Jon Stewart hosted writer Peter Beinart on “The Daily Show” Monday night, for a conversation in which the two Jewish liberals agreed that the war in Gaza was “horrific” and that Israel bore near exclusive blame for the suffering endured by Palestinians in the 22 months since the Oct. 7 attacks. While the two discussed […]
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Yiddish is the language of the Jews of Eastern Europe and all the places to which they spread. It is the language of socialists and capitalists, the Partisans who fought the Nazis and most of the millions who were killed in the Holocaust. It is the everyday tongue of tens of thousands of haredi Orthodox […]
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On this day in 1849, Jewish writer and activist Emma Lazarus was born in New York City. Lazarus is, of course, most famous for “The New Colossus,” the sonnet with the famous lines “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” that’s practically synonymous with the Statue of Liberty. The poem […]
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The Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Radio City Music Hall. One thing these iconic New York buildings all have in common: They’re all built in the art deco style, which is characterized by geometric forms, bold colors and lavish ornamentation. These famous buildings may be timeless, but as it happens, the art deco movement […]
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Walter Zev Feldman, 76, is an authority on Ottoman Turkish music, Yiddish dance and klezmer music. An accomplished musician and a respected academic who has taught at elite universities, Feldman was a key player in the 1970s klezmer revival — and, in fact, it was Feldman who popularized the term “klezmer” to describe the traditional instrumental […]
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What do yoga, pasta-making and Shabbat dinner have in common? Admittedly not much — aside from the fact that they have all been centerpiece activities for events organized by Bianca Kisin, creator and founder of Nice Jewish Girls, a New York City-based social group for Jewish women in their 20s and 30s. Kisin, 23, is […]
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An amateur film critic named Evan gave the new “Superman” movie five out of five stars. Writing on the Letterboxd platform, they praised the film’s “unique visual identity” and called director and screenwriter James Gunn “the best comic director.” And they added, “Very anti Israel which is awesome to see from a major studio blockbuster.” […]
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An Orthodox Jewish music festival will take place in Bethel, New York in August — at the very same location where the iconic Woodstock Music & Art Fair took place in August of 1969. Called Yamim Ba’im, or “The Coming Days,” the four-act, family-friendly outdoor concert will occur at the Bethel Woods Center for the […]
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Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel, the iconic Borscht Belt hotel that inspired the film “Dirty Dancing,” will be the subject of a new scripted TV series. The series, which is currently in pre-production, is being written by Alan Zwiebel, an early “Saturday Night Live” writer who spent his childhood summers at Grossinger’s, and Harris Salomon, whose […]
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STOCKBRIDGE, Massachusetts — At the climax of his one-man show, “Out of Character,” the actor Ari’el Stachel declares, “I am a Yemenite, Israeli, Ashkenazi, Jewish, American actor with anxiety.” It’s a complex identity that has brought him major attention since his Tony Award-winning turn as an Egyptian trumpeter in the hit 2018 musical “The Band’s […]
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