‘Devastating,’ ‘difficult,’ ‘depressing’: JTA readers on their year since Oct. 7, in one word

This article is part of a series examining how Oct. 7 and its aftermath have changed the Jewish world. You can see the complete project here. More than 700 readers responded to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s survey asking about what has changed in their lives over the last year. In extended comments, they described wrenching […]

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Literary powerhouse Zibby Owens takes aim at antisemitism with her new anthology, ‘On Being Jewish Now’

Author, publisher and “bookfluencer” Zibby Owens didn’t set out to be a public face of the fight against antisemitism. But like just about everything else, that all changed following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7. “Before October 7, I hadn’t experienced much antisemitism. Just a sprinkle of sea salt on a big buffet,” Owens […]

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In ‘Notice to Quit,’ Mrs. Maisel’s husband Michael Zegen plays another unlikably likable Jew

Jewish actor Michael Zegen has made a name for himself playing some less-than-savory Jewish New Yorkers, like Midge Maisel’s philandering husband Joel in the Amazon hit “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and gangster Bugsy Siegel in HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.” Now, in his first-ever leading role on the silver screen, he’s playing a hustling New York City […]

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Netflix’s ‘Nobody Wants This’ casually celebrates Judaism. I want a second season.

As a gender historian and scholar of intermarriage, I binge-watched the new Netflix series “Nobody Wants This” with a combination of foreboding and optimism. Depictions of romances between Jewish men and Christian women have been ubiquitous in popular culture since “The Jazz Singer” in 1927 as Jewish men in Hollywood depicted their own lived experiences. […]

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‘The Goldberg-Variations,’ a revival of famous George Tabori play, explores Jewish trauma through humor and satire

As the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 approaches, the themes of coping with trauma and loss explored in the play “The Goldberg-Variations” are just as relevant now as they were when the play debuted in Vienna more than three decades ago. Written by renowned Hungarian Jewish playwright George Tabori, the backstage comedy set in Jerusalem […]

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