When you think about Jewish contributions to the world of entertainment, your mind probably immediately goes to comedies, sci-fi and musicals. But there’s another genre rich with Jewish history: Westerns. In the new book “Chai Noon: Jews and the Cinematic Wild West,” scholar Jonathan Friedmann examines Jewish figures and themes in Western film, dating back to Hollywood’s first feature-length film. “The Squaw Man,” released in 1914.
Read More
(REVIEW) It’s been said, “You may not care about politics, but politics cares about you.” The same is true of religion. If you want to better understand your neighbors — and the cultural and political forces shaping America — “The American Religious Landscape” is the primer you’ve been looking for. Despite all the data, it’s also a book that does not disappoint.
Read More
(REVIEW) “The Many Lives of Anne Frank” is trenchant, elegant and relevant — beautifully written, almost like a novel. Franklin achieves the seemingly impossible: Allowing the reader to see the flesh-and-blood Anne — complex, rambunctious, talkative, critical, acerbic, funny and vivacious — rather than the homogenized and sentimentalized figure enshrined in pop culture.
Read More
(REVIEW) While “Bad Shabbos” is very funny, little about it really breaks new ground, as it primarily leans on the classic tropes and themes of a Jewish “meet the parents” comedy. The movie also has some tonal awkwardness between the relatively grounded characters and dialogue mixed with its rather unbelievable farcical premise and series of escalating decisions.
Read More
The man who allegedly walked up to two Israeli embassy staffers and shot them dead Wednesday night reportedly told eyewitnesses he “did it for Gaza.” The event those staffers had just left at the Capital Jewish Museum highlighted an organization that supplied aid to Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war. And his victims had made peace-building central to their work.
Read More
Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed outside an event in Washington, D.C., around 9 p.m. Wednesday, according to local and federal officials, by a suspect who appeared to target them in what many Jewish leaders are calling an antisemitic attack. The shooting took place following an American Jewish Committee event for young Jewish professionals and diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) When the hip-hop artist formerly known as Kanye West went on his first antisemitic tirade, some opined that we should ignore it. Why give more gas to the fire? It was a different time; the platform the musician was posting his rants on was still called Twitter and he had just begun to use the name Ye. In the current context, it seems to have taken on more importance.
Read More
For President Donald Trump’s MAGA Jewish base, the plane may be a bridge too far. Three influential Jewish voices in the MAGA movement — figures typically known for their unwavering loyalty to the GOP standard-bearer — are aghast over Trump’s decision to accept a $400 million aircraft from the government of Qatar.
Read More
A newscast from Israel streamed on a large screen, and a woman speaking into a microphone translated updates into English: “Hamas announces it has released Edan Alexander.” “The Red Cross says it’s on the scene but does not yet have Alexander.” “We have confirmation that Alexander has been released.” “Alexander is officially in the hands of the IDF.” “Alexander has had a first conversation with his mother and is telling jokes.”
Read More
Three men from different faiths sit side by side on a stage. It’s nearly sundown just outside Berlin, with more than 100 people gathered for an interfaith iftar — the fast-breaking evening meal of Muslims during Ramadan. Each religious leader speaks about the power of fasting in their tradition, their words framed by the clatter of Turkish food being prepared in the kitchen.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) If you’ve been tracking the gossip around the upcoming conclave — or if you’ve seen Conclave — I bet there’s one question dominating your mind: What is up with those hats?
Read More
Why was Segev Schwartz the only casualty in his battalion of 30 Israeli soldiers when a terrorist tossed a hand grenade in a cafeteria on Oct. 7, 2023? That was his mother Sara’s question. The answer she found completed a picture of Segev she and her husband shared on the eve of Israel Memorial Day, the commemoration of the fallen in Israeli wars and acts of terrorism since 1948.
Read More
Zeev Buium took the ice on Sunday for the Minnesota Wild, becoming the first NHL player born to Israeli parents and one of more than a dozen Jewish players to feature in a game this season. He might also be the first in the league with a tattoo featuring Jewish calendar dates. His parents, Sorin and Miriam Buium, immigrated in 1999 from Ashdod, a city in Israel, to San Diego.
Read More
When Jessica Yeroshalmi started her political science degree at Baruch College in New York six years ago, she was surprised to learn that some students in her classes had no idea there were Jews with roots in the Middle East. Yeroshalmi’s parents fled from Iran to New York after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It was only once Yeroshalmi went to college that she realized that her peers had an Ashkenazi-centric image of what it means to be Jewish.
Read More
(OPINION) Every year at Passover, when Jews around the world recite the Four Questions, we begin by asking, “ma nishtana halaila hazeh me kol halaylot” — “what makes this night different from all others?” As we approach this year’s seders, I think that it’s also appropriate that we ask what makes this year different from all others.
Read More
When the Portland Trail Blazers gave up four draft picks for Deni Avdija last summer, it seemed like an overpay. Avdija, the league’s only Israeli-born player, was coming off a breakout fourth season for the Washington Wizards. But his stats had popped so much that some regression felt almost inevitable. Instead, as the focal point of a young, head-turning team, Avdija’s gotten even better.
Read More
(REVIEW) Janis Ian’s songs are known for their sharp social commentary, but what director Varda Bar-Kar uncovers in her new documentary “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence,” is how central Ian’s Judaism was to her activism. Ian, who was born in New Jersey, legally changed her name from Janis Fink to Janis Ian in 1964, adopting her brother Eric’s middle name as her last name.
Read More
(OPINION) The international conversation about Gaza has long circled the same grim question: What would it take for the population to rise up against Hamas? We just might have the beginnings of a response: The resumption of war, after Israel broke a two-month ceasefire following 15 months of devastating conflict. The prospect of more death with no end date, all because Hamas refuses to free more hostages until Israel agrees to leave it in power as part of a more permanent truce, appears to be too much to bear.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) The American comics industry was largely started by the children of Jewish immigrants. Like most publishing in the early 20th century, it was centered in New York, home to the country’s largest Jewish population. Though they were still a very small minority, immigration had swelled the United States’ Jewish population more than a thousandfold: from roughly 3,000 in 1820 to roughly 3,500,000 in 1920.
Read More