Category: Culture

((JR)) — Romi Levy glides towards the basket, her sole focus on finishing at the net in the University of South Florida’s practice facility. Moments later, during a break in practice, she checks her phone, hoping not to see any alerts about rocket alarms in her hometown of Herzliya, Israel. More than 6,000 miles from […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Growing up in an Orthodox community in Queens, Raye Schiller had no idea it was possible to combine her love of her Jewish community, her queer identity and her dreams of being a comedian.  This week, all three of those identities will come together for the 28-year-old, who is hosting […]

(New York Jewish Week) – On paper, at least, it seems like Natan Badalov had a pretty typical American Jewish childhood. He went to a Jewish day school for elementary and middle school, had a bar mitzvah and graduated from a public high school. And yet, despite growing up in a city that’s home to […]

((JR)) — A standout at perennial powerhouse Duke. An Israeli WNBA prospect with a twin sister in the Israeli Defense Forces. A member of the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Those are just a few of the compelling stories from the best Jewish basketball players in the NCAA this year. Many are Israeli, […]

((JR)) — A scruffy, bearded Jewish man in his mid-60s — distressed, disheveled but wickedly self-satisfied — is invited to spend the night at the Manhattan apartment of an old friend and benefactor. Put up in the bedroom of the man’s college-age daughter, he slips a pair of her panties over his head and searches her […]

((JR)) —  Several staff members at a leading art magazine resigned in protest over the weekend after their editor-in-chief was fired following the publication of a letter that was sharply critical of Israel. Pro-Israel figures in the art world had condemned Artforum and its editor in chief, David Velasco, since the magazine’s publication of a […]

BROOKLINE, Mass. ((JR)) —  Andy Yosinoff departs his prayer service at Congregation Kehillath Israel shortly after 8 a.m. every Thursday during the college basketball season, navigating across the Boston city line. For nearly 50 years, the Reform Jew has commuted to what’s become his life’s calling: coaching the women’s basketball team at a small private […]

((JR)) — Like other Israelis around the world, Iddo Gefen spent the hours of Oct. 7 rifling through various news reports and messages from friends and family about the terror attacks unfolding in southern Israel. But from his apartment in New York City, Gefen was specifically focused on the news about his good friend from […]

As Israel’s war with Hamas is set to enter its fourth week, rallies and protests in support of both Israelis and Palestinians have been held everywhere from the White House to college campuses to the streets of Europe. Roblox is different because it has more than 65 million daily active users — around 45% of […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Last fall, when Binyumen Shaechter started putting together the 2023 repertoire for the Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus, he thought an apt theme and title would be “Chutzpah! Yiddish Songs of Defiance” to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as well as the 75th birthday of the State of […]