Have you heard the Christmas version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” a recently released YouTube sensation by Kansas-based band Cloverton? Well, I have, and I hate it. But not for the reasons you might think. Am I pissed off — as many Jews appear to be — on Cohen’s behalf, because he’s Jewish and these musicians…
A mocking holiday display depicting an angel falling into the pit of hell was deliberately knocked off its table in Florida’s Capitol rotunda Tuesday, but was quickly restored by a local atheist leader whose group sponsored the exhibit. Capitol police detained a Tallahassee woman who they said knocked over the display, which carried the tagline:…
In a first, Hebrew University will give its students the day off on Christmas. There will be no classes on Thursday, Dec. 25, a new vacation day on the university calendar. The students also had off on Sunday for Hanukkah. The university also has declared a vacation day for and placed on its institutional calendar…
At the first poinsettia sighting, many of my Jewish friends from New York or Los Angeles recall youthful feelings of exclusion. To them I say, get over it. If you want to know authentic Christmas envy, try growing up Jewish in a frostbitten North Dakota town with a Lutheran church on every other corner. In…
Rudolph the blue-nosed reindeer? // by Lior Zaltzman Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, The Ronettes, Nat King Cole — their voices fill the air come Christmastime, injecting some holiday warmth into our Grinch-sized winter hearts. But as you’ve probably heard, behind (almost) every merry and bright hit, there’s a Jewish writer.. Can you tell which of your…
1) 4,650 Jews live in Oklahoma. 2) Isaac Lowenstein opened Oklahoma’s first vaudeville house in 1909. 3) Seymour Heyman, who ran The Hub clothing store owned the Oklahoma City Mets, a baseball team that played in the Southwestern League and Western Association in the first decade of the 20th century. 4) The inventor of the…
(JTA) — Sammy Davis Jr. is quoted on why he converted to Judaism in a new exhibition at the National Museum of American Jewish History. “I became a Jew because I was ready and willing to understand the plight of a people who fought for thousands of years for a homeland,” the late entertainer said. What…
Illustration by Lior Zaltzman When a grown woman and her seventy-something mother engage in yearly debates about the existence of Santa, I think we can agree: there’s a problem. Of course, my mother believes the problem is mine, while I tag her as the source of the annual angst. But who’s telling this story? My…
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