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Israel News
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An Israeli Competes for an ‘American Idol’ Title
She has the name of an Israeli, but the voice — maybe — of the next American Idol. Vered Benami, a 22-year-old raised in Tennessee, cleared the first round of Hollywood Week on Fox’s “American Idol” on February 9, even earning praise from Simon Cowell, the show’s famously sharp-tongued judge. A waitress now living in…
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A Survivor Does Hip Hop
An 85-year-old survivor of Auschwitz has adapted the sound of gangsta rappers and dance clubs. Esther Bejarano, one of the last living members of the Girls’ Orchestra of Auschwitz, has become an unlikely hip-hop artist in recent years, spreading a message of anti-racism across Germany. A pianist in her childhood who was sent to Auschwitz…
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Dashing an Olympic Hopeful’s Dreams
This year, Israel achieved a tremendous athletic feat: One of its athletes, 20-year-old Tamar Katz, became the first Israeli to qualify for the women’s figure skating competition in the Olympics. But Katz — a three-time national champion in Israel — won’t compete this February at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. While she does meet…
The Latest
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Israeli TV Gets in on the Gossip Craze
For Israeli celebrities, going out for a cup of coffee is about to get a whole lot less pleasant. Following the lead of a more aggressive American counterpart, Israel’s newest TV gossip show has announced a guerrilla campaign to collect candid footage of the country’s top entertainers. Producers of “Entertainment News,” a celebrity-focused program debuting…
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Yid Lit: Hannah Seligson
What do you call couples who live together, co-own pets and property, and celebrate the Sabbath with each other’s families, all without ever uttering “I do”? Journalist Hannah Seligson calls them “a little bit married” (ALBM), a term she coined after her own painful breakup and after watching her friends — urban, college-educated 20- and…
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Kirshtein Serves Up a New Kind of Kosher
It sounds like a Jewish “Top Chef” challenge: Prepare a five-course kosher tasting menu using cutting-edge cooking techniques, pair with kosher wines and serve to 135 diners ranging from 20-something New York hipsters to 60-year-old women wearing sheitels. That was former “Top Chef” contestant Eli Kirshtein’s task January 23 at New York’s Solo Restaurant —…
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It’s the Second Coming of Mel Gibson
Following an absence that didn’t necessarily make the heart grow fonder, Mel Gibson returns to movie theaters January 29 with his first major film role in seven years — but only after an ugly dustup over a 2006 outburst of antisemitism. In a January 19 interview with Los Angeles TV station KTLA, the tarnished “Lethal…
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A Knish Giant Celebrates 100 Years
‘Rivington Street [on the Lower East Side] is the latest scene of war. It is a knish war,” — or at least that’s what the New York Times reported in 1916, in an article titled “Rivington St. Sees War: Rival Restaurant Men Cut Prices on the Succulent Knish,” which highlighted competing knish shops in the…
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Life on the Kibitz
A book about talking should seem as natural as moving your jaw, especially for a Jewish audience: people who love to comment, question and, yes, complain. Daniel Menaker’s new book, “A Good Talk — The story and Skill of Conversation” (Twelve, 2010, $20), a nicely framed approach to the art of conversation utilizing digression, humor,…
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Ralph Fiennes Wears Many Jewish Hats
‘Do you have to be handsome to play the role of a Nazi commander?” That was a question that actor Ralph Fiennes was asked during a January 9 discussion, titled “The Power of Film and the Holocaust,” at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Fiennes didn’t have a clear answer. The British actor,…
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Five Questions for HaBanot Nechama
The Israeli female band HaBanot Nechama (Comfort Girls) became a household name in Israel with its first, self-titled album, which went platinum within a month of its release. The trio’s music blends folk, reggae and soul music; three solo careers; two languages, and a variety of instruments to create a unique sound that has garnered…
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