Category: Culture

(New York Jewish Week) — Lou Bettinger, a stubborn but discerning businessman, has run a dingy luggage shop on the Lower East Side for 60 years when the new play “Bettinger’s Luggage” begins. “I know everything about luggage,” Lou (Richard MacDonald) says, as he give an interview promoting his family’s store on a fictitious news […]

((JR)) — On a night when Dean Kremer became the first Israeli-American to start an MLB playoff game — while his parents’ country was at war, no less — fellow Jewish player Alex Bregman drew a Star of David on his Houston Astros hat for his own Tuesday night playoff game. Kremer, who holds dual […]

((JR)) — The original lyrics of U2’s hit song “Pride (In the Name of Love)” were about Martin Luther King, Jr. But on Sunday night, the band’s singer Bono changed some of the song’s lyrics to pay tribute to Israeli victims of Hamas’ attacks. In a break in their performance of the song at the […]

((JR)) — When Betty Friedan published “The Feminine Mystique” in 1963, she set fire to a simmering discontent among millions of American women, blowing up the myth that feminine fulfillment began and ended with a husband, children and a home. But 17 years after her death, many retrospectives have summed up Friedan as the leader […]

(New York Jewish Week) – A young woman imagines herself standing inside the office of a fast-talking, bowtie-wearing, pipe-smoking editor of a major publishing house in New York City.  She’s just submitted her diary — a memoir of her life in hiding from Nazis and subsequent detention in a concentration camp — for his review, […]

((JR)) — Variety magazine is holding a star-studded Hollywood summit focused on addressing antisemitism through “inclusive storytelling, thought leadership, and advocacy.” Actor, producer and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher will deliver an opening keynote address at the daylong event on Oct. 18. Subsequent panel discussions will cover topics ranging from the history of Jews in Hollywood […]

((JR)) — The crowd of 60,000 Israelis assembled for the first of pop star Bruno Mars’ sold-out two-night stand in Tel Aviv got a local treat courtesy of Mars’ keyboardist: a performance of a classic Israeli children’s Sukkot song. Video from the concert showed attendees singing along to “Shlomit Bona Sukkah” (“Shlomit Builds a Sukkah”). […]

(New York Jewish Week) — For the three weeks between the first day of Rosh Hashanah and the end of Simchat Torah, it’s hard to get anything done in Israel. With so many holidays in rapid succession, businesses open sporadically, bureaucratic necessities remain pending and many cultural events are put on hold. In New York, […]

NEW YORK ((JR)) — Like many other fans heading into Monday night’s New York Film Festival screening of “Maestro,” Alexander Gorlin was aware of the “Jewface” controversy that has plagued the film. But acting is a “cross cultural” exercise, said Gorlin, who is Jewish. His architectural firm has designed several Jewish houses of worship. “If […]

((JR)) – As the WGA, the screenwriters’ union in Hollywood, returns to work following a five-month strike, the authors of a new analysis of Jewish representation have a message for its members: The world needs more Jewish characters who aren’t rich. Portrayals of wealthy Jewish families spending big on lavish affairs — such as the […]