Jon Kalish is a Manhattan-based writer and radio journalist.
Jon Kalish
By Jon Kalish
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Culture Once a Jewish hero of the counterculture, Aron Kay looks back on his pie-throwing days
At the end of a 1995 oral history recorded for the USC Shoah Foundation, Holocaust survivor Mary Kay was asked about her children and grandchildren. When she got to her eldest son, she indicated that he lived in New York but declared, “I can’t tell you what he does.” Kay was not about to kvell…
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Culture A fond farewell to Bob Fass, rabbi of a radical radio congregation
I’ve been a member of two unconventional congregations in New York. One was in the East Village and was financed by several lawyers in the Bronx. Hardly anyone paid dues but our Hasidic rabbi still fed his gaggle of converts, Baal Tshuvahs and crusty Lower East Side geezers, including a Jew known as Murphy who…
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Culture Up for sale: Letters from Lenny Bruce and Charles Manson, a Disneyland orgy and the story of a generation
The political upheaval of the 1960s is certainly having a moment in Hollywood. Among the films up for the best picture Oscar are “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” And, of course, Best Supporting Actor nominations went to Daniel Kaluuya for his portrayal of the murdered Black Panther Fred…
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Culture For the real-life Alice of ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ a new reason to be thankful
This is a story about Alice of “Alice’s Restaurant” fame. “Alice’s Restaurant” is a song and a movie and once was an actual restaurant. But more than anything, “Alice’s Restaurant” is a frame of mind, one that might best be illustrated by the thousands of people who have helped the real-life woman immortalized in the…
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News Burial society organization suggests new rituals; Brooklyn funeral home overwhelmed
An Orthodox funeral home in Brooklyn, where a video shows nine shrouded bodies stacked on the floor, is so overwhelmed that on Tuesday it called for volunteers with minivans and SUVs to ferry the dead to cemeteries for burial. In a message circulated via What’s App, Menachem A. Bloom, who works at the funeral home,…
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Culture Klezmer virtuoso Andy Statman recovering from coronavirus
Andy Statman and his wife have apparently been infected by the coronavirus. The 69 year-old Klezmer and bluegrass virtuoso says that, although the couple hasn’t been tested, his doctor diagnosed the virus over the phone based on their symptoms. “He said ‘You have the virus,’” Statman said over the phone. The Brooklyn-based clarinetist and mandolin…
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Culture Coronavirus scuttles China tour for Yiddish ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
Read this article in Yiddish. The Yiddish production of “Fiddler on the Roof” was scheduled to tour China this spring but has apparently fallen victim to coronavirus. On January 13th, cast members were informed via email of a three-city tour that would have taken place from April 13th to May 10th. But according to Zalmen…
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Culture Should We Mourn WBAI? Or Did That Time Pass Long Ago?
Is it time to say Kaddish for WBAI — or should we summon some rabbis to exorcise it? The legendary listener-supported radio station, once a counter-cultural institution that actually had an impact on the culture, finally lost its voice earlier this week. After decades of declining audience and financial support, the Pacifica Foundation, which acquired…
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Opinion Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point
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News They texted about Torah and mitzvahs. Feds say they were insider trading
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Culture At Eurovision, Israel’s near triumph shows the limits of tolerance
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Opinion I run The Jewish Theological Seminary. Here’s the real story about President Isaac Herzog speaking at our commencement
In Case You Missed It
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Culture In celebration of David Attenborough’s 100th birthday, a very Jewish song
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Fast Forward Barney Frank’s final warning on Israel: ‘America’s effort should be to support the opposition to Netanyahu’
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Yiddish ייִדן פֿלעגן באַשווערן רוחות און שלאַנגען אויף ווײַסרוסישJews used to conjure spirits and snakes in Belarusian
בײַ ייִדן איז פֿאַראַן אַן אַלטע טראַדיציע צו שרײַבן רײַסישע סגולות מיט ייִדישע אותיות.
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Fast Forward Anti-Israel Republican Thomas Massie ousted from Congress as Trump endorsee wins primary