Culture -

Stephen Spielberg wins Grammy, becoming 9th Jew in elite EGOT ranks

February 2, 2026February 2, 2026Jesse Orine

The legendary director Stephen Spielberg has become the ninth Jew to secure “EGOT” status after winning a Grammy for producing a documentary about the music of John Williams. Spielberg was awarded the Grammy for producing “Music by John Williams,” which won best music documentary, before the televised ceremony on Sunday. The win makes him the […]

Italian rapper Ghali’s planned Winter Olympics set draws backlash over his Gaza advocacy

January 29, 2026January 29, 2026Jesse Orine

Italian rapper Ghali’s slated performance at the opening ceremony for this year’s Winter Olympics in Milan has drawn criticism from Italian leaders over his past activism against Israel. Ghali Amdouni, a prominent Milan-born rapper of Tunisian parents, will be joined by a host of performers including Andrea Bocelli and Mariah Carey during the opening ceremony […]

A new exhibit honors writer Lore Segal, a child survivor and lifelong skeptic of easy truths

January 26, 2026January 26, 2026Jesse Orine

I’ve never read a Holocaust chronicle quite like Lore Segal’s autobiographical 1964 novel, “Other People’s Houses.” Mordant, unsentimental and sometimes painfully honest, it’s the story of an Austrian girl sent to England on the Kindertransport, as well as a portrait of the artist as a young refugee. More than one of her legions of admirers […]

Stories of ghosts, grief and Shabbat gladness win top prizes in Jewish children’s literature

January 26, 2026January 27, 2026Jesse Orine

Anna is a misunderstood sixth-grade girl who communicates with the ghosts of her Jewish ancestors. Teased by her classmates and worried-over by her family, she finds comfort and understanding with her Bubbe and her beloved Jewish traditions. “Neshama,” Marcella Pixley’s lyrically written novel-in-verse, won the gold medal for Jewish children’s literature for middle-grade readers from […]

On PBS’ ‘Finding Your Roots,’ Jewish actor Lizzy Caplan discovers her family’s unknown Holocaust story

January 26, 2026January 26, 2026Jesse Orine

Actor Lizzy Caplan always thought it was unusual she didn’t know of any relatives who were victims of the Holocaust. In Tuesday’s episode of the PBS celebrity genealogy series “Finding Your Roots,” Caplan learns that one of her ancestors survived four camps — and that his wife and baby were murdered. “It was my friends […]

Timothée Chalamet and ‘Marty Supreme’ net 9 Oscar nominations for Jewish sports fable

January 22, 2026January 22, 2026Jesse Orine

It was a “Supreme” Oscar-nominations morning for Timothée Chalamet and the heavily Jewish period sports comedy he stars in. “Marty Supreme” picked up nine Academy Award nominations Thursday, including best picture and best actor for the red-hot Chalamet, the 30-year-old thespian who is seen as likely to nab his first Oscar for the role. The […]

Judd Apatow grew up idolizing Mel Brooks. Now he’s telling Brooks’ story in an HBO documentary.

January 21, 2026January 21, 2026Jesse Orine

When Judd Apatow was growing up on Long Island, there was no debate about who ruled the comedy world. “Nobody was funnier than Mel Brooks,” Apatow once wrote. “Mel Brooks was the king.” Decades later, after himself becoming a prolific Jewish filmmaker and comedy impresario, Apatow has turned that childhood certainty into a sweeping tribute. […]

Larry Ellison once renamed a superyacht because its name spelled backwards was ‘I’m a Nazi’

January 16, 2026January 16, 2026Jesse Orine

Larry Ellison, the Jewish founder of Oracle and a major pro-Israel donor, has recently been in the headlines for his media acquisition ventures with his son. The new scrutiny on the family has surfaced a decades-old detail about Ellison: that he once rechristened a superyacht after realizing that its original name carried an antisemitic tinge. […]

This Jewish artist fought Nazis with a paintbrush, when art like his still mattered

January 8, 2026January 8, 2026Jesse Orine

I remember being freaked out, and fascinated, by my parents’ copy of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales. It featured these especially lurid illustrations; I can still see a little girl in a red coat, trapped in a spider’s web and tormented by lizards, bats and a huge black spider with a skull and crossbones on […]

Irving Berlin’s 1926 interfaith marriage sparked a Jewish debate that, 100 years later, hasn’t gone away

January 2, 2026January 2, 2026Jesse Orine

Exactly 100 years ago, on Jan. 4, 1926, legendary American Jewish songwriter Irving Berlin married Ellin Mackay, a Roman Catholic heiress, in a civil ceremony in Manhattan’s City Hall. What some considered a misalliance of prominent figures from different worlds was the subject of much comment, as much for their class differences as their religious […]