Category: Culture

In Jesse Eisenberg’s new film, a pair of American Jewish cousins on a heritage tour of Poland sneak back onto a train they already had tickets for, after getting off at the wrong stop. “It’s the principle of the thing,” says Benji, played by Kieran Culkin. “We shouldn’t have to pay for tickets in Poland. […]

Sally Rooney, Percival Everett, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Lethem and other giants of the literary world are among thousands of authors to have signed a new letter declaring Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide and pledging to boycott all Israeli literary institutions in protest. The authors say they will not allow their books to be translated […]

A 23-year-old woman has been arrested after she posted on social media about having gotten away with ripping down Greek flags at a New Jersey restaurant that she believed were Israeli. The incident at Efi’s Gyro in Montclair, New Jersey, occurred March 11, but it wasn’t until Amber Matthews posted the video to TikTok on […]

Among the legions of Grateful Dead fans mourning Phil Lesh are a small but devoted cohort of Jewish Deadheads with memories of celebrating Passover with him. “To life! To Phil! Our love will not fade away! Eternally grateful,” the Jewish vocalist Jeannette Ferber posted on Facebook, alongside a picture showing herself with Lesh at a […]

A theatrical production based on the memoir of an ex-Hasidic transgender rabbi and activist, set to premiere in New York early next year, is scrambling to find a new home after its landlord rejected the script last week. The landlord? The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. The production has become a casualty of a […]

When the NBA season tips off on Tuesday, there will be three Jewish players taking the court — the same trio who were in the league last year. Two of those players — Deni Avdija and Amari Bailey — have changed uniforms, while All-Star Domantas Sabonis is entering his fourth season with the Sacramento Kings. […]

The brightly colored “Sukkot boxes” offered up on Amazon boasted the colors of spring, not fall; had no ostensible use for the Jewish holiday; and contained a Hebrew misspelling that bordered on obscene. Reader, I bought them. And it wasn’t just me. Enabled by our Prime accounts, Jews across the United States shelled out about […]

Christopher Columbus was likely Jewish, Spanish researchers have announced in a splashy new documentary aired on Spain’s national broadcaster on Saturday. According to the documentary, the researchers spent 22 years researching Columbus’ national origins before concluding that bones buried in a Seville cathedral are in fact the famed explorer’s — and that his DNA suggests […]

In 2021, the Orthodox Union declined to put its kosher certification on Impossible Pork, even though similarly vegan “Impossible” foods — its burger, its chicken nuggets — carried the OU seal of approval.  “The Impossible Pork, we didn’t give an ‘OU’ to it, not because it wasn’t kosher per se,” said Rabbi Menachem Genack, the […]