Category: Culture

(JTA) — When the New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor was reporting the 2017 Harvey Weinstein sexual assault story that earned her a Pulitzer prize, the powerful Hollywood producer and his team tried to influence her by using something they had in common: They are both Jewish.  “Weinstein put [Jewishness] on the table and seemed […]

(JTA) — Zoe Dressner and Margeaux Wolberg had just one month free between graduating from college and when they were due in Jerusalem to begin rabbinical school. So, they figured, in addition to packing, finding an apartment and nailing down the logistics of a 6,000-mile move, why not get married? At 23 and 22, respectively, […]

(JTA) — Prominent Jewish comedians have begun to weigh in on fellow comic Dave Chappelle’s “Saturday Night Live” monologue in which he joked about Jews running Hollywood. The verdict from his peers has been mixed after Chappelle delivered a 15-minute set that the head of the Anti-Defamation League said appeared to “normalize” and “popularize” antisemitism. […]

(JTA) — One of two Jewish women tapped for the next season of a popular reality TV show has backed out, citing “a torrent of antisemitism” that she said she had received since the cast was announced. Lizzy Savetsky, 37, had been set to appear in the 14th season of “Real Housewives of New York,” […]

(New York Jewish Week) — As a Hasidic mom raising a family in Houston, Leah Lax had seven children ages 9 and under — including an infant, and a toddler with health issues, born just 11 months apart. When she found herself unexpectedly pregnant again, she realized she needed to have an abortion. That scene […]

(JTA) – On “Saturday Night Live” last weekend, Dave Chappelle really wanted his audience to know there are a lot of Jews in Hollywood. “I’ve been to Hollywood, this is just what I saw,” he said during his widely dissected monologue. “It’s a lot of Jews. Like, a lot.” While suggesting that it might not […]

(New York Jewish Week) – A Catholic university may be the unlikeliest place for what may be the largest depository dedicated to the Jewish history of the Bronx.  But at Fordham University — the private, Jesuit institution in the Bronx — decades worth of archival documents and artifacts from the local Jewish community have found […]

(JTA) — This year’s slate of Jewish Grammy nominees offers a little something for everyone. The nominees for the 2023 Grammy Awards, announced on Tuesday, include prominent Jewish names from pop and rap, but they also recognize Jewish musicians and writers in classical music and other less popular genres. Here’s the full (and varied) list: […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Taffy Brodesser-Akner may have told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that she doesn’t find “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” her best-selling novel about the fallout from a painful divorce, to be a “Jewish” story. But she did admit that the book — and its TV adaptation that premieres Thursday on Hulu, starring […]

(New York Jewish Week) — After a “traditional, religious” Jewish childhood in Brooklyn where he attended yeshiva, Barry Rosen fell in love with Iran. Rosen was 22 when he joined the Peace Corps and set out on a two-year stint in Iran in 1967. There, Rosen felt deeply connected to the people and culture of […]