Arts and Culture

(JTA) — In recent years, a spate of memoirs have been written by those who have left haredi Orthodox Judaism. Titles that have had mainstream publishing success include books by Shulem Deen (“All Who Go Do Not Return”), Deborah Feldman (“Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots”) and… Read more »

Jason Segel visits "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in New York City, July 29, 2015. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Actor Jason Segel — best known as the star of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “How I Met Your Mother” — opened up on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast this week about growing up with one Jewish parent and as a complete outsider. Segel sat down for the… Read more »

(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — Jennifer Weiner wasn’t funny during our telephone interview, and she never once asked me about my weight. Could the author of a dozen very popular — pardon the phrase — “chick lit” novels not be the embodiment of the characters in her clearly… Read more »

(JTA) — It was Friday evening and the cantor, wearing a leopard-print top and gladiator sandals — including one with a with a tambourine affixed to it — greeted the congregants at Shabbat services with a smile. She encouraged them to pick up the percussion instruments left on the… Read more »

(JTA) – For years it has been written about, and on the night of July 23 it was sealed: Jon Stewart is proud to be Jewish. With just two weeks left before he leaves “The Daily Show” following a 16-year run as host – and well ahead of the… Read more »

(JTA) — Theodore Bikel, an actor and folk singer who was recognized in 1997 with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, has died at 91. Bikel, who won fame playing Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof,” doing more performances of the role than… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Does the hit Pixar movie “Inside Out” hold a clue as to why many Jews find it so difficult to engage with Tisha b’Av? Could its cast of characters — Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who are anthropomorphized in the animated film — help… Read more »

PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — Alex Bethea, the son of cotton and tobacco farm workers, was in sixth grade in 1965 when his family moved from Dillon, South Carolina, to the tiny town of Fairmont, North Carolina, where he attended a school called Rosenwald. But it wasn’t until this week, 50… Read more »

The Tucson Jewish Community Center Fine Art Gallery will exhibit “Stitching Jewishly,” handcrafted Jewish ritual and cultural needlework by the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework, Tucson Chapter, along with “Jewish Touches of Whimsy in Paper Art and Calligraphy” by Anne Lowe from July 31 through Sept. 15. An artists’… Read more »

CHICAGO (JTA) — What a long, strange trip it’s been for Shu Eliovson. The American-born resident of Kfar Maimon, a religious moshav in southern Israel, Eliovson is CEO and co-founder of the tech start-up Likeminder, an anonymous social networking site for “authentic conversation” with “likeminded” people. He is also… Read more »

(JTA) — Whether it’s first love or night swimming, many American Jews have nostalgic memories from Jewish summer camp. For the first class of campers to attend the Union for Reform Judaism’s flagship camp in Warwick, New York, those memories just turned 50 years old. The URJ’s Kutz Camp,… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — It is one of the paradoxes of Arab-Jewish relations in Israel that some of the best movies depicting Palestinians as society’s outsiders are made by Jewish directors. Similarly, Palestinian directors often draw more balanced pictures of their Jewish “occupiers” than do some self-lacerating Jewish-Israeli filmmakers.… Read more »

(Jewniverse via JTA) — “It has long been established by the highest medical authorities that food made from fruits and vegetables is far healthier and more suitable for the human organism than food made from meat,” Fania Lewando wrote in 1938. With that Austen-like pronouncement and the publication of… Read more »

(JTA) — To anyone who has read a rock-and-roll biography or caught an episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music,” it is a sadly familiar tale: An artist achieves great success only to self destruct. There’s something called the “27 Club,” made up of a surprisingly number of influential musicians… Read more »

It’s summer, that time of year when everyone drops everything they’re doing, finds a quiet stretch of sandy shore and spends all day delving into their new favorite books. Or maybe not. But whatever your plans, there’s no denying that the season brings a bumper crop of literary offerings,… Read more »

(JTA) — It wasn’t so long ago that gay men were vilified by American society at large. Back in the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic surfaced, priests railed against them, claiming the disease was God’s revenge for sinful lifestyle choices. That, of course, has changed — mostly. While there… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – Conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East now appears a permanent condition, but it didn’t have to be that way, according to a one-hour PBS special premiering on June 30. “1913: The Seeds of Conflict” traces the relationship between the two Semitic tribes… Read more »

(JTA) — “Orange Is the New Black” protagonist Piper Chapman’s may no longer have a Jewish husband, but that doesn’t mean that Judaism isn’t a huge part of the new season of the Netflix hit. In fact, religious identity is one of the biggest themes of Season 3, … Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Michael Douglas hadn’t heard of the Genesis Prize when he found out that he’d won it. In fact, the Oscar-winning actor was surprised to discover he was even in the running for an award designed for those who inspire fellow Jews. His father, actor Kirk Douglas,… Read more »

(JTA) — Given the long and storied history of the Holocaust film genre, it’s unusual for a new movie on the subject to be lauded as innovative. But the new film “Son of Saul,” the first by Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes, is being called just that. It also was… Read more »