Irene Katz Connelly is a staff writer at the Forward. You can contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @katz_conn.
Irene Katz Connelly
By Irene Katz Connelly
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News Eulogy: Max Bendich, 105, an ordinary life lived extraordinarily
Max Bendich, a 29-year-old American soldier, arrived in Paris just after its liberation from Nazi occupation in 1944, determined to find whatever Jews were left in the city. He took the metro to the historically Jewish neighborhood of Le Marais and, wandering through eerily empty streets, stumbled upon an empty German barracks with people staring…
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Culture On their first Noel at home, more interfaith families are trying out trees and stockings
Judging by the current contents of her apartment, Lauren Schreiber Sasaki is a woman who loves nothing more than celebrating Christmas at home. On the mantel, a “Merry Christmas” garland hangs beneath a large collection of menorahs. An advent calendar shares a wall with several Magen David ornaments. Atop the coffee table stands the pièce…
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Culture These were the 20 best pop culture moments of 2020
During the thousands of days of 2020, the way we consume pop culture has radically changed. Case in point: This list begins in January with an Oscars speech that my boyfriend and I, who had just moved to Brooklyn, watched from a bar we’d already designated as our “regular place.” We exhaled aerosols everywhere. We…
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The Schmooze What is ‘Nancy Meyers Week,’ and how did it create 2020’s least likely internet controversy?
This week, my worst journalism stress dream came to life in the form of the now-infamous “Nancy Meyers Week.” Conceptualized by Rachel Handler, a staff writer at New York Magazine’s arts and culture website, Vulture, “Nancy Meyers Week” was the site’s tribute to the Jewish director’s work in the form of eight (yes, eight!) glowing…
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The Schmooze WATCH: Kosha Dillz raps for Hanukkah while winter storm swirls
Some people hunkered down at home while Winter Storm Gail dropped a winter’s worth of snow on New York City. Not Kosha Dillz, who was not about to let inclement weather stop him from publicizing the miracle on the streets of Brooklyn. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hannukah’s Last Night! (@koshadillz)…
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Culture Thanks to outdoor dining, it’s beginning to look a lot like Sukkot
Most years, Sukkot lasts about a week. But in this year of plague, the holiday has become a months-long event, with no sign of ending anytime soon. Secular sukkahs are all around us. They’re just going by a new name: “outdoor dining.” On daily walks through my neighborhood on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, I’ve watched…
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Culture The dinosaur menorah started as a hobby. Here’s how it became the internet’s weirdest Judaica trend.
Eleven months out of the year, Benjamin Packard is a pretty normal guy. Packard, 37, lives in Oakland, California. He enjoys a rewarding career as a “mild-mannered financial advisor who helps millennials prepare for retirement.” He’s an enthusiastic dad to two young kids. But as Hanukkah approaches, everything changes. “Every holiday season, for about thirty…
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Culture FKA twigs sues former boyfriend Shia LaBeouf for ‘relentless abuse’
The musician FKA twigs has filed a civil lawsuit against Jewish actor Shia LaBeouf citing physical, sexual and emotional abuse during their year-long relationship. The lawsuit details the experience of FKA twigs, born in England as Tahliah Debrett Barnett, and that of another of LaBeouf’s former girlfriends, the stylist Karolyn Pho. It describes LaBeouf’s behavior…
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