(JTA) — If you find your synagogue’s prayerbook a little dull at Rosh Hashanah services next week, you may be able to buy a livelier — and much older — alternative for next year. That is, if you have $4 million lying around. Sotheby’s announced Thursday that it will be putting a 700-year-old illustrated Rosh […]

(JTA) — At a key moment in the new Netflix film “Worth,” Kenneth Feinberg, the real-life architect of the compensation fund for 9/11 victims, is shown overwhelmed by the monumental emotional toil of the job. At a town hall meeting for victims’ families Feinberg — whom Michael Keaton until this point has portrayed as an […]

(JTA) — Reports of the demise of the Canadian Jewish News have been, not for the first time, greatly exaggerated. On Sept. 1, the publication — the largest Jewish news organization in Canada — will rebrand as a digital-first enterprise after abruptly shutting down operations in April 2020 and then resuming a trickle of content […]

(JTA) — It was a quiet Shabbat afternoon when the frustration that had been building up inside Michal Schick spilled out in a song. For months, Schick had been keeping a tally in her head — and sometimes on Twitter, where the New York City screenwriter is active — of pandemic-related Holocaust comparisons that, to her […]

This article originally appeared on Alma. Light spoilers ahead for “The Chair.” “The Chair,” Netflix’s new six-part dramedy set in the English department of a fictional Ivy League school, is about a lot of things: existing as a woman of color in academia, workplace sexual tension, parenthood, grief, Sandra Oh’s incredible double-breasted jackets. It’s also […]

This article originally appeared on Alma. The 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games open on Tuesday. Much like the Olympic Games in the Japanese capital, there are plenty of Jewish athletes to support, like emerging track and field star Ezra Frech and veteran swimmer Matt Levy. But unlike the Olympic Games, the Paralympics have an inspiring Jewish […]