In this week’s Reporters Roundtable podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward deputy culture editor Naomi Zeveloff to discuss her story about why Jewish men from across the country don Santa suits each Christmas season. Then, digital features editor Abigail Drachman-Jones stops by to talk about her family’s German-Jewish Christmas tradition. <strong>Subscribe to Forward…
Video: Nate Lavey Two years ago on Rosh Hashanah, Dana Friedman was dressed in his Santa Claus costume for a promotion in New York City’s Times Square, when a group of men in yarmulkes approached him and asked to have their photo taken with him. “Shana tova!” he told them. And then, registering the look…
As soon as Thanksgiving heaved its final turkey-filled breath, and the leafless trees were primed for snow, Christmas burst forth in my childhood home. The kitchen smelled of warm sugar cookies. Dozens of holiday cards appeared, almost spontaneously, taking up every spare inch of space that wasn’t already occupied by a white poinsettia. We hung…
December is a complicated time to be a Jew in America. I annually find that once the holiday season hits full swing, all the Christmas gushing, tree-trimming, “what do you want this year?” asking and red and green everything makes me a little… bah humbug. I start getting more sympathetic to Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge than…
Like many American Jews I know — and like almost all New Yorkers — I find Christmas in Manhattan deeply evocative. I like the smell of Christmas trees and candied nuts, and I like the way Central Park twinkles, and I like the red-and-white holiday markets that pop up like sukkahs all around the city….
Joshua Eli Plaut, PhD, is the full-time Executive Director of American Friends of Rabin Medical, as well as the Rabbi of the Metropolitan Synagogue in Manhattan. His most recent book, “A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to be Jewish,” is now available. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish…
Living in a home where one parent is Russian and the other American creates an unpredictable cultural, political and religious dynamic. Every year, it is the December holiday season that creates somewhat of a clash. My father, an émigré from the former Soviet Union, has had instilled in him the secular Russian tradition of having…
Crossposted from Haaretz “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism” says the sign that currently greets visitors to Bethlehem. It is a bit ironic, given its location next to checkpoints manned by armed soldiers wearing bulletproof vests. How does one deal with such a siege? With a sense of humor:…
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