Stories about how we look at Jewish artists and how Jewish artists look at the world.
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Culture At a Jewish chicken farm, Sukkot is a time for homemade pesto, random dancing, and making friends with strangers
If you arrived at Linke Fligl around 3 p.m. last Sunday and ambled into the tall grassy meadow at the heart of the farm, you would have seen something curious: A bunch of Jews squatting in patches of goldenrod, counting their blessings. They — or rather we, since I was among them — were saying…
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Culture On an artist’s journey of discovery, embracing mythology while rejecting the bible
At an exhibit titled “Personal Mythology” by an Israeli artist, you’d expect to see some biblical references — perhaps an apple tree, or King David with his harp. But there aren’t any; Tarot cards, witches and alchemical creatures populate Ranei Mazor’s sculptures and dioramas. “I have a very good history and record with the stories…
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Music Why a 17-year-old Israeli virtuoso is already winning comparisons to the greatest pianists of all time
Born in 2004, the Israeli pianist Yoav Levanon has just signed an exclusive contract with Warner Classics. This is only the latest achievement in a career that already includes winning the National Piano Competition in Israel at age five, followed by a debut with the Israel Chamber Orchestra at age seven. Levanon is a native…
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Culture Finally, a calendar that embraces the miraculous and circular nature of Jewish time
The past two years, the High Holidays have come late in autumn, requiring several sweaters and rain coats, especially for last year’s outdoor pandemic services. This year, Jews around the world are startled to discover that with September barely underway, we’re closing in on early Rosh Hashanah. Holidays sneak up every year, but Jewish holidays…
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Culture A Black Jewish poet’s call: High Holiday atonement means reckoning with racial injustice
Last year’s High Holidays followed a summer filled with racial justice protests, as many Jewish communities reckoned with their treatment of Jews of color and broader history on issues of race. Amidst this tumult, Aaron Levy Samuels, a co-founder of the media company Blavity, began to write a new poem, titled “Forgiveness.” The poem ties…
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Culture She’s 16. She’s Jewish. She’s Gotham’s newest superhero.
Willow Zimmerman is a 16-year-old activist. When she isn’t in school or holding up a picket sign, she can be found batch-baking rugelach or splitting a Reuben with a stray Great Dane she named Lebowitz (after Fran). But Willow has a secret set of extracurriculars. She helps run an illegal poker game for one of…
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Culture How a Jewish photographer found his true calling in Chinatown
The life’s-work of the bespectacled, bow-tie wearing photojournalist Emile Bocian might have been lost forever if not for the foresight of actress Mae Wong. After Bocian died in 1990, Wong, his close friend, discovered over 120,000 photographs, negatives and contact sheets stuffed into cigarette and shoeboxes in his apartment. Knowing he had no children, and…
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Culture ‘A lot of Black artists feel that burden — the atypical ascent of choreographer Claudia Schreier’
In the late afternoon and evening light of August, two solo hikers meet by a yellow steel structure in a grassy field. Their faces are obscured behind masks etched with anxiety as they navigate a world inhospitable to Black bodies like theirs. When they happen upon each other, their masks come off as they find…
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