If it had not been for Warren Buffett’s charitable gift of $43.5 billion last year, the world might have taken more notice of the year’s next three largest gifts — all of which were given by Jewish philanthropists. The two largest donations after Buffet were made by Herbert Sandler and Bernard Osher, co-founders of a…
While individual donors hog much of the philanthropic limelight in the Jewish world, a new coterie of Jewish mega-foundations is taking shape that soon may be giving almost as much as all the largest individual donors combined. Research by the Forward indicates that five foundations are, or soon will be making, annual grants of more…
Oakland, Calif. – Sacramento’s public television station, believed to be the nation’s only major PBS affiliate that had refused to broadcast a well-reviewed documentary on antisemitism, has reversed course after an outcry from the local Jewish community. The station, KVIE, initially refused to air “Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence” when it was screened…
Will Maslow, a prominent civil rights attorney who once served as executive director of the American Jewish Congress, died February 23 at his home in Manhattan. He was 99. In an era when the Jewish community relied on largely quiet, nonconfrontational tactics in the fight against discrimination, Maslow was a pioneer in the use of…
They fill my dreams; they haunt my waistline. And each year, as Purim approaches, I am seized with fear: My name is Sarah, and I am a hamantaschen addict. Raspberry, cherry, apricot, strawberry or prune… once I start, I cannot stop (except for poppy seed). So this year, I took a new approach. Instead of…
Once upon a time, there was a little boy who loved hamantaschen. He loved hamentaschen so much that he would eat any kind. (A hamantasch, as you probably know, is a special kind of a filled cookie baked for Purim and shaped like a triangle to commemorate Haman’s three-cornered hat. Haman, of course, was the…
It’s not difficult for New Yorkers to find their niche, and Purim events are no exception. Yiddishists should check out the National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene’s “Purim in Khelm,” a fully staged Purim shpiel written and directed by Motl Didner, with original songs by Miryem-Khaye Seigel. The show, which is sponsored by the City University of New…
Amalia Hoffman’s dreamlike illustrations bring to life her story of Kleineh Adella and Groyseh Adella, two troublemaking young maids who can’t resist the aromas of freshly baked Purim pastries. Set in the shtetl of Stanislavka, “Purim Goodies,” (Gefen Publishing House), is peppered with Yiddish words and humor, and includes a glossary and a hamantaschen recipe….
Shlepping armloads of trousers to an empty rack, his face set with determination and a hint of joy, Steve Felix was working till the bittersweet end of Felix’s, his 101-year-old clothing store in this town of 4,500. On a recent Thursday, men’s and women’s fine clothing was selling at prices not seen since Steve’s grandfather,…
Keep your distance,” leads to success on the strip but not in storytelling
Back when “multimedia” implied the use of a bank of slide projectors and a stereo sound system, coordinated by an electronic device designed especially for that purpose, one site on the tourist circuit of Boston was a “multimedia” show about the city, “Where’s Boston?” One detail in a series of visual images from a celebration…
