The upheaval in the world of journalism has forced a new consolidation of Jewish media, as three niche publications announced recently that they were folding into larger Jewish organizations. Jewcy, the irreverent online Jewish magazine that was abandoned by its financial backers last February, announced on October 13 that it had been taken in by…
On a rain-drenched afternoon in Philadelphia, I entered a small underground room at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts to observe a rehearsal of “Resonances” — a new composition commissioned by Intercultural Journeys, an Arab/Jewish ensemble that utilizes the arts as a vehicle to produce dialogue between the Israeli and Arab peoples. In rehearsal…
NEWS ITEM: More Jews are wearing tattoos, according to observers of that scene, including artists who specialize in the area and rabbis who have notices an upsurge of branding in their congregations. A fad’s erupted ’mongst the Jews: An impetus toward tattoos. There’s growing preference, it seems, For body-art with Jewish themes. Some rabbis, angered,…
REDFORD, RUSCHA, RUSHDIE AND HARMAN HONORED AT NATIONAL ARTS AWARD DINNER Artist Ed Ruscha, recipient of the Artistic Excellence Award at the October 5 Americans for the Arts 2009 National Arts Awards dinner, joked that all the evening’s honorees should collaborate on a film based on Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses.” In response, Rushdie, who…
Nearly 80 years after their heyday — when they numbered roughly 2,000 in New York City alone — delis have found an unlikely young advocate in David Sax, the 30-year-old author of the newly published “Save the Deli.” Subtitled “In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen,” the book, published…
In its centuries of existence, the Western Wall may have never played host to two more different prayer services at the same time. As young hippie-ish Hasidim beat on drums, singing ecstatically, nine elderly Americans from a retirement village in Cincinnati, Ohio, celebrated their belated bar and bat mitzvahs before the ancient stones. And history…
On a recent morning, we arrived a few minutes early to my 2-year-old daughter’s pre-school, and I explained to her that she couldn’t go into the classroom just yet. “Why, Mommy?” she asked. “Your teachers are cleaning up and getting the class ready for you,” I replied. “Why?” “Because they want the class to be…
THERE’S SERIOUS YIDDISH IN THE COEN BROTHERS’ “A SERIOUS MAN” In retrospect, had I known in November 2002 of Joel and Ethan Coen’s Minnesota Jewish roots, oy! The questions I would have asked! Back then, we were at the French Embassy in New York, and France’s outgoing ambassador to the United States, François Bujon de…
A task force charged with improving the White House’s faith-based initiative program has waded into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, raising eyebrows and concern among Jewish leaders. Most of the attention around the controversial Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, begun by President George W. Bush and continued by President Obama, has centered on church-state separation issues….
The Muslim World League, an organization emerging as a ubiquitous presence on the interfaith conference circuit, boasts close ties to the Saudi monarchy and produces a magazine that has published antisemitic screeds. That dual identity has put Jewish groups in a bind in deciding how to relate to the group and the widely attended, high-profile…
The trial of former kosher slaughterhouse executive Sholom Rubashkin began in South Dakota on October 12, though only after a failed effort to reach a plea bargain, according to a close confidant of the defendant. Rubashkin, the former CEO of the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse, was arrested last year, five months after his company was the subject…
