I have written of my Disney evolution. I used to sneer at the company and its products. I used “Disneyfied” as shorthand for “cleaned-up, dumbed-down, soulless mass-market consumerist cheese.” And then I had kids. Okay, I still think the movies are uneven (and sometimes sexist and racist); we prefer kid sister Pixar’s wit and complexity….
As people around the world mark Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on May 1, a young girl in Pennsylvania is commemorating the day by making change -— lots of it. Jenna Steinbrink has 300,000 pennies. By the time of her bat mitzvah in September, she hopes to have 6 million. Steinbrink, 12, who has been…
Tired of Seders that drag on for hours? Up for a challenge? The Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad are inviting their fans to partake in the 60 Second Seder Contest. In two shows during their current run at The Zipper Factory Theater, the cabaret queens — who perform music, burlesque and comedy — will provide…
Passover is the time for all To have a festive (matzo) ball! The Seder blooms around the globe, Unnerving the Judeophobe. It gives to communists a treat: They love to leftward lean (and eat)! They also like the history, The parting waves, the “red”-named sea. To boozers, Seders are just fine Because they mandate drinking…
One of the architects of the national organization of Jewish federations is stepping down from his high-ranking volunteer post amid a bitter feud with the heads of the body he helped found. In an April 3 letter, Richard Wexler blasted Joe Kanfer and Howard Rieger, chairman and president/CEO, respectively, of United Jewish Communities, the national…
Los Angeles — When the head of California’s Jewish activist network, the Progressive Jewish Alliance, was first tapped to lead one of America’s largest Jewish federations, he politely demurred. After all, what could a dynamic young leader with a growing reputation as a visionary bring to a staid Jewish institution with a reputation for isolating…
There has been a lot of talk about charoset on The Jew & The Carrot lately. Reader Maddie commented: “I’ve always anticipated the crunch of the matzah mixed with the tangy zip of the apples, cinnamon, and raisins….mmm, can’t wait!” Contributor Alix Wall’s family sculpts their charoset into a pyramid shape, reminiscent of the pyramids…
Washington — The long-running and often-contentious debate in the Senate over the Bush administration’s judicial nominations has taken on religious overtones, with accusations being leveled against Democrats of bias against Jewish nominees. The Committee for Justice, a conservative organization that is supportive of the administration’s nominees for federal courts, hinted earlier this month that Democrats…
Israelis may not be able to vote in the presidential contest, but Hebrew-speaking supporters of Barack Obama have launched an online blog for the Illinois senator in their own language. Posted today on the Israeli Internet site Tapuz, the relatively barebones Web page has a transcript of Obama’s March 2007 speech before the American Israel…
One of Toronto’s largest Conservative synagogues has voted to leave the movement’s synagogue association, and several others are considering making a similar move. Adath Israel Congregation voted on March 27 to leave the United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism, and three other synagogues will soon be voting on whether or not to leave. The votes come…
BAGELS, CREAM CHEESE AND YIDDISH THEATER TALK WITH JULES DASSIN “During my 2000 interview with filmmaker Jules Dassin, who died in Athens on March 31 at 96, he told me, “Jules Dassin was a Napoleonic soldier in Paris who, during the invasion of Russia, fell in love, impregnated a young woman, and years later walked…
