Culture -

Michael Solomonov’s restaurant group says anti-Israel boycott did not cause closure of 6 locations

July 14, 2026July 14, 2026Jesse Orine

CookNSolo, the Philadelphia restaurant group co-founded by the Israeli-American celebrity chef Michael Solomonov, announced this week that it would close six locations across two of its fast-casual chains. In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, owner Steve Cook blamed the closures on inflation, declining lunch traffic and an oversaturated market for fast-casual dining. But pro-Palestinian […]

Clavicular cuts a path across Tel Aviv, dividing pro-Israel influencers over his record of antisemitism

July 12, 2026July 12, 2026Jesse Orine

TEL AVIV — When Israeli influencer Aaron Morali realized that the celebrity drawing a crowd at the Loullie beach club on Saturday night was Braden Peters — better known as Clavicular — he alerted staff. He knew that in addition to being a prominent “looksmaxxing” influencer, Peters had appeared alongside the white supremacist Nick Fuentes […]

Adam Sandler officiates Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding, fueling theories about singer’s Israel stance

July 5, 2026July 5, 2026Jesse Orine

A Jewish comedian who played one of cinema’s most notable Israeli characters took center stage — literally — at Taylor Swift’s wedding at Madison Square Garden on Friday. Adam Sandler officiated the ceremony between Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, a spokesperson for Swift confirmed to media after the wedding. The event […]

A scholar unpacks the slur that Jews were arsonists — and why it stuck

July 4, 2026July 4, 2026Jesse Orine

In the first episode of its second season of “The Bear,” Hulu’s acclaimed series, the character Richie describes damage at the titular restaurant as “the result of some failed Jewish lightning.” As far as antisemitic slurs go, that’s a pretty deep cut. “Jewish lightning,” for the uninitiated, is a derogatory euphemism for arson, based on […]

The warmth of community, the heat of hostility: Yona Speidel’s Jewish journey

June 30, 2026June 30, 2026Jesse Orine

Hours after emerging from a ritual bath marking her conversion to Judaism, Yona Speidel was leaving a celebratory dinner with her rabbi when a man across the street yelled “f–ck Jews.” For Speidel, it was an unexpected welcome into the Jewish community. “My rabbi looked at me and he goes, ‘Welcome,’” Speidel recalled. “And I […]

Nathan Straus made his fortune at Macy’s — and spent it fighting disease in New York and Palestine

June 24, 2026June 24, 2026Jesse Orine

What do the ultra-wealthy owe the rest of us? It may be the defining argument of our second Gilded Age. While Elon Musk insists that his businesses “are philanthropy,” and America’s richest people gave away on average less than 5% of their total wealth in 2025, an actual Gilded Age titan offers a different example. […]

A massive mah jongg festival is coming to New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage

June 24, 2026June 24, 2026Jesse Orine

This article was produced by the events team at 70 Faces Media, the non-profit organization that publishes (JR) and the New York Jewish Week. It’s no secret: Mah jongg is having a major moment. The historic Chinese game — first popularized in the United States more than 100 years ago, then nurtured by Jewish women starting […]

A play called ‘The Zionists’ turns the post-Oct. 7 discourse Into a dysfunctional family drama

June 23, 2026June 23, 2026Jesse Orine

Just about the last thing I wanted to do on a summer weekend in the Berkshires was to see a play called “The Zionists.” The title alone practically dares audiences to arrive with their defenses up. Its subject is the bitter family and communal fractures that followed Oct. 7, 2023. Its Jewish characters argue angrily, […]

Clive Davis, influential Jewish rock-and-roll executive, dies at 94

June 22, 2026June 22, 2026Jesse Orine

During his run as the head of CBS Records, Clive Davis signed some of the biggest and most influential acts in rock-and-roll history, including Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. But it nearly all came crashing down in 1973, after Davis allegedly siphoned some money from his label to pay for his son’s bar […]

Want to ask Einstein about Zionism? A new AI tool lets users chat with Jewish history

June 16, 2026June 16, 2026Jesse Orine

I asked AI Sigmund Freud to interpret my dream this morning. All I got was some dancing dots, as if a) the great man had fallen asleep or b) my dream had broken his virtual brain. Freud is one of nine historical Jewish figures featured in “Ask Jewish Lives,” a new AI feature based on […]