I hate Halloween, though I’m unlikely to mention it to you in person. Let me explain why. My Dad is a Holocaust survivor. He was born just as the war was ending, and he spent the first several years of his life in a rat infested refugee camp in Austria. His parents had spent the…
Photograph by Liza Schoenfein Today’s the day to get your black and orange on — and that includes food. You want to be festive, but you may not want to overindulge completely. Get ready to kill two birds with one two-toned stone. Well, at least with one two-toned cookie. I give you my recipe for…
It’s difficult today to look at the orange-and-black paper scenery behind toddlers in ghost costumes and imagine just how disturbing Halloween was a century ago. For the Jewish community — coming from Europe — the devilish practices of Halloween were not only bewildering but also threatening. Yes, we could come to terms with people walking…
An online Halloween costume retailer has pulled an Anne Frank costume after an onslaught of criticism on social media. HalloweenCostumes.com is no longer showing its “Anne Frank costume for girls” on its European and American sites. In the product’s description, the company described Frank as a hero, writing that “we can always learn from the…
New York Magazine’s The Cut, which is normally all kinds of wonderful, made a rare misstep last week with a trollish piece called “Pets Are Not Children, So Stop Calling Them That.” Oddly enough, the story – which was, by the way, a stroke of clickbait brilliance* – wasn’t a timely Halloween call to maybe…
Look there — might that be a poltergeist up on the bimah? Or a goblin dangling from the ceiling of the beit ha-knesset? In the spirit of the season, here are five tales of synagogues that may or may not be haunted. Don’t say you weren’t warned. The Ari Synagogue Following earthquakes, The Ari Synagogue in Safed,…
Because Halloween, as All Hallows’ Eve, has its roots in pagan mythology and the Christian calendar, Jews traditionally don’t celebrate it. But increasingly people (including Jews) around the world are celebrating American Halloween and that’s a terrible mistake. Maybe I am aging into a curmudgeon — certainly young children and LGBT communities have righteous fun…
Bernie Sanders took a break from the campaign trail this weekend to go trick or treating. The Democratic candidate was walking alongside three of his grandchildren in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Per ABC News: “Sunnee, 12, was dressed as the White Witch from “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Ryleigh, 10, wore a blue and…
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