Culture -

Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski

October 17, 2022David Leibermann

The Lesson of Jan Karski/ Photo credit Tsipi Ingberg Ben-Haim by Tsipi Inberg Ben-Haim For 90 minutes, the actor David Strathairn re-lived on stage, for us, the audience, a mesmerizing, painful lesson of Jan Karski. The sold-out space was full of people whose eyes and attention focused on that one person on stage! No one […]

Dmitry Muratov’s Nobel Medal Nets $105 Million for Ukrainian Relief

June 21, 2022David Leibermann

Dmitry Muratov – Wikipedia Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctioned off his Nobel Prize to raise money for the people of Ukraine suffering under a now three month long Russian invasion of their country. At auction on Monday night, the 23-karat gold Nobel medal sold for $103.5 million, crushing the previous record for the sale of […]

Neil Diamond sells complete song catalog to universal

February 28, 2022David Leibermann

Neil Diamond After serving as Neil Diamond’s publishing administrator since 2014, Universal Music Group announced today that it has purchased the full song library and recording rights of famous performer and composer Neil Diamond. UMG hasn’t disclosed the price of the deal. Diamond has sold more than 130 million albums over the last half-century, putting […]

Impossible Pork is here — but the plant-based meat won’t be certified as kosher

September 27, 2021Sara Wood

(JTA) — Impossible Foods, the plant-based meat company, is releasing a long-awaited new product — but unlike the wildly popular Impossible Burger, it won’t be certified kosher. The largest and most influential certifier of kosher products in the world has declined to endorse Impossible Pork, even though nothing about its ingredients or preparation conflicts with […]

‘The Auschwitz Report’: Slovakian film follows real-life escapees who tried to warn the world

September 24, 2021Sara Wood

(JTA) — Were it not for Rudolph Vrba and Alfréd Wexler, would the world today know the true extent of the mass murder the Nazis inflicted during the Holocaust? The two men, both Slovak Jews who escaped from Auschwitz, secretly recorded fastidious notes about details of the death camp unknown to the outside world. These […]

Kathryn Hahn’s next Jewish role: Joan Rivers

September 23, 2021Sara Wood

(JTA) — Showtime is producing a limited series on the late Jewish comedy legend Joan Rivers, and its lead actress should not come as a surprise. Kathryn Hahn, the non-Jewish star known for playing a rabbi on the very Jewish series “Transparent” among other Jewish roles, will portray Rivers, who died in 2014 after complications […]

Levi, Thirza and Ezra: Why are non-Jewish Dutch parents giving their children Jewish names?

September 21, 2021Sara Wood

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — As he lists the names of his many grandchildren, Joop van Ooijen recites what sounds like a roll call at a typical Israeli classroom. Yair, Yael, Lael, Odelia, Netanya, Yoaz and Shilon are some of his grandkids with modern names, favored by the Israeli middle class. Baruch, Moshe, Elisheva and Yehuda are […]

For Mallorca’s Jews, their first ‘public’ sukkah is a triumph over the Spanish Inquisition

September 20, 2021Jesse Orine

(JTA) — Before the Spanish Inquisition, the island of Mallorca had a sizeable Jewish community. Every fall, the island became dotted with the leaf-roofed huts that Jews are commanded to erect during the holiday of Sukkot. But that all changed under the Inquisition’s campaign of persecution that began in 1488 (four years before it started […]

Meet the Jewish mustard maven who founded a museum for his favorite condiment

September 17, 2021Sara Wood

(JTA) — The 16th-century kabbalist Moshe Cordovero and the Jewish philosopher Nachmanides both compared the universe to the size of a mustard seed. The biblical commentator Rashi – who lived 100 miles from Dijon, France – believed that Abraham served tongue with mustard to the three angels who visit him in the 18th chapter of […]

22% of adult Jewish gamers faced antisemitic harassment while playing, survey finds

September 15, 2021Mark Hershlag

(JTA) — More than one in five Jewish adults who play online multiplayer games faced antisemitism while playing, according to a new survey from the Anti-Defamation League. The survey, published Wednesday, found that harassment and bigotry are common across the 97 million Americans who play multiplayer games. Among adult gamers surveyed, 83% said they have […]