It’s been all gimmels for Gershon Distenfeld at the 2020 World Series of Poker main event. The Orthodox Jewish resident of Bergenfield, New Jersey, is one of nine contestants to advance to the last round of the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament, whose winner — considered to be the world champion of poker in a…
Most progressives do a delicate dance each time President-elect Joe Biden considers a slate of moderates for a cabinet job, trying to nudge him to the left without alienating the coming administration. But not Jeff Hauser, who is brawling, not waltzing, his way through the transition and relishes the opportunity to take the heat for…
Los Angeles is getting a special gift for Hanukkah this year. Emmy-award winning actress Tiffany Haddish, along with Tom Kenny (“Spongebob Squarepants”), Mark Feuerstein (“Royal Pains”) and more, have brought to life a new Hanukkah-themed animated short, “The Broken Candle.” The film follows a Hanukkah candle box (voiced by Eugenio Derbez) that comes with a…
In 1963, John Howard Steel was a 28-year-old Jewish attorney living in New York with a demanding law practice, an unhappy marriage, and a stiff neck. One day, his mother urged him to find a cure to his aching neck. He walked into a gym run by a German immigrant named Joseph Pilates. Pilates’ gym…
(JTA) — Theodore Mann, a Philadelphia lawyer who led several major Jewish organizations and was an early critic of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, died of the coronavirus. Mann died Dec. 12 in Philadelphia, the The Washington Post reported. A daughter told the paper that the cause was COVID-19. Mann was 92. Mann was…
In late November, the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida sparked outrage when it opened its current exhibition, “Uprooting Prejudice: Faces of Change.” The bilingual exhibit, which runs through Jan. 31, consists of 45 large-format, black-and-white photo portraits. Chicago photographer John Noltner, a native of Minnesota, was inspired to take the shots in…
Hackers infiltrated the website of North Shore Hebrew Academy, a Jewish day school in Great Neck, Long Island, filling it with antisemitic slurs and imagery. The hackers changed the school’s name to “North Shore Hebrew Death Camp” and uploaded images of swastikas, Nazi rallies and other antisemitic symbols. They also rewrote the school’s information page…
President-elect Joe Biden announced his bid for the White House invoking the far-right protest in Charlottesville and ran a campaign focused on national unity, placing a “battle for the soul of the nation” above major economic or health-care reforms. Biden’s rhetoric offered a sharp contrast with President Donald Trump, who has drawn ire for failing…
Adrian Benepe, the president and CEO of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, acknowledged during a Wednesday night virtual meeting with supporters that he was coming to them with an unusual request. “We are really going against precedent,” he said. “I’m not aware of a single other cultural institution on city property that has ever taken as…
Chanukah may be a complicated holiday, but one of its clear messages is about the value of resistance. To celebrate the brightness of Chanukah in dark times, please meet eight shining lights of the Jewish world who are giving their all to make change and participate in the holy work of tikkun olam. The Bridge…
The complex teachings of kabbalah can take years to learn, much less master. Why not start by coloring them in? Tzfat-based artist David Friedman has translated his vivid, psychedelic depictions of Jewish mystical teachings into the hipster diversion du jour. Imagine if the psychedelic poster artists from the 1960s and 70s had gotten really into…
