During the pandemic, Jessica Tamar Deutsch has been considering exile as she relearns how to paint. Specifically, she’s been thinking about the title character in “The Lost Princess,” a story by Rabbi Nachman, the mystic founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, about a young woman who disappears from her home after displeasing her kingly father….
Los Angeles is getting a special gift for Hanukkah this year. Emmy-award winning actress Tiffany Haddish, along with Tom Kenny (“Spongebob Squarepants”), Mark Feuerstein (“Royal Pains”) and more, have brought to life a new Hanukkah-themed animated short, “The Broken Candle.” The film follows a Hanukkah candle box (voiced by Eugenio Derbez) that comes with a…
When the COVID-19 lockdown was at its most severe in Israel at the end of April, I was scrolling through headlines and came across a deeply troubling article detailing the discovery of a dead body in a small apartment in Beer Sheba. The body was that of Dr. Magda Graif, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, who…
What would’ve happened if the ancient Israelites had endured the coronavirus pandemic? If they were told to stay inside and completely alter their daily lives: no visits to markets, temples or anywhere else? This would have challenged them, no doubt, but would we, their descendants, still be talking about it today? Every year, we remember…
The High Holidays are approaching — a time of celebration! Reflection! Brief starvation sandwiched in between two large meals! And much more. Tis the season to gorge ourselves on Judaism — standing for hours in shul, reading responsively, shuckling plaintively, and mouthing along in spiritual ecstasy while mentally strategizing the starting lineup for our fantasy…
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Tu B’av in 2018. Thursday night, a Jewish holiday begins. And if you’re not stomping grapes, chugging rosé, and falling in love dressed all in white while frolicking under the full moon and celebrating the right of women to own and inherit property, you’re doing it wrong!…
The choice to die on the whether-or-not-to-say-merry-Christmas hill should be the choice to die abandoned on top of a hill. And yet, tens-of-thousands of people see fit to proclaim their feelings from atop Twitter mountains or Facebook molehills: How ridiculous is it that people say “happy holidays” because saying “merry Christmas” might offend someone. CHRIST…
“There are no good Hanukkah songs!” Friends, Assyrian-Greeks, countrymen — we need to put this nasty rumor to rest. No, we’ll never have the sheer corporate bandwidth or people power of Christmas, but we don’t need to. We have our own dirge-like classics, anthropomorphic food songs, kiddy jams, and religious hymns! Here they are, categorized…
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