Image by getty images

Singer, actress and Jewish megastar Barbra Streisand marked her 50th year in show business with a high-profile return to her hometown, performing two sold-out concerts at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center as part of her first United States tour since 2006. In a nod to her Flatbush roots, she tweaked the lyrics of “As If We Never Said Goodbye” from “Sunset Boulevard” to reference the “Brooklyn docks and Nova lox” and “knishes” of a childhood spent in what in the 1940s and ’50s was a predominantly Jewish working-class neighborhood.

The sentimental homecoming was a first for Streisand, who, now 70, had a bio out this year confirming she had never scheduled a major show in her native borough, where she is said to have given her first public performance, at the Orthodox girls yeshiva she attended. Her fame came from best-selling albums like “People” (1964), stage hits like her 1964 Broadway performance in “Funny Girl” and beloved film roles like the title part in “Yentl” (1983), Streisand’s adaptation of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story about a Polish shtetl girl who dresses as a boy so that she can study at a yeshiva. Streisand is one of a very few artists to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, and she holds the record for the most top-10 albums of any female recording artist.

A longtime supporter of Democratic politics, Streisand endorsed Barack Obama for re-election this year in an advertisement released by the National Jewish Democratic Council, citing the president’s support of women’s and gay and lesbian rights and his efforts at economic recovery.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount