Category: Culture

((JR)) — Jewish day school graduate and actor Ike Barinholtz successfully answered a question about the ancient Roman poet Ovid to win on “Jeopardy!” Monday night, in a rare success for a celebrity during the quiz show’s regular competition. In the program’s Tournament of Champions, Barinholtz defeated two previous winners on the show, an artist […]

(New York Jewish Week) — When Barry Bernstein, a fictional theater teacher at a Bronx public school, learns the entire budget for the spring musical has been eliminated, he has to figure out a way to raise $10,000 — quickly. But first, Barry pays a routine visit to his elderly grandfather, who tells him, “You […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Like so many stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Marlo Gorelick picked up a new hobby: cake decorating. She learned all the trendy techniques of the day, from of-the-moment decorations to how to properly layer colorful cakes and jams in order to create the all-popular rainbow cake. […]

(New York Jewish Week) — What if the first book of the Hebrew Bible had a female God who created the world — and what if the first human created was a woman, not a man? What if the story of the near sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham was flipped — and a mother was […]

((JR)) — David Draiman, the Jewish frontman of heavy metal band Disturbed, is raising money to provide private security for Matisyahu after the Jewish reggae singer had two venues cancel on him in the face of pro-Palestinian protests. “I’m raising funds to provide security for our brother @matisyahu,” Draiman, the heavy metal singer, wrote on […]

(New York Jewish Week) — “My feelings about Israel are the reasonable ones,” says Asaf Sternheim, an adjunct writing professor at an unnamed university who is the protagonist in a buzzy new play opening in New York this week. Speaking to his wife, Asaf — played by Jewish actor and “How I Met Your Mother” star […]

When Rabbi Avraham Wolff leaves the Mishpacha Children’s Home in Odessa, Ukraine, most evenings, he whispers a silent prayer.  He prays that the 120 children for whom his organization cares will be able to sleep through the night, uninterrupted by air raid sirens and a race to the bomb shelter. He prays that the food, […]

BERLIN ((JR)) – Israeli director Guy Nattiv and British actor Helen Mirren have received a Dove Award from the Cinema for Peace Foundation for their joint work in the 2023 biopic, “Golda,” in which Mirren stars as Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel. The film focuses on Meir’s role during the Yom Kippur […]

(New York Jewish Week) — In the days after Kristallnacht in 1938, two German Jewish brothers flee their Berlin home for a place halfway across the world: Shanghai, where they join a community of thousands of other Jewish refugees — and confront a Chinese population devastated by their own war with Japan.  One brother, Otto, […]

((JR)) — Rob Reiner, best known for his acting role in the 1970s sitcom “All in the Family” and for directing a series of beloved comedies — including “This is Spinal Tap,” “The Princess Bride” and “When Harry Met Sally” — is getting serious in his latest project. “God and Country,” which hits theaters this week, […]