As an archivist at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, it’s not unusual for me to hear from people who, six decades after World War II, are still searching for information about their relatives. I try to help, but most of the queries end up in dead ends. A recent request, however, turned out differently…
The bohemian long-term residents of Manhattan’s Hotel Chelsea may be about to meet their match in the New York landmark’s new owners: a Moroccan-Jewish family with vast American real estate holdings and past legal difficulties. The Chetrit family, who purchased the famous property on August 1, has made clear its intention to remake the West…
Novelist Richard Zimler writes suspense thrillers set in Jewish history, earning him the moniker “the Jewish Dan Brown.” His novel, “The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon” is a murder mystery set in Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition. “The Seventh Gate” is takes place in 1930s Berlin, where a hero must translate medieval Kabalistic texts to save…
With some of the hottest days of summer still ahead, New Square, a Hasidic village of the Skverer sect in upstate New York, is a catastrophe waiting to happen, local fire officials say. It is a fear that they have faced each summer for many years. Most of the buildings in the village violate the…
It certainly wasn’t your average Friday night Sabbath. Here I was, aboard the Queen Mary 2, arguably one of the most famous passenger ships in the world. (The original Queen Mary ferried bygone passengers, like Cary Grant, the Duke of Windsor and Bing Crosby.) It was a sunny Friday morning, and I sat in my…
Deep in America’s heartland, a Reform synagogue, a nondenominational mosque and an Episcopalian church are all putting down roots on a 37-acre tract of land that once belonged to a Jewish country club. A body of water called Hell Creek runs through the development, over which the faith groups plan to build “Heaven’s Bridge.” Fantastical…
Over 300,000 people marched together in the mass protest that took place across Israel on Saturday, according to police estimates. It was the third consecutive week of mass rallies across the country against the high cost of living and other social and economic inequities. Approximatley 300,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv, 20,000 participated in Jerusalem,…
The budget deal in Washington and the near certainty of steep declines in federal funding for social services have created a challenge for Jewish communal federations across the country: How to maintain support for hospitals, nursing homes and other services while continuing to provide the education, identity and Israel programs that their donors want? Federations…
Tax credits for property owners who install security cameras. Electronic tracking devices for children to wear. Signs designating storefronts as “safe havens” for lost kids. A number of child-safety proposals have been floated in the wake of the murder of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky in Brooklyn’s Boro Park neighborhood. One proposal might stand out to New…
The masses marching down the streets on the muggy night of July 30 were a mixed crowd. There were students from the “tent city” set up on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard to protest high housing costs. Then came young couples who joined the march pushing strollers or carrying toddlers on their shoulders, crying out against…
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett has many titles: award-winning author, essayist and University Professor at NYU, among them. Most recently, she’s been tapped to lead the core exhibition development team for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which is now being built on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto, and which recently made headlines with the…
לעסלי טורנער האָט אָנגעשריבן און אויפֿגעפֿירט אַ ליאַלקע־שפּיל אין איר ייִדיש־קלאַס בײַם טאָראָנטאָ־אוניווערסיטעט
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