For four years in a row, in the mid-1990s, New York mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa was the sour garlic pickle-eating champion of the world and almost earned a silver in a matzah ball-eating contest — before he was disqualified for tampering with them. Others may know Sliwa better as a radio personality and the founder…
Earlier this summer, Rabbi Joe Hample began writing a High Holiday sermon he can no longer deliver. The theme was “thank God the pandemic is receding,’” said Hample, who leads Tree of Life in Morgantown, West Virginia. “And now the pandemic is bouncing back so I have to change the sermon. I’m torn between panic…
(JTA) — It was a quiet Shabbat afternoon when the frustration that had been building up inside Michal Schick spilled out in a song. For months, Schick had been keeping a tally in her head — and sometimes on Twitter, where the New York City screenwriter is active — of pandemic-related Holocaust comparisons that, to her…
(JTA) — _This article originally appeared on Alma. **Light spoilers ahead for “The Chair.”_ “The Chair,” Netflix’s new six-part dramedy set in the English department of a fictional Ivy League school, is about a lot of things: existing as a woman of color in academia, workplace sexual tension, parenthood, grief, Sandra Oh’s incredible double-breasted jackets….
The first thing I noticed about Pascale Bercovitch was her energy. She all but glowed, although she said she was exhausted from trying to adapt to Tokyo time in advance of her flight to the 2020 Paralympics, which departed just a few hours after we spoke by video chat. Bercovitch is competing as a kayaker…
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — When Tom Tugend was 13 years old, he received news not uncommon for a teenager: His family was moving. His father, a respected physician, had taken a new job. During the taxi ride to the airport, Tugend looked out at his beloved hometown. All around him were trees and poles covered…
(JTA) — Weeks after the Olympics came to a close, Tokyo is filled again with athletes, for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. Among them are dozens of Jewish athletes looking to medal in an array of sports. The Paralympics, founded by the late German-Jewish doctor Ludwig Guttman, are for athletes with physical disabilities. Some 4,500 athletes…
(JTA) — This article originally appeared on Alma. The 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games open on Tuesday. Much like the Olympic Games in the Japanese capital, there are plenty of Jewish athletes to support, like emerging track and field star Ezra Frech and veteran swimmer Matt Levy. But unlike the Olympic Games, the Paralympics have an…
Funerals during the pandemic are tough enough, with many bereaved families unable to invite more than a handful of relatives for fear of spreading COVID-19. But now, a new obstacle challenges mourners: a national shortage of headstones. Jewish families who held small funerals were hoping to have more normal unveilings a year later. But now…
The family of a rabbi who made his San Diego-area synagogue the center of a sprawling network of tax fraud has regained control of the synagogue’s finances, state filings show, replacing a board that had sought to bring accountability to the institution. For decades, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein had exploited a lack of oversight at Chabad…
Around the world, black-and-white stickers have been popping up on lampposts and bus stops. “The Nazis had a phrase that covered all abuses of the state: It’s for your safety,” one says in blocky black letters. “People in 1940s Germany didn’t realize they’d been brainwashed by the media and government either,” screams another in all-caps….
לעסלי טורנער האָט אָנגעשריבן און אויפֿגעפֿירט אַ ליאַלקע־שפּיל אין איר ייִדיש־קלאַס בײַם טאָראָנטאָ־אוניווערסיטעט
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