Connie Francis, 20th-century star turned TikTok sensation, recorded an album of Jewish songs in 1960

A new generation of music lovers got turned on to mid-century pop star Connie Francis’ oeuvre in recent months when her 1962 song “Pretty Little Baby” went viral on TikTok. Now, Francis’ death on Wednesday at 87 has drawn attention to another little-known element of her discography: her 1960 album of Jewish music, including songs […]

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He kicked off the 1970s klezmer revival. Now, he’s paying tribute to New York’s vast global music scene.

Walter Zev Feldman, 76, is an authority on Ottoman Turkish music, Yiddish dance and klezmer music. An accomplished musician and a respected academic who has taught at elite universities, Feldman was a key player in the 1970s klezmer revival — and, in fact, it was Feldman who popularized the term “klezmer” to describe the traditional instrumental […]

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Legendary ‘King of Comedy’ Jerry Lewis placed a weekly Jewish deli order, his son recalls

DALLAS — Christopher J. Lewis stood at his booth in the midst of a sprawling exhibit hall earlier this year as 2,000 physicians, researchers, pharmaceutical representatives, journalists and rare disease patients mingled in Dallas to mark the 75th anniversary of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Yet Lewis wasn’t here to hype the latest gene therapy or […]

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Mandy Patinkin calls on Jews to reflect on Gaza war: ‘is this acceptable and sustainable?’

In an interview published Saturday, famed Jewish actor Mandy Patinkin and his wife, actress Kathryn Grody, condemned Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and decried Jewish people who “allow this to happen.” Their comments to The New York Times magazine, while reflective of some Jewish critics of the war both in Israel and abroad, led some to […]

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He’s back: Larry David teams up with the Obamas to create new TV comedy series about American history

After his beloved and extremely Jewish sitcom “Curb Your Enthusiasm” ended after 12 seasons last year, many fans undoubtedly had the same thought: Would this be the last of Larry David on TV? The notorious curmudgeon’s answer: Absolutely not.  On Thursday, David announced that he will be partnering with Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company […]

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The Jewish women who made Grossinger’s Catskill Resort famous are the subjects of a new TV show

Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel, the iconic Borscht Belt hotel that inspired the film “Dirty Dancing,” will be the subject of a new scripted TV series. The series, which is currently in pre-production, is being written by Alan Zwiebel, an early “Saturday Night Live” writer who spent his childhood summers at Grossinger’s, and Harris Salomon, whose […]

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Ari’el Stachel, an ‘Arab Jewish’ actor with a Tony Award, has a message about antisemitism for Zohran Mamdani

STOCKBRIDGE, Massachusetts — At the climax of his one-man show, “Out of Character,” the actor Ari’el Stachel declares, “I am a Yemenite, Israeli, Ashkenazi, Jewish, American actor with anxiety.” It’s a complex identity that has brought him major attention since his Tony Award-winning turn as an Egyptian trumpeter in the hit 2018 musical “The Band’s […]

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