JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The reason Mel Gibson still works in Hollywood has to do with some obscure — possibly Australian — practice called cactus-hugging. Earlier this week actor Josh Malina, writing for The Atlantic, wondered why Gibson, despite his many high-profile — and in the case of “Passion of the Christ,” highly lucrative — displays of antisemitism, may…
Corporations — and plenty of everyday people — treat Hanukkah as Jewish Christmas. It has a nice little story about miraculous oil, plus you decorate your house and give gifts. Even plenty of Jews feel this way; Hanukkah provides a way for us to participate in the music, media and cheer that dominates the Christmas…
This year, we have to remember the original meaning of Hanukkah. What many of us associate with the holiday — a little bit of oil miraculously going a long way — seems profoundly underwhelming for a God who creates the world and redeems nations from slavery. Some will say it is precisely this fact, that…
“I am not Jewish and it doesn’t feel authentic to celebrate a Jewish holiday religiously,” read a recent New York Times article titled “Saying Goodbye to Hanukkah.” Jewish Twitter took offense, half railing against the author’s interfaith background and the dangers of assimilation, and the other half upset that a woman who does not consider…
2010 was a happy time. The great recession was more or less over and Julia Louis-Dreyfus was getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. When the then-Yeshiva University a cappella group The Maccabeats released a Hanukkah themed parody of “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz that went viral, ultimately garnering over 13 million views, the…
Hanukkah begins on December 12 this year. That is, Chanukah begins on December 12 this year. We light the menorah (or is it the hanukkiah?) and celebrate — oil. Lasting, high-quality lamp oil. Can that be right? If you don’t know your Hasmoneans from your Seleucids, read on. After all, a great miracle happened here!…
The more Ilan Rosenberg pondered the Chanukkah story, the more the Hollywood stunt performer came up with one explanation for how a group of Jewish guerilla fighters beat the much larger Greek army. Maybe the Maccabees had possessed superhuman powers. Drawing on his stunt experience for movies such as “300” and “Pompeii,” and his Krav…
Dear friends, winter is coming. And with the cold wind comes the war on Hanukkah. It’s real, and it’s Santa shaped. When Jennie Rivlin Roberts, owner of , ordered these cute maccabees made out of chocolate — the very same chocolate used to make their seasonal gelt coins — to sell to her Jewish customers,…
