Category: Culture

((JR)) — Ben Platt, the Broadway star headlining a musical about an antisemitic episode in American history, donned a Star of David necklace as part of his outfit for Monday night’s Met Gala. The annual gala is a hallmark of the fashion calendar, and celebrities are urged to put together splashy costumes to match a […]

((JR)) — The Western Wall and Jerusalem skyline provided the backdrop for actor Brett Gelman’s proposal to his now-fiancée musician Ari Dayan. The couple, together since 2019, announced their engagement Friday on Instagram. “SHE SAID YES!!!” Gelman shared. “Can’t wait for Mr. Gelman to become Mr. Dayan,” Dayan wrote. Gelman, 46, is best known for […]

((JR)) — The short life of Anne Frank has inspired generations of filmmakers and television producers. The list of past productions range from “The Diary of Anne Frank” (1959), whose director George Stevens witnessed Nazi occupation as a U.S. army officer, to the Academy Award-winning documentary “Anne Frank Remembered” — featuring the only known footage of […]

((JR)) — The prize dubbed the “Jewish Nobel” will be going to Barbra Streisand later this year, in a return to its tradition of honoring Jewish celebrities for their lifetime of achievements. The iconic actor and singer is getting the Genesis Prize, which has been awarded since 2013, in recognition of her contributions to a […]

((JR)) — Rabbi Michael Wolk was nervous when he stepped foot onto his synagogue’s bimah in May 2021 — but not because his congregation was returning to in-person prayer after a pandemic pause. The jitters were because he was about to debut as an actor, in a role for which he hadn’t auditioned: as the […]

(JTA) — Jerry Springer, the son of Jewish refugees who set aside a promising political career to become the ringleader of a circus-like syndicated talk show featuring feuding couples, angry exes and frequent fisticuffs, died Thursday morning at his home in the Chicago area. A family spokesperson told TMZ that Springer, who was 79, had […]

(JTA) — Actor Steve Guttenberg has had the kind of career that put him in touch with nearly every trend in Hollywood. There were prestige films like “Diner” and “Cocoon” and the lighter but wildly successful fare like the first four movies in the “Police Academy” series. “Three Men and a Baby” was the biggest […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Barry Manilow’s “Harmony,” a musical about a real-life performing troupe of Jews and gentiles who combined close harmonies and stage antics in Germany during the 1920s and ’30s, is headed to Broadway.   The musical, for which Manilow wrote the songs and his longtime partner, Bruce Sussman, wrote the lyrics, has […]

(JTA) — Chrismukkah has come early for Adam Brody fans. Netflix announced on Thursday that the Jewish actor, best known as the geeky heartthrob Seth Cohen on the teen drama “The O.C.” in the mid-2000s, is set to play a “charming rabbi” alongside Kristen Bell in an upcoming  comedy. “In the series, Bell plays an […]

(New York Jewish Week) — There’s an old joke about Israel (we’ll spare you the too-long set up) that ends, “Before you were a tourist — now you’ve made aliyah.” In other words, whatever preconceptions you had about Israel, they will be shattered once you make the decision to live there. Joel Chasnoff and Benji […]