By Symi Rom-Rymer A group of young Hasidic men hang out at the foot of the subway stairs at a station in Brooklyn, New York. Soon, another one joins them and the conversation quickly turns heated. “Do you bite your thumb at us...
By Symi Rom-Rymer In a recent poll, 30% of Israeli Arabs, out of 700 questioned, don’t believe the Holocaust happened. As the Associated Press reported earlier this week, Yad Vashem is trying to change that. The poll’s creator, Sammy Smooha, insists that the high rate...
By Symi Rom-Rymer The story of Jewish Eastern European immigration is a familiar one. Even if one never had the chance to know their relatives from that generation, all one has to do is watch Fiddler on the Roof to see what they must have experienced:...
By Symi Rom-Rymer Much of the discussion over the Wikileaks dump has focused on the negative impact of the released cables. But there may be a silver lining. Within the diplomatic community it may come as no surprise that Arab leaders expressed great concern over Iran’s...
By Symi Rom-Rymer By 1948, World War II had been over for three years, yet hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons remained scattered throughout the wrecked and scarred European landscape. The United States Congress responded with one of its most far reaching immigration laws,...
By Symi Rom-Rymer Every documentary filmmaker fortunate enough to have a close relationship with his mother should include her in a film about his life. Or at least bring her to his premiere so that during the Question and Answer period, she can set the record...
By Symi Rom-Rymer In the weeks leading up to last Saturday’s Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, the media world was practically falling over itself trying to analyze, explain, and dissect the event before it even happened. Pundits were asking each other, what...
By Symi Rom-Rymer A chubby young African boy dressed head-to-toe in an Israeli police officer’s uniform looks defiantly into the camera. A teenage girl in a pink room solemnly faces the camera under her hijab. A transvestite clad in a rhinestone studded bra and panties dances...
by Symi Rom-Rymer Hasidim and Hipsters can’t be friends, so says conventional wisdom. But maybe they can eat together. At least that’s what Danny Branover, principal owner of Basil Pizza and Wine bar in Crown Heights is hoping. Crown Heights, the Brooklyn neighborhood perhaps most infamously known...
By Symi Rom-Rymer If you happened to be walking down Second Avenue in New York’s East Village last Sunday afternoon, you might have seen an unexpected sight: a small and solemn processional of people dressed in yellow. This was no McDonald's protest or cheese parade. ...