Category: Culture

(New York Jewish Week) – When Jewish comedian Michael Hirsch took the stage in the Catskills last month, he quickly realized that the crowd was much older than his typical audience — people who may have gone to shows back when the area was a hotbed of Jewish comedy. “It was really people who were […]

((JR)) — The mother of 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, is one of nearly a dozen Jews on Time Magazine’s 100 “Most Influential” list, couched among comedians, writers, music producers, athletes, business executives, and politicians. Since Oct. 7, Rachel Goldberg-Polin has become one of the most prominent […]

((JR)) — The founder of Guernica, the progressive literary magazine that published and then retracted an essay by an Israeli writer last month, says he never wanted to publish the piece in the first place. In a seven-paragraph statement published on Guernica’s website Friday, Michael Archer writes that he thought from the start that the […]

(New York Jewish Week) – The Passover story, about how Israelites made their exodus out of Egypt, is commonly told close to home, at a seder hosted by family and friends. But for those looking for a public seder, or maybe just a change of pace, never fear: Across New York there are plenty of […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Every Jewish community worth its salt has a Jewish community center, but few have had the cultural impact of New York’s 92nd Street Y. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the Jewish cultural institution has become a major metropolitan showcase for the best in dance, poetry, classical […]

(New York Jewish Week) — I’ve known Hanna Slome for my entire life: She and her husband Henry Slome were close friends of my parents. I knew that in the 1930s, Henry fled Nazi Germany and Hanna had somehow gotten out of Czechoslovakia, but I didn’t know the details of her escape. Neither, it turned out, […]

((JR)) — Taylor Swift has (unofficially) entered her Exodus era. Swifties can now express their love for the pop icon while celebrating Passover, thanks to the “Unofficial Taylor Swift Haggadah,” written by author Na’ama Ben-David. Ben-David says the idea came from her teenage daughter, a big fan of Swift. “She loves talking about Taylor Swift,” […]

(New York Jewish Week) – Two folk music traditions that developed on opposite sides of the world from one another will come together for a one-night-only performance in New York City.  The Brooklyn Fiddle Summit, which will take place on Thursday at Brooklyn venue Littlefield, will showcase violinist Zoë Aqua’s klezmer virtuosity as well as […]

((JR)) — Those who might have described “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as a kind of “Seinfeld” on steroids got a fitting conclusion on Sunday, as the last episode of Larry David’s landmark 12-season sitcom was essentially a reprise of the much-maligned “Seinfeld” finale 26 years ago. Except one thing. (Spoilers follow.) In the finale, which aired […]

((JR)) — Joan Nathan had just settled in for a conversation about her most recent book, “My Life in Recipes,” when the food writer became distracted. A media personality was coming for lunch the next day, she said, but she realized she was missing two of the ingredients for the matzo balls she planned on […]