If you’re stuck at home but yearning for Jewish community, there are plenty of ways to connect: virtual Torah classes, sing-alongs, book groups. But what if you’re looking for something different? From knitting circles to folk dancing to cheesemaking, synagogues and Jewish organizations are coming up with innovative ways to help people get through the…
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Culture
Off the Shelf
Daughters of the Holocaust uncover old stories in new memoirs
Jews place a premium on remembering, and particularly so when it comes to the Holocaust. But how can we recall what we never learned? Two outstanding new…
TV
‘Bibi,’ TV series about Benjamin Netanyahu, is in the works
A television series about the life and times of Benjamin Netanyahu is in the works. “Bibi,” the longtime Israeli prime minister’s ubiquitous nickname,…
Books
At 73, she's telling her story of life as a Vietnam-era anti-war fugitive
Using fake IDs and aliases, Emily L. Quint Freeman spent 20 years as a fugitive. In 1969, the 22-year-old anti-war activist and her cohorts broke into a…
Shavuot
When Haifa was party central at Shavuot
The harvest holiday of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and “Bikurim” — the first fruits of the grain…
History
FDR had a Jewish strategy much like the one in ‘Plot Against America’
In HBO’s recent adaptation of the Philip Roth novel “The Plot Against America,” American Jews are coerced by Pres. Charles Lindbergh to move to rural…
TV
In alternate history of ‘Hollywood,’ everyone can act out their ambitions
The “What if history were different?” trope has been very popular in recent years, but usually to imagine a worse future — as in “The Plot Against…
Celebrity Jews
Sarah Silverman is Santa Claus; Disney's Jewish prince; etc.
Let the experts talk, please Celebs have been holding court on social media throughout the pandemic, but now some of them are turning their Instagram and…
Books
New book tells Jewish stories of the Gold Rush
German immigrant Samuel Snow led a wagon train from the Midwest to California, arriving in El Dorado County in August 1850. He opened a tent store near…