When Frank Loesser, the Jewish composer of musicals like “Guys and Dolls” wrote “Baby It’s Cold Outside” in 1944 for himself and his wife to perform at dinner parties, he labeled the two vocal parts “mouse” and “wolf.” “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” has become a Russian doll of controversy that we take down from the…
Don’t believe in the season of miracles? Meet Santa Claus: a lawyer who went to the Yeshiva of Flatbush. Before he was Santa, his side gig was teaching in Boro Park. He speaks Hebrew. “It takes a lot to be a Santa. It takes a lot to be a good santa,” Dana Friedman says. Revisit…
A bomb squad was called to the Los Angeles home of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin Saturday night after a mysterious package was left on the doorstep. But it was just a pile of horse manure, the New York Times reported. Helicopter footage captured authorities spilling the manure out of a large box onto Mnuchin’s porch….
Shira Greenblatt, a secular Israeli Jew who was born and raised in Jerusalem, loves Christmas. “Every year I attend Christmas services at the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, and I will go again this year, too. It’s very special to learn about Christianity here, in Jerusalem. And I love the lights, the songs,…
Cliff Adler is the son of two German Jewish refugees. He is also co-president of one of the world’s largest Christmas ornaments business, a company founded and run for over half a century by those same refugees. So what’s the first thing in the company’s showroom that he wants to show off to a reporter…
Every year, from Thanksgiving Eve until New Year’s Day, there is a feeling in the air of Christmas — and Hanukkah, multiple Shabbatot, many simchas and professional parties. Christmas is basically a traditional Jewish way of life. We know Jesus Christ was Jewish, and that for centuries our people have been the targets of anti-Semitism…
I have a reputation. When I walk into certain rooms, people roll their eyes. At least they used to. For several years, I worked at a secular, non-profit educational institution, but people there didn’t always behave in a completely secular way. At the “holiday” party, the community sang “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and a…
Whether from a fellow Jew or a non-Jew, I’m pretty sure the most common question asked of a convert to Judaism is: “Don’t you miss Christmas?” So far, my personal answer to the query has been: “No. Not really. Once in a while… maybe.” My more expanded answer leans mostly toward the negative. I emphatically…
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