(N.Y. Jewish Week) — Many of the best comedians have had deeply troubled pasts. But Moshe Kasher, a rising 32-year-old comic and author of a new memoir, “Kasher in the Rye,” takes the old adage to a new level. He began psychotherapy at age 4 and started using hard drugs at 12. By the time [...]
Read More »NEW YORK (JTA) — “Girls” begins with the conversation that many parents of 20-somethings dream of having someday real soon with their floundering children: No. More. Money. This is what the parents of 24-year-old Hannah Horvath, played by series creator, director and writer Lena Dunham, tell her over dinner. She is two years out of [...]
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TEANECK, N.J. (JTA) — As the minutes on the clock tick away, the chefs run about their kitchens furiously trying to complete their Taj Mahal-themed desserts. “What have I got for you now?” booms the thickly accented master pastry chef Ron Ben-Israel as he overlooks the chefs’ workstations. “Another mandatory ingredient — tahini paste!” This [...]
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LOS ANGELES (JTA) — It’s not a dinner for schmucks but a lunch served by one. That may sound harsh, but how else to introduce a new food truck rolling on the streets of Los Angeles called “Schmuck with a Truck”? On only his eighth day of business, the yellow lunch truck with the likeness [...]
Read More »LOS ANGELES (Jewish Journal) — David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer, screenwriters of Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film, “The Dictator,” were bantering in the comic actor’s office as Alec Berg, their co-writer, joined in by speakerphone — he was home babysitting his young daughter. Baron Cohen, star of the prankster mockumentaries “Bruno” and “Borat,” was about [...]
Read More »WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (JTA) — A few months after my first child was born, I went to a bookstore to buy a few books that I thought needed to be on the bookshelf of my new baby’s nursery. Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” was one of those books. A childhood favorite of mine, I [...]
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NEW YORK (JTA) – What do Golda Meir, Natalie Portman and Aviva Shalit have in common? They’re all on JTA’s Top Jewish Moms list for 2012. With Mother’s Day on Sunday, we present our select group (in alphabetical order but for our final choice): Bella Abzug — The first Jewish woman elected to Congress, who had two daughters, [...]
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NEW YORK (JTA) — PJ Library wants to come between parents and children — literally. Every month, PJ Library mails free Jewish-themed children’s books to nearly 100,000 households in North America with a grand ambition: that somewhere between Dr. Seuss and the Berenstain Bears, a child may turn to a book like Vivian Newman’s “Ella’s [...]
Read More »(JTA) — As moviegoers over the weekend flocked to see Marvel’s new superhero ensemble, they would understandably associate the idea of Nazi-fighting avengers with Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Black Widow. But, in fact, there was also a real-life band of Jewish freedom fighters with the same name who were bent on sticking [...]
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The cover of artist Stan Lebovic’s book reads “Black is a Color, by a survivor’s son.” But in his search for meaning in the aftermath of the Holocaust, “I don’t focus on the negativity,” Lebovic promises. Instead, he finds hope and inspiration in the resilience of the Jewish people. “To me, it’s not who built [...]
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