Beshert | Once Upon a Time in Montevideo…
I met my husband in a hotel lobby in Montevideo, Uruguay on my 27th birthday. We were browsing the lobby stores because the hotel’s only...
Beshert | He Had Me At Lunch
The man had just eaten the lunch of Jewish champions. There went my heart quandary; he embodied the simplest and best parts of being Jewish. With that one “lunch,” I realized he was the perfect Jew for me.
The Deal of the Century Revealed…That’s It?
The atmosphere in the White House East Room seemed at times more like a raucous campaign event than a launch of a diplomatic initiative three years in the making. Invitees broke out in cheers as Trump praised the Israeli prime minister standing next to him, just as they did when Netanyahu gushed over Trump.
‘Haredim Cannot Be Isolated Anymore’: An Interview with Menachem Bombach
Rabbi Menachem Bombach is the founder and head of the “Netzach” Haredi educational network, which combines religious and secular studies and aims to educate students to become observant Haredim who are also prepared for practical living.
Documentary ‘Who Will Write Our History?’ Tells Stunning, Little-Known Holocaust Story
Documentary filmmaker Roberta Grossman is obsessed with the Holocaust, always has been. Its ever-present evil—the ultimate “rift in humanity,” she says—just won’t let go. “It’s not that I can’t pull away from it, but rather why others can.” So she asserts on the phone from her home in Los Angeles. Producer Nancy Spielberg (yes, Steven’s sister), with whom Grossman collaborated on the Holocaust documentary Who Will Write Our History, is participating in the conversation from her New York home. Their film, which has already been screened at various festivals worldwide, will make its television debut on the Discovery Channel on January 26 at 3 p.m. The telecast is part of Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations. It’s also the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and the Lasting Appeal of Larry David
Suddenly there he was, shuffling to the podium: that familiar bald dome, those telltale glasses, the grumpy slouch we’d come to know and love, now stuffed inside a baggy suit that seemed to somehow fit perfectly, and now yelling about American politics instead of golf and wood stains.
Beshert | Bestie In My Building
Fast forward six months later. I now lovingly call my neighbor my friend. She is exactly what I was searching for in my little neighborhood. We’ve named each other Lucy and Ethel. We laugh, we talk, we share. We drink coffee and write. We watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Best of all, she lives right below me. And has all along.
The Most Important Jewish Election Nobody’s Heard Of
This historic body, founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897, is the oldest representative Jewish institution and the only one in which all Jewish diaspora is represented and democratically elected. The elections will go on for almost two months, and in October 2020, the new Congress will convene in Jerusalem.
Beshert | Bonded by the Bard
“Was that your friend Bill Shakespeare?” my youngest son, Alex, then six, asks after my husband, Steve, hangs up the phone.
If that seems like a crazy question from a child, it was par for the course in my household, because it was words that wooed me, words that won me, and words that keep us – the entire family – in thrall.
From the very beginning, in fact.
What Should the Anti-Semitism Czar Do?
For two years, America did not have a point person dealing with global anti-Semitism, and much has changed in that time: In Eastern Europe, attempts to blur historical facts regarding the Holocaust have increased, especially in Poland, while Hungary experienced a government-backed anti-Semitic smear campaign against George Soros. Anti-Semitic incidents in Western Europe remain on the rise, and in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party was widely denounced for failing to deal with anti-Semitism in its leadership and ranks. But the biggest shift in anti-Semitic trends did not happen in distant countries overseas. It occurred in the U.S., where white nationalist anti-Semitism reared its head, leading murderous attacks on synagogues, hateful Nazi marches and countless incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism. In addition, attacks on Jews in the New York area, many of them by African Americans, also saw an alarming surge.
Israeli Documentary ‘Afterward’ Is a Guiding Light in a World of Trauma
The remarkable new documentary Afterward is a dissection of nothing less than the last century’s collective trauma of the Jewish people, and a sincere attempt to find its echo in the trauma of Israel’s sworn enemies.
Beshert | Really Glad We Didn’t Skip That Party
That we met on February 22, my Grandma Clara’s birthday, my parents’ wedding day and my Bar Mitzvah day on my mom’s and dad’s 22nd anniversary, must be pure coincidence, right? We chose our wedding day, June 10th, randomly; it turned out to be my grandparents’ wedding day nearly 70 years earlier. Another coincidence… unless one accepts that beshert operates in strange and mysterious ways.