Category: Culture

(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 […]

(J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Tucked in the far corner of a large, brightly-lit exhibition hall on the ground floor of the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, there is a delicate-looking piece of art with a strong political message. At first glance, it appears to be three circular vases with flowers […]

(JTA) — Noa Kirel won MTV Europe’s award for best Israeli artist for the fifth straight year on Sunday. But it was the outfit she wore to the awards ceremony that got everyone talking. Kirel, 21, wore a halter top, elbow-length gloves and wide-legged pants all emblazoned with pictures of Kanye West, the rapper who […]

(JTA) — Hosting “Saturday Night Live” for the first time since he faced widespread criticism about jokes ridiculing transgender people, comedian Dave Chappelle opened the show with a lengthy monologue about “the Jews” — namely, the controversy surrounding rapper Kanye West’s recent antisemitic comments. In the lengthy monologue, Chappelle danced along the lines he was […]

(New York Jewish Week) — “She was the most un-grandma person that anyone could have,” says David Bourla at the beginning of a film about his one-of-a-kind grandmother, Chelly Wilson. “Except for the fact that she was Jewish, we celebrated Christmas in a porn theater. It doesn’t get any weirder than that.” So begins Valerie Kontakos’ […]

(New York Jewish Week) — With over 200 screenings and dozens of related events, DOC NYC — which bills itself as America’s largest documentary film festival — is now underway.  This year, the festival features in-person screenings at various theaters through Thursday, Nov. 17, and continues online through Sunday, Nov. 27. In addition to “Queen […]

(JTA) — Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots owner who donates heavily to Jewish causes, funded an advertisement that ran during Sunday’s NFL matchup between the Patriots and the New York Jets urging NFL fans to “stand up against Jewish hate.” The ad aired during a weekend in which NBA star Kyrie Irving shared a […]

(New York Jewish Week) — In “The Calling,” a new miniseries streaming on Peacock, a Jewish NYPD detective fights crime and solves mysteries by letting his Jewishness lead the way. Jeff Wilbusch plays Avraham Avraham, a detective whose Judaism is both central to his character — in more than one scene he says the Mourner’s Kaddish […]

(New York Jewish Week) — It was a stupendously bad idea to arrive at the press preview for the New-York Historical Society’s new exhibit, “‘I’ll Have What She’s Having’: The Jewish Deli,” on an empty stomach. The exhibit — which originated at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles and opens in New York on Friday, Nov. […]

(JTA) — Three weeks after saying he was “alarmed” by Adidas’ ties to Kanye West, Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, donned the company’s sneakers for his group’s “Never is Now” conference in New York City. The about-face happened after Adidas ended its relationship with West weeks after the rapper began making antisemitic […]