As Neal Pollack tells it, the idea for his new book came to him while chatting “in the shvitz.” More often he uses himself for inspiration. In his 2000 debut novel, “The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature” (Harper Perennial, 2002), Pollack portrayed himself as a parody of the self-aggrandizing authors of previous generations, the…
The terrorist attack launched from Egyptian Sinai, just north of Eilat, on August 18, brought Israel into a headlong collision with the problematic fruits of the Egyptian revolution. In Sinai, 12 militants were able to spend several days reconnoitering Israeli civilian targets along the loosely patrolled Egypt-Israel border, then launch incursions into Israel from alongside…
The Washington Post got into a bit of a kerfuffle recently when its conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin put up a post attempting to assign blame to Islamic “jihadists” for the July 22 bombing in Oslo and then let the post stand for more than 24 hours. This despite the fact that it was widely reported…
The exchange of art between America and Russia is in a deep freeze because of a legal battle between the Chabad-Lubavitch sect and the Russian government over the Schneerson Collection — almost 40,000 books and manuscripts that Moscow has and Chabad wants. After failing to secure the collection through the Russian courts, Chabad sued in…
Sixty summers ago, almost to the day, the Dodgers of my Brooklyn were baseball’s greatest team. And they were the most Jewish, even when they weren’t. Why, they had baseball’s reigning Jewish player, Cal Abrams. What about those other guys with Jewish-sounding names? Pee Wee Reese! Duke Snider! We had the Jewish thing to ourselves…
David Weprin is an Orthodox Jew and a state assemblyman from Queens with a background in finance, a deep family history in state and local politics, outspoken support for Israel and an unobtrusive demeanor. So when Democratic leaders were looking for a candidate who could slide easily into the heavily Jewish district left behind by…
Comedy writer Janet Leahy was working on an episode of “The Simpsons” a couple of years ago, when her rabbi asked her for three jokes to punch up his Rosh Hashanah sermon. With this year’s High Holy Days looming, Leahy sat on the sun-drenched terrace of the Stephen S. Wise Temple and listened attentively to…
Glenn Beck is in Israel, again. In July, the talk radio host and former Fox News star was invited to the Kensset, where he met “a room full of admirers” — in the words of a Channel 1 report — led by Likud MK Danny Danon. Beck urged Israelis to stand strong; among those shaking…
An annual ceremony held on Aug. 21 in Newport, R.I., commemorated George Washington’s famed letter to the Jews of Touro Synagogue. Gov. Lincoln Chafee attended and Malcolm Rogers, director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, recited Washington’s text, all 337 words of it, considered the defining expression of religious tolerance in the new…
Coney Island Bialys & Bagels sits at the center of a storied district that once teemed with Jews. But after 91 years, the oldest bialy bakery in Brooklyn is calling it quits, having fallen victim to the economic downturn and the changing demographics of its neighborhood. “I’m heartbroken,” said Steven Ross, the bakery’s 51-year-old proprietor…
A few weeks ago, I, like many New York-based reporters, set out for Crown Heights, Brooklyn to investigate how race relations have improved since the riot that engulfed the neighborhood in 1991. It’s almost impossible to approach an event this momentous without preconceptions. As a resident of Crown Heights for four years, albeit on its…
לעסלי טורנער האָט אָנגעשריבן און אויפֿגעפֿירט אַ ליאַלקע־שפּיל אין איר ייִדיש־קלאַס בײַם טאָראָנטאָ־אוניווערסיטעט
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