Joseph Sherman, a scholar and translator of Yiddish literature who is best known for Translating Isaac Bashevis Singer’s novel “Shadows on the Hudson,” died March 20. He was 65. The cause of death was complications from pancreatitis. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sherman was a longtime professor of English literature at the University of the…
Depending on one’s interpretation, Labor’s decision to join Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition grants Israel’s incoming government either a kosher seal of approval or a fig leaf to disguise a right-wing agenda. Either way, Labor’s move will make Netanyahu Israel’s next prime minister. After a contentious meeting of the Labor Central Committee on March 24, members…
Mark Podwal is obsessed with Prague. Not only has the New York-based artist and dermatologist visited the city 15 times, but he also has a Golem story by which he swears. In 1997, during a major restoration of Prague’s 700-year-old Altneuschul synagogue, the curator of the project invited Podwal to see the normally off-limits attic…
BEL KAUFMAN RECALLS GRANDFATHER SHOLOM ALEICHEM AT BASH AT THE PLAYERS “The greatest gift of the Jews to the Irish was corned beef and cabbage!” declared Pete Hamill, master of ceremonies at the March 17 celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sholom Aleichem, held in Manhattan at The Players. “There was no…
Walk through the unmarked black doors of a nondescript brick building in Brooklyn, and you stumble onto a time machine. Here, at one of the half-dozen or so shmura matzo factories remaining in New York, a bustling team of bakers keeps alive the art of making matzo the old-fashioned way. “This is the way it…
One of the world’s smallest Jewish communities is getting attention after being all but forgotten for decades. An attempt to restore the Jewish heritage of Cape Verde, an archipelago off the shores of West Africa and home to several hundred Jews during the 19th century, was launched in Washington on March 18. Cape Verde no…
We are huge brunch people in our house. Yes, it is fun to go out for brunch but why go out when you can make the same thing for less than half the price, not have to wait in line and not have to change out of your jammies? This means we always make sure…
Orthodox Jews are being urged shun El Al, Israel’s national air carrier, over its in-flight entertainment — a push that is widely viewed as a gambit in a larger struggle with the airline. The Rabbinical Transportation Committee, an influential body representing a cross-section of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, community, has published a guide telling people…
A secret and delicate operation to evacuate a substantial portion of Yemen’s tiny and beleaguered Jewish population has been thrust into public view and put at risk by infighting among rival Jewish organizations. In the wake of disclosures in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, the organizations involved are now accusing one another of endangering Jewish lives….
Well, let me rephrase that…we’ve been forced into eating them since for past few months they’ve arrived on our doorstep every Wednesday evening. We try very very hard not to waste the leafy green veggies in our CSA for a few reasons though neither my boyfriend nor I would purchase them voluntarily. Many of the…
NEWS ITEM: The porn industry, hit by the economic downturn, needs a $5 billion bailout from the federal government — so says Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. Pornography in film and print Has made a mint for Larry Flynt. He’s weathered unrelenting scorn For making bucks from pithy porn. Now suddenly, his fortune made, He’s seeking…
דעבאָראַ בראָדי, אַ לערערין פֿון קינדער מיט ספּעציעלע באַדערפֿענישן, האָט זיי געלאָזט אָנטאַפּן די זאַכן.
