Tag: culture

Since its founding, StandStrong — a Chicago-based non-profit that wants Jews to have the confidence and skills to defend themselves — has hosted self-defense classes at Jewish community centers, synagogues and Jewish summer camps across the country. But earlier this month, they brought their self-defense training, which draws from martial arts like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and […]

Before there was Joan Rivers and Susie Essman, and long before showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino dreamed up “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” one Jewish comedian helped blaze a trail for the generations of hilarious women who followed her. Her name is Jean Carroll, and she’s considered the first Jewish woman stand-up comedian. And if you’ve never heard […]

On the surface, New York-based filmmaker Yael Melamede’s latest documentary is an intimate story about her mother, award-winning Israeli architect Ada Karmi-Melamede.  Ada, 88, who was born Mandatory Palestine and comes from a family of architects, is renowned for creating some of Israel’s best-known public buildings, including Ben-Gurion Airport, the Ramat HaNadiv Nature Park Visitor’s […]

Between showers on a rainy Sunday afternoon, an Upper West Side intersection played host to a lively outdoor salsa concert by a 13-piece band that included three trumpet players and three trombonists. The street party, which drew a mix of dancing celebrants and confused passersby, was in honor of the Jewish New Yorker who left […]

A new abstract bronze sculpture that celebrates motherhood and caregiving was unveiled in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park last week. Created by Jewish artist and activist Molly Gochman, the sculpture, part of her “Monuments to Motherhood” series, is 15 feet tall and resembles a loosely tied knot. It stands just opposite Grand Army Plaza, whose most notable […]

D’yan Forest is, in the truest sense of the phrase, one of a kind. That’s because at the age of 90, she is the oldest female stand-up comedian in the world, per Guinness World Records. And on Thursday and Sunday, as part of the New York City Fringe Festival, she is performing the last of […]

​​​​When Abby Chava Stein, 33, stepped away from her ultra-Orthodox upbringing, she wasn’t just leaving behind her way of life and her family — she was stepping into her authentic self. Now, the first openly transgender female rabbi from a Hasidic background takes center stage in “Becoming Eve,” a new play adapted from Stein’s 2019 […]

Sheila Dardashti has spent her lifetime making music — but until recently had never written any of her own. Raised in Queens by Jewish lovers of folk music, Dardashti studied classical guitar in high school. As a young woman, she toured as half of an international folk music duo with her husband, Farid Dardashti, who had […]