PHOENIX, Arizona — On one particularly sleepy Passover morning a few years back, one of my kids turned to me and said, “Abba, where is everybody?” Looking out at the empty pews, I said, “Not in Manhattan.” In my Orthodox congregation on the Upper West Side, the overwhelming majority of our members typically observe Passover […]
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Half a century ago, in the fall of 1969, Michael Tilson Thomas — a promising, young conductor and scion of Yiddish theater royalty — lifted his baton for his New York debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he had recently been appointed assistant conductor and pianist. In one of those rare unscripted moments, Tilson […]
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Former Israeli hostage Noa Argamani and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt were included along with over a dozen Jews in Time Magazine’s 100 “Most Influential” list this year. Their inclusion — in the “Leaders” and “Titans” sections of the annual list — points to the ongoing significance of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel […]
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“I’m preparing a tea so we can talk with leisure,” Sasson Gabay says over the phone from Israel. The Israeli film and TV star, now 77, wants to get comfortable so he can talk about one of his favorite characters from his 50-year career: Nuhem Shtisel. If that surname sounds familiar, yes — it’s a […]
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In his first major public comments about Israel since early in the Gaza war, the Jewish actor Ben Platt said his Jewish identity is not defined by Israel. Platt also voiced support for another Jewish actor, Hannah Einbinder, who has drawn criticism after condemning the Israeli government in a recent awards speech. “As a queer […]
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LOS ANGELES — While the L.A. wildfires were still smoldering in January, I sat down to write a personal reflection on what Judaica means to the heart of Jewish homes like the ones that had been consumed in the inferno. Before I had written the last sentence, I knew I wanted to try to help […]
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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. For the past 643 consecutive days (and counting), Eden Agulnik has devoted 10 minutes a day to the language learning app Duolingo. On her phone or computer, […]
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One of the first executive orders that President Trump signed after his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, was titled Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. The order accused the previous administration of having “trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms.” What Trump was referring to as censorship was the government’s […]
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Ten years ago I wrote an article about how America’s Judaica manufacturers now largely operate out of China. The items that aren’t made there are usually created in Israel. Only a few items, like customized skullcaps, are still manufactured in America. In the past decade, my interest in the subject has shifted from journalistic to […]
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When the Academy Museum in Los Angeles was accused of antisemitism over its exhibit on Hollywood’s Jewish founders, one Jewish film historian and author in Los Angeles looked to respond using a different medium: the written word. Sam Wasson, best known for bestselling books on film history and figures such as Francis Ford Coppolla, is […]
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