Category: Culture

(JTA) – Panettone, the fluffy, fruit-speckled archetypal Christmas cake, is this holiday season’s “it” dessert — and the creator of perhaps the most coveted version in the United States is an Israeli-American Jew. The New York Times this week credited baker Roy Shvartzapel with spearheading “the American panettone revolution” through his business From Roy. Shvartzapel has […]

(New York Jewish Week) — The classic and very Jewish 1988 film “Crossing Delancey” is one of those movies that feels both extremely of its time and also completely timeless.  Director Joan Micklin Silver’s film has all the classic rom-com trappings: A woman who’s torn between two men (and to that end, two worlds); complaints about […]

(New York Jewish Week) — For photographer and Instagram blogger Mordechai Rubinstein, seeing his face plastered all over the subway this holiday season has been an unexpected delight. Rubinstein is decidedly not a dermatologist (a la subway-famous Dr. Zizmor), nor is he hawking subscription meds or beauty products. Rather, Rubinstein is featured in Nordstrom’s prominent […]

(JTA) — From the very beginning of the year, 2022 was anything but easy for American Jews.  The year began with a harrowing crisis at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, during which an armed assailant took a rabbi and three of his congregants hostage during Shabbat services. From there, Jewish communities across the United States […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Lizzy Savetsky’s life has been turned upside down and inside out over the past eight months.  The 37-year-old social media influencer, who identifies as “a proud Orthodox Jewish woman,” became practically a household name this summer when she was announced as a cast member for the 14th season of “The […]

(JTA) – Once more for the record, Dave Chappelle: Jews don’t actually run Hollywood. But anyone paying attention to pop culture in 2022 saw a lot of Jewish creativity. This year saw several big, distinctly Jewish releases across multiple media, ranging from acclaimed movies to popular TV shows to theater, books and viral TikToks. And […]

(JTA) – As “The Daily Show” looks ahead to a future without host Trevor Noah, at least three Jewish comedians are waiting to take his place — at least temporarily. Al Franken, Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler are among the extensive list of guest hosts Comedy Central has lined up to hold down the fort […]

(New York Jewish Week) — “Jesus is a paycheck,” said Rob Orbach, one of the many classically trained Jewish vocalists who perform Christian sacred songs in churches across New York City.   “There’s a lot of money to be made in churches, especially in New York,” Orbach, 30, who lives in West Harlem, told the New […]

(JTA) — The Detroit Pistons wished Brooklyn Nets star guard Kyrie Irving a happy Hanukkah Sunday night, the first night of the holiday. The Pistons appeared to be trolling Irving, who recently shared an antisemitic film on Twitter and initially refused to apologize. The scoreboard displayed both a spinning globe and a Hanukkah graphic with […]

This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with teens across the world to report on issues that impact their lives. (JTA) — In 9th grade, Jonathan Korinman transferred to a specialized public high school in the Bronx after spending the previous nine years in private Jewish day schools.  […]