Abigail Pogrebin has become a rare voice among American Jews, as a journalist and an explorer who shares with refreshing wit and candor her path to finding a meaningful Jewish life.
A former producer for 60 Minutes and Charlie Rose, author of “Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish,” “One and the Same,” and “Showstopper,” she has her own interview series at The JCC in Manhattan and was a co-author of Newsweek’s annual Top Rabbis list.
Follow her on Twitter @apogrebin
It’s a sure conversation-stopper when I tell friends, “This year I’ll be observing and trying to understand every single Jewish holiday.” Non-Jews nod politely: “That sounds interesting….” Non-observant Jews look puzzled: “Aren’t there, like, a thousand of those…? I guess you won’t be doing much else this year.” Observant Jews shrug, as if to say,…
Some of the rabbis from the Newsweek Top 50 Rabbis list. / The Daily Beast If we’ve ever watched how a well-intentioned concept can generate unintended consequences, it’s the Newsweek Top 50 Rabbis list. It was conceived back in 2007 simply because we were genuinely curious about which rabbis were considered leading lights and why….
I’m hesitant to admit that I believe in the concept of bashert, the notion that something was inevitable or orchestrated. But I also think it’s no accident that I’ve landed at this entirely unexpected juncture, where my childhood obsession with theater has joined my adult profession as a writer and fueled the Jewish exploration that…
When my husband and I decided to move from the Upper West Side to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, several friends and family members made me feel like a traitor. Nora Ephron, however, sent me a list of restaurants, hair salons, nail salons, and dry cleaners. She said I was making the best move…
This is the second entry in an ongoing series about Jewish feminism. It’s difficult to be “for” something I have never lived without. I don’t remember a bimah without women. When I was growing up, my mother was the cantor at our makeshift shul on Fire Island, so my Jewish practice always had a female…
Writer, producer and director Nora Ephron is responsible for titles that have become indisputably iconic in America’s cultural archive: “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail,” and “Julie & Julia,” to name just a few. Now, with a new book of essays, “I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections” (Knopf), which includes everything…
Kitty Carlisle Hart, 96, passed away one week after the official end of Passover. The concurrence reminded me of how few of her fans knew she was Jewish — and how lucky I was to have had the chance to hear her talk about that quiet part of her life. We met three years ago…
100% of profits support our journalism
