Category: Culture

This article was produced as part of (JR)’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives. ((JR)) — From who is behind the camera to who is in front of it, Hollywood receives a lot of attention for its representation of minority and […]

(New York Jewish Week) — After 38 years on the Upper West Side, the legendary comedy club Stand Up NY has moved downtown — to Times Square.   The venue on Broadway and 78th Street, which has hosted the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Robin Williams, Pete Davidson and Amy Schumer, along with many other […]

((JR)) — When Mel Brooks was filming “The Producers,” he recalled an executive approaching him and saying, “The curly-haired guy—he’s funny looking. Fire him.”  Brooks said he would fire the actor, but never intended to actually do it. And when “The Producers” came out, it became a classic in no small part because of that […]

((JR)) — Is Louis Vuitton really taking sides in the Israel-Hamas war by selling an $820 T-shirt with a graphic logo in the colors of the Palestinian flag? Some people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict believe the answer is yes, after a shirt with the LV logo in magenta, green, black and white hit shelves […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Jewish New York was once defined by pushcarts and peddlers; immigrants arriving through Ellis Island; densely packed kosher restaurants; lively Yiddish theater and daily newspapers in Yiddish and Ladino.  Those days are long gone — but that period is just some of the Jewish history captured in documents and ephemera […]

((JR)) – More than 1,200 Jewish Hollywood creatives have signed onto a statement rejecting the speech criticizing Israel by “The Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer at this month’s Academy Awards. The signatories include “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” writer Amy Sherman-Palladino, horror director Eli Roth and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, as well as several show-business […]

((JR)) — Washington Monthly, a center-left magazine, has published an essay by an Israeli writer and translator that was retracted last week from the progressive literary journal Guernica after that magazine’s editors and co-publisher accused it of being an “apologia for Zionism.” Joanna Chen’s “From the Edges of a Broken World” went up on the […]

((JR)) — A superhero who saves the day; the return of a beloved multi-generational family of Jewish bears; a budding young nonbinary scientist who’s an heir to Frankenstein and a folk-style Ethiopian tale are among the stars of the new Passover children’s books published in 2024. The titles come from new entrants to the Jewish […]

((JR)) — A Jewish executive producer of the Oscar-winning Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” said he disagreed with director Jonathan Glazer’s speech at the Academy Awards ceremony criticizing Israel, while the Auschwitz Memorial issued a statement in its defense. They were the latest reactions in what has become a prolonged firestorm over Glazer’s remarks […]

(New York Jewish Week) – Purim begins on the evening of Saturday, March 23, and Jews across New York City aren’t wasting the opportunity to party all weekend long.  The festive holiday celebrates the triumph of the Jewish people in the Persian city of Shushan over Haman, the King Ahasuerus’ evil advisor who had made […]