JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale… Of a Jew from Passaic, NJ who created two iconic television series that helped define an era. Sherwood Schwartz, who died today in Los Angeles at 94, was the force behind “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch,” two of the “most affectionately ridiculed and enduring television…
On June 14, 1997, I was assembling the Summer issue of The Columbo Newsletter when the phone rang. “Sheldon?” an extremely recognizable gravelly voice rumbled over the line. “This is Peter Falk.” I was surprised, but not shocked. I had written to Falk — who died June 23 at age 83 — to pose a…
Crossposted from Haaretz Former Tel Aviv Museum of Art director Professor Mordechai Omer was complex, comprehensive, multilayered, beloved and controversial at one and the same time. In his various roles, he influenced thousands of people. “We’re left with a large black hole, and it will be a tough assignment to find a replacement who can…
Getty Images Leonard Stern, creator of the ___|___|___|_ (adjective) popular fill-in-the-blank word game, “Mad Libs,” ___|___|___| (verb) this week at the age of 88. An Emmy award winning comedy ___|___|_ (noun) whose work appeared in “The Honeymooners” and “The ___|___|__ (name) Silvers Show,” Stern happened upon the unusual ___|___|___|_ (noun) after asking fellow “Honeymooners” writer,…
Sidney Lumet, the acclaimed director more than 50 films, died April 9 in Manhattan at the age of 86. Best known for taut psychodramas such as “Serpico” (1973), “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), “Network” (1976) and “The Verdict” (1982), Lumet’s work demonstrated an enduring interest in social realism and the difficulty of obtaining justice, a concern…
A version of this post appeared in Yiddish. On March 12 the Yiddish theater lost one of its most beloved stars. Shifra Lerer, an Argentine-born actress who toured the world and who later appeared in films by Woody Allen and Sidney Lumet, died in Manhattan at the age of 95. I met Shifra during my…
Composer Jack Gottlieb, who passed away February 23 at the age of 80, was often asked to speak and write about Leonard Bernstein, the maestro whom he served in his youth as an assistant at the New York Philharmonic. But Gottlieb was one of the finest musicians around in his own right, and in a…
The English-speaking Haredi Jewish community produces an awful lot of original Jewish music, though critics might consider it a lot of awful original Jewish music. With rare exceptions, the lyrics of popular songs in English — as opposed to settings of liturgical texts or Yiddish lyrics — come in just a few flavors, ranging from…
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