Category: Culture

(New York Jewish Week) — I’ll be honest: At the outset, a three-hour play about antisemitism did not sound like my idea of a good time. After all, as the editor of a Jewish publication, I spend much of my workdays writing about and thinking about the world’s hatred of Jews. But my trepidation evaporated […]

(New York Jewish Week) —“But what could I do?”  Variations of this question are asked again and again throughout Polish playwright Tadeusz Słobodzianek’s “Our Class.” The play is inspired by the real-life 1941 pogrom in the small Polish village of Jedwabne, in which local residents murdered hundreds of their Jewish neighbors.   And now, at a […]

((JR)) — The story of real Auschwitz survivor Lali Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who was forced to tattoo numbers on his fellow inmates and implausibly fell in love with a girl he was tattooing, is coming to TV on May 2. “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” a six-part original series based on the bestselling novel of […]

(New York Jewish Week) – When Michael Witkes arrived at his bar mitzvah party, he knew he couldn’t enter to a musical theater song, his preferred genre, because he was already being bullied for being too effeminate and flamboyant. So, he simply told the DJ to just pick any song that matched the vibe of […]

((JR)) — To fete the creator of the TV series that made him famous, Jewish actor and director Rob Reiner turned to Yiddish during the Emmys on Monday night. Reiner was paying tribute to Norman Lear, the Jewish creator of pioneering TV comedies who died last month at 101. Reiner came to prominence for his […]

((JR)) — While the entire music industry went online, John Zorn made sure the albums released by his Tzadik Records label remained stubbornly unavailable on streaming platforms. For fans of the pioneering Jewish musician, the recalcitrance was unsurprising. Long one has been one of the country’s most respected experimental musicians and composers, with much of […]

((JR)) – It took months longer than anticipated, but “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is finally competing for its last shot at Emmy gold. The Emmy Awards for the 2022-23 television season, originally scheduled for September, will take place Monday after extended delays due to the 2023 Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes. That means the many […]

(New York Jewish Week) – This weekend, communities around the United States will celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here in New York City, Jewish communities will honor King by hosting interfaith Shabbat dinners and discussions about social justice, as well as providing community service opportunities and […]

((JR)) — Growing up in Milwaukee in the 1950s, brothers David and Jerry Zucker entertained themselves by performing skits for their family during Hanukkah parties. In a recent conversation, David downplayed the skits’ significance, noting that they were “really just pre-9-year-old stuff,” but the younger Jerry had fonder memories of their performances. “I’m not sure […]

(New York Jewish Week) — The New York Jewish Film Festival, which this year begins on Wednesday evening, is offering moviegoers an opportunity to travel back in time to experience a New York Jewish world of yesteryear.  “Mothers of Today,” a 1939 Yiddish-language feature that was filmed in the Bronx in just five days, will […]