Al Pacino’s Visit to Borough Park
Pacino talking in a husky smokers accent, Pacino accepting an Oscar… Pacino shuckling in the back of a Hasidic shul in Brooklyn? Definitely, not something you’d expect.
But the actor was spotted in Brooklyn Hasidic Borough Park neighborhood davening and eating cheesecake early last week, according to a post on the Wall Street Journal’s blog. Pacino was reportedly preparing for his upcoming role as the controversial Jewish character Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, which will be performed at Shakespeare in the Park this summer.
Barry Edelstein, director of the Public’s Shakespeare Initiative, who accompanied Pacino said of the day, “In my Bar Mitzvah lessons, that was not something I ever anticipated seeing.”
The play will open in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater on June 12.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
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