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What the world has lost with the loss of Anouk Aimée
Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus, the actress who became world famous as Anouk Aimée, died this morning in Paris at the age of 92. With her death, a certain idea of France — an idea, at least, that swept away Americans of my generation — died a little more too. Born in Paris in 1932, the...
This Pride, queer Jews are feeling the strain — and sometimes unsafe — over Israel
(JTA) — After finding themselves on the receiving end of a socialist group’s “Naming and Shaming” campaign, two married Jewish organizers of a Cincinnati-area Pride group resigned from their roles last week over concerns for their personal safety. “Individuals and Organizations have targeted our board members, including [with] threats of violence,” Cincinnati Pride said in...
New film captures the talent and devotion of musicians choosing Yiddish
Read the original article in Yiddish here. Yiddish enthusiasts often use the term Yiddishland to describe their community of like-minded people. This Yiddishland isn’t a nation or physical location but rather a concept that describes people and projects devoted to the Yiddish language and culture. It is variously characterized as symbolic or “post-vernacular,” utopian,...
Why Paul McCartney should be known as ‘the Jewish Beatle’
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published June 17, 2019. Given Paul McCartney’s apparent love affair with all things Jewish — including collaborators, business associates, girlfriends and wives — the title of the artist’s 2013 album New could well be meant as a transliteration of the all-purpose Jewish word nu. Recently, McCartney was in New York with...
All New York district attorneys vow full prosecution of hate crimes amid rising antisemitism
In a rare joint statement on Tuesday, New York’s attorney general and the district attorneys from all 62 counties condemned the recent increase in antisemitic incidents and reiterated their commitment to public safety. “We support the rights of all New Yorkers to lawfully and peacefully gather and protest,” the prosecutors said in a statement, “but...
In a Virginia primary between hardline candidates, the bottom line for Republican Jews is support for Israel
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — The Republican Jewish Coalition is taking sides in a Virginia congressional primary race between two candidates with links to the party’s hardline right — citing their differences over Israel. The RJC’s preferred candidate in Virginia’s fifth district, State Sen. John McGuire, is challenging incumbent Rep. Bob Good, who rallied a group...
Investigation says many students at LA rabbinical school experienced sexism and homophobia but it was not ‘systematic’
A law firm hired to investigate alumni complaints about sexism and harassment at the Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies found that the concerns were not shared by most graduates, but were widely corroborated by those who did not complete the program. The firm, Cozen O’Connor, said nearly 90% of about 150 graduates of Ziegler, a...
‘We cannot look away,’ Kamala Harris says after White House screening of Sheryl Sandberg documentary on Oct. 7 sexual violence
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris screened “Screams Before Silence” at the White House on Monday, in part to refute denialism of Hamas’ sexual violence as exposed in the documentary produced by Sheryl Sandberg. “We cannot look away and we will not be silent,” Harris said ahead of the screening, to a room...
No matter who won the Finals, Jewish ‘NBA Countdown’ host Malika Andrews has become a star
(JTA) — As millions of basketball fans tune into ABC Monday night for Game 5 of the NBA Finals, they’ll see a Jewish star front and center — though she doesn’t play for the Boston Celtics or Dallas Mavericks. Malika Andrews, 29, is the host of ABC’s “NBA Countdown” pregame show as well as ESPN’s...
Missouri judge rejects suit by interfaith clergy, including rabbis, that challenged abortion ban
(JTA) — A Missouri judge upheld the state’s abortion ban Friday, rejecting efforts by a group of 14 interfaith clergy, including rabbis, who sought to protect reproductive rights by suing the state on religious freedom grounds. The faith leaders, among them five rabbis from multiple Jewish denominations, filed their suit in January 2023. They charged...
U of Michigan, CUNY agree to make changes following federal antisemitism investigations
(JTA) — The U.S. Department of Education determined that two large public universities failed to protect Jewish students from discrimination in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The cases at the University of Michigan and the City University of New York are the first to conclude since Oct. 7. The attack, and...
Should masks at demonstrations be banned? The issue is bigger than you think
New York state first banned masked protesters in 1845 after tenant farmers dressed as Native Americans staged violent uprisings against landowners. In the 1940s and ’50s, lawmakers nationwide used mask bans to curb KKK members who wore hoods covering their faces. But in 2020, New York got rid of its anti-mask law to clear the...
‘I haven’t really accepted he’s dead’ — scenes from the Stephen Sondheim estate sale
Scene: Interior, an Upper East Side auction house, 5:30 p.m. on a Friday. In a back corner, a singer accompanied by a keyboard bravely tried (and failed) to overwhelm the sounds of a party. A man in a white and black patterned button-down opened the doors of a wooden puzzle box, telling his companion that...
After outcry, El Al reinstates discount for shipping donated gear to Israel
Steeply discounted shipping of donations to support the Israeli war effort aboard El AL aircraft is coming back days after Israel’s national airline said it planned to end the program. El Al’s decision to reinstate the discount follows reporting on the end of the program by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and subsequent public outcry both...
How a colorfully dressed Orthodox Jewish woman became my soul sister
Read the article in Yiddish here. I was standing next to a green bus stop sign in La Pequeña Habana (Little Havana) in Miami. Tiny pearls of sweat dripped beneath the collar of my soaked-through, pink dress shirt. Normally I take the car everywhere but the day before, my gray, beat-up clunker had broken down...
Why ‘Hava Nagila’ is TV’s new fight song
“Hava Nagila” is the typical soundtrack to Jewish weddings and b’nai mitzvah — and, these days, brutal hand-to-hand fighting with naked combatants. Two streaming shows have recently picked up where Guy Ritchie, who used the folk song in his 2000 crime flick Snatch, left off. Paramount+’s Knuckles, a spinoff of the Sonic the Hedgehog films,...
The secret Jewish history of Dick Van Dyke
Was The Dick Van Dyke Show a precursor of Seinfeld? And why am I wondering about that now, decades after both TV comedy shows aired their final episodes? In case you haven’t heard, Dick Van Dyke just added another trophy to his bedroom-sized closet of awards he has garnered over the course of his 70-plus...
NYC Council staffers union endorses ceasefire in Gaza, calls for divestment from Israel bonds
Aides who work for the 51 members of the New York City Council, the city’s legislative body, adopted two resolutions on Sunday that address the ongoing violence in the Middle East ahead of a possible council vote on a proposal advocating for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. According to the Association of Legislative...
She longed to be a lover and an outlaw; she became a writer instead
1974: A Personal History By Francine Prose Harper, 272 pages, $28 Author memoirs often set out to chronicle the journey to becoming a writer. Or the author’s relationship to her family. Or the death or illness of a loved one. In her first work of personal history, novelist Francine Prose reflects on the short, intense...
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