Tom Tugend
By Tom Tugend
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Fast Forward The sky’s no limit for this Jewish 14-year-old who broke a national high jump record
JJ Harel, who doesn’t eat pork, has Olympic ambitions. He’d have to choose between competing for the United States, Israel or Australia
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Fast Forward Mel Mermelstein, survivor who beat Holocaust deniers in court, dies at 95
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Mel Mermelstein, a Holocaust survivor who won a five-year court battle forcing a right-wing Holocaust-denying organization to retract its claim and pay hefty damages, died Jan. 28 at the age of 95 from complications of COVID-19. Weeks later, tributes to Mermelstein are continuing to arrive at the family home in Long…
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Fast Forward Israel’s controversial Oscar submission gets snubbed on the 2022 Academy shortlist
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — There was no holiday cheer for Israel’s filmmakers in the shortlists for the 2022 Academy Awards. The country’s official submission for this year’s Best International Feature Oscar, “Let It Be Morning,” was not among the 15 entries that made the cut in the category, despite being helmed by a pedigreed director…
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Culture Jewish character actor Nehemia Persoff looks back at ups and downs of his first 102 years
(JTA) — When actor, painter and writer Nehemia Persoff, at times dubbed “the last survivor of Hollywood’s golden age,” was a three-year old growing up in Jerusalem, he fell in love with his kindergarten teacher. Desperate to attract her attention, little Nehemia got on his trike and rode it in smaller and smaller circles until…
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News ‘Tevye in New York’ imagines the famous ‘Fiddler’ hero’s life beyond Anatevka
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — The last time we saw Tevye the Milkman on Broadway in “Fiddler on the Roof” was in 2016, escaping Anatevka as a pogrom swept the shtetl. Now, almost five years later, he is resurfacing in a one-man play titled “Tevye in New York,” opening in its world premiere — in Beverly…
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Fast Forward UCLA opens center for music of the ‘American Jewish experience’
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — UCLA has opened a center to explore the history of Jewish music in America with an eye toward breaking ground. The Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience was backed by a $6.75 million endowment by the Milken Family Foundation. The center, which opened last month, aims to “become…
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Fast Forward Kirk Douglas, iconic movie star who reconnected with Judaism later in life, dies at 103
LOS ANGELES (JTA) – Kirk Douglas, the legendary actor who portrayed legions of tough guys and embraced his Jewish heritage later in life, died at his home in Beverly Hills on Wednesday. He was 103. Over a career that spanned 87 films — including 73 big screen features and 14 television films — the blond,…
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Letters I Was Called A White Jew — During World War II
To the Editor: Tamar Manasseh writes in “Stop Calling Me a ‘Black Jew’ ” (Jan. 14) that she has never heard anybody referred to as a “White Jew.” Well I have. It was during World War II, when the armed forces were segregated and I was taking my basic infantry training in Florida, with a…
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