Arts and Culture

BOULDER, Colo. (JTA) — When Matisyahu, the 32-year-old Chasidic reggae superstar, appeared onstage for the first time since shaving his trademark beard, no one in the audience at the Boulder Theater seemed surprised. The news of his shaving had been widely discussed since the star tweeted a photo of… Read more »

Matisyahu posted pictures of himself on Twitter after shaving his signature beard, Dec. 13, 2011. (Photo via Twitter)

NEW YORK (JTA) — The world’s most famous Chasidic Jew has shaved his beard. With a declaration Tuesday morning that he was “reclaiming” himself, Jewish music star Matisyahu — a.k.a. Matthew Miller — shaved his signature beard and wrote, “No more Chassidic reggae superstar.” The musician posted two photos of his newly… Read more »

Tucson artist Lynn Rae Lowe in her Metal Arts Village studio (Sheila Wilensky)

Judaism is a profound part of life for Tucson metal artist Lynn Rae Lowe, who is known for her award-winning chanukiot and other Judaica. But it wasn’t always so. Men like her father who returned from World War II wanted to assimilate into American society. “They didn’t want to… Read more »

Madeline Dreyfus Heineman Berger, founder of the Temple of Music and Art

David Ira Goldstein has been artistic director of the Arizona Theatre Company for 20 years. But the ATC’s Jewish legacy in Tucson goes back much further — all the way to the founding of the ATC’s Tucson home, the Temple of Music and Art, by Madeline Dreyfus Heineman Berger,… Read more »

Steve Solomon

Steve Solomon, star and creator of one of the longest running one-man comedy shows in history, “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish & I’m in Therapy,” presents a new show next month at the Invisible Theatre. In “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m Home for the Holidays:… Read more »

An innovative figure emerged in my youth who inspired me in a way that was so different from many others — a rabbi with a guitar and amazing stories who reached into the inner depths of my soul. It was Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who became known as the “sweet… Read more »

A new kosher cookbook, “Havurah Cooks! A Collection of Recipes by Sun City Vistoso Havurah Club” was conceived by board members Ester Leutenberg and Bebe Lewis as a way to fight “activity fatigue” in the club, which was founded in 1993 and now boasts some 160 members. The club’s… Read more »

Neshama Carlebach

Neshama Carlebach sings so that people can feel. “I want people to feel — that’s when healing begins,” says Carlebach, 37, the daughter of the legendary Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who also used music to teach and inspire, recording more than 25 albums. Carlebach will take the concert stage at… Read more »

Jenni Wolfson performing in her one-woman show, "Rash." (Melbourne Sibblies)

NEW YORK (JTA) — At the start of “Rash,” Jenni Wolfson appears onstage in a green peasant skirt and khaki top to the sound of cascading gunfire. Her long brown hair is unceremoniously pulled back with a black scrunchie. From a trunk she pulls out a flak jacket and puts it on.… Read more »

Neal Pollack (Laura Sartois/Anthology Photography)

(Tablet) — In the 1930s, Hank Greenberg chased Babe Ruth’s records and won the 1934 World Series with the Detroit Tigers. The national pastime wasn’t friendly territory for a Jewish athlete then, but by proudly staking out a claim, Greenberg proved that Jews could play the game as well… Read more »

One of my favorite books of the last decade is Daniel Tammet’s memoir “Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant,” so I was eager to read “Following Ezra: What One Father Learned About Gumby, Otters, Autism, and Love from His Extraordinary Son” by… Read more »

Arizona Public Media will air two shows dealing with the Nazi era and its aftermath on Tuesday, Nov. 15 on PBS channel 6. “Inside the Mind of Adolf Hitler” starts at 8 p.m., followed at 9 p.m. by “Elusive Justice: The Search for Nazi War Criminals.” “Making ‘Inside the… Read more »

Tamir Hendelman

World-renowned Israeli jazz pianist Tamir Hendelman and Detroit jazz singer Kathy Kosins will present a concert sponsored by The Heartbeat of Israel and the Tucson Jazz Society on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort. Hendelman has performed with Barbra Streisand, Natalie Cole… Read more »

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is determined to return to Congress. “I will get stronger. I will return,” Giffords writes in a memoir she co-authored with her husband, Mark Kelly, and Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow, according to the Associated Press, which got an advance copy. “Gabby: A Story of… Read more »

The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan’s peaceful Battery Park is an unlikely place to explore some of the 20th century’s most horrific evils. “Deadly Medicine” — an exhibit on Nazi racial science, originally presented at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum — is a sobering examination of the intertwined… Read more »

BOSTON (JTA) — Judah Maccabee, meet the Golem of Prague. And Rebecca Rubin, Engineer Ari, and Nathan and Jacob, two brothers who are part of a modern American Jewish family. They are among the characters who take center stage in this year’s crop of new children’s books for Chanukah,… Read more »

Jason Alexander, meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres at Peres' residence in Jerusalem, Oct. 25, 2011. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90/JTA)

(JTA) — To those who know him as the lovably neurotic and lazy George Costanza from TV’s “Seinfeld,” there was something comic — if not downright ridiculous — in seeing actor Jason Alexander being asked by an elder statesman of Middle East diplomacy about making peace between Israelis and… Read more »

Many parents savor memories of cozy nights reading to their young children, looking at beautiful illustrations, and appreciating the cadence of a story told well. Those moments connect children not only to their parents, but also to a love of reading so vital to literate, inquisitive young minds. The… Read more »

Version Jew.0 Is your Yiddish rusty? Want to whip up a kosher culinary masterpiece? Trying to remember which prayer to say as you cast off your sins on Rosh Hashanah? Don’t worry—there’s an app for it! Oy! Ever wonder when it’s OK to toss out an “oy”? The opportunities,… Read more »

Anna Solomon’s debut novel, “The Little Bride,” opens with Minna Losk, a poor Jewish girl in Odessa, submitting to a humiliating examination in order to immigrate to the United States as a mail-order bride. The scene is so powerfully written, I was instantly captivated, avid to learn more of… Read more »