Category: Culture

(New York Jewish Week) — Holocaust survivor Helena Weinrauch survived imprisonment at three concentration camps and a forced death march. And yet the 99-year-old Manhattanite is, by all accounts, a force of nature. Time and again she has stared down unbelievable darkness. And yet she continues to exude a palpable joie de vivre. In the […]

((JR)) — To prepare for their role in creating Adam Sandler’s latest movie, crew members hit the Toronto bar and bat mitzvah circuit. Production designer Perry Blake and set decorator Julia Altschul, guided by a local consultant on the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony, crashed 10 parties within a matter of weeks. “We saw how amazing and […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Anyone walking into Feltz Bagels in Montauk, New York, could be forgiven for wanting to taste everything on the menu: There are 15 types of bagels; a variety of schmears, meats and toppings, as well as desserts like rugelach and babka by the slice. But while everything in the shop […]

((JR)) — The Anti-Defamation League agrees with Leonard Bernstein’s family: Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose in the upcoming “Maestro” biopic is not an antisemitic portrayal of the celebrated Jewish conductor. “Throughout history, Jews were often portrayed in antisemitic films and propaganda as evil caricatures with large, hooked noses. This film, which is a biopic on the […]

(New York Jewish Week) — James McBride’s latest novel began as a book about a Jewish camp, and “ended up being a book about equality.” Set in the small town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” opens in 1972 when construction workers discover a body and a mezuzah at the bottom of […]

((JR)) — As only the third Israeli to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, Natan Levy is not afraid to showcase his Jewish identity in and out of the ring. He gave himself the chance to do just that as he invited a follower of white supremacist provocateur Nick Fuentes to a fight that […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Just a few minutes after entering The Ripped Bodice, a new romance bookstore in Park Slope, Rose Cohen, a woman in her early 20s, already had two books in hand.  Armed with a list of coveted romance books on her iPhone notes app, Cohen, who lives an hour outside the […]

((JR)) — Bella Abzug, the feminist who burst into Congress battling for equal rights in 1970, was often caricatured in the media of her time. She was labeled “belligerent” and “bellicose Bella” in newspapers, parodied on television and shamed for everything from her body to her Jewishness to her signature wide-brimmed hats. In just six […]

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. ((JR)) — On a recent morning at Sandbridge Beach, about six miles down the coast from Virginia Beach’s famous boardwalk, an unexpected fog disrupted beachgoers’ otherwise picturesque summer setting. The fog was so thick that even the water became invisible, and everyone was forced out of the water. Most swimmers and surfers […]

((JR)) — There’s no way to win “The Light in the Darkness,” a new video game where the characters are members of a French-Jewish family in the years before and during the Holocaust. No matter what choices the player makes, they will be murdered by Nazis — a dark end that the game’s creator says is […]