Category: Culture

First came the explosions. Then came the jokes. Within minutes of news that several members of Hezbollah were killed and hundreds wounded by pagers that had been doctored to explode en masse, allegedly by Israel, Jews on social media shared memes celebrating the operation and mocking its targets. Examples: A man dressed as an Orthodox […]

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)) — Growing up Orthodox Jewish in the suburbs of New York City, Dahlia Adler read books that showed a life vastly different from her own. “I […]

((JR)) — Why are these macaroons different from all other macaroons? It’s a question that many American Jews may find themselves asking this Passover, and the answer will be: how they’re packaged. That’s because Manischewitz, the iconic purveyor of kosher-for-Passover products, has shaken up its look, eschewing macaroon canisters for resealable bags, splashing the orange […]

(New York Jewish Week) – When Jewish comedian Michael Hirsch took the stage in the Catskills last month, he quickly realized that the crowd was much older than his typical audience — people who may have gone to shows back when the area was a hotbed of Jewish comedy. “It was really people who were […]

((JR)) — The mother of 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, is one of nearly a dozen Jews on Time Magazine’s 100 “Most Influential” list, couched among comedians, writers, music producers, athletes, business executives, and politicians. Since Oct. 7, Rachel Goldberg-Polin has become one of the most prominent […]

((JR)) — The founder of Guernica, the progressive literary magazine that published and then retracted an essay by an Israeli writer last month, says he never wanted to publish the piece in the first place. In a seven-paragraph statement published on Guernica’s website Friday, Michael Archer writes that he thought from the start that the […]

(New York Jewish Week) – The Passover story, about how Israelites made their exodus out of Egypt, is commonly told close to home, at a seder hosted by family and friends. But for those looking for a public seder, or maybe just a change of pace, never fear: Across New York there are plenty of […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Every Jewish community worth its salt has a Jewish community center, but few have had the cultural impact of New York’s 92nd Street Y. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the Jewish cultural institution has become a major metropolitan showcase for the best in dance, poetry, classical […]

(New York Jewish Week) — I’ve known Hanna Slome for my entire life: She and her husband Henry Slome were close friends of my parents. I knew that in the 1930s, Henry fled Nazi Germany and Hanna had somehow gotten out of Czechoslovakia, but I didn’t know the details of her escape. Neither, it turned out, […]

((JR)) — Taylor Swift has (unofficially) entered her Exodus era. Swifties can now express their love for the pop icon while celebrating Passover, thanks to the “Unofficial Taylor Swift Haggadah,” written by author Na’ama Ben-David. Ben-David says the idea came from her teenage daughter, a big fan of Swift. “She loves talking about Taylor Swift,” […]