The New York Jewish Week

07/01/2024

Jewish and Black advocacy organizations came together to announce their support for a ban on masks at protests in New York State, linking contemporary antisemitism by masked attackers to past actions by hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Calls for a mask ban have gained momentum in recent weeks, as legislation has been introduced in Albany and the idea has the endorsement of Gov. Kathy Hochul as well as Mayor Eric Adams. This week, Los Angeles’ mayor floated a similar ban after clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel activists outside a synagogue there.

The effort comes as antisemitism has surged in New York City and as pro-Palestinian street protests, often by demonstrators wearing masks, have roiled the Jewish community.

ADL, NAACP and other advocacy groups back legislation that would ban masks at public gatherings, drawing parallels between contemporary antisemitism and past attacks by the Ku Klux Klan.

07/01/2024

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum led New York’s pioneering q***r synagogue through crisis and triumph — and now she’s passing the baton to a new generation.

“Not a single rabbi in the world — not a single synagogue, not a single Jewish organization, no single Jewish civil rights organization — stood for the full equality of LGBT people,” Kleinbaum tells our Julia Gergely of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah’s humble beginnings in 1973.

The first rabbi at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, Kleinbaum led the congregation from the depths of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s to the legalization of gay marriage in 2015.

06/30/2024

As Isaac Bashevis Singer takes the microphone, he greets roaring applause in his Polish accent, ready with prepared remarks about his personal relationship with religion, philosophy and mysticism.

While the famed Yiddish writer died in 1991, new glimpses into his personality, thoughts and work revive him in the 21st century through brand new audio recordings released by 92NY.

Delivered at the 92nd Street Y on Nov. 19, 1975, Bashevis Singer’s talk, “On Mysticism and the Modern Man,” is one of more than 400 historical lectures given at 92NY that are now available through this archive of audio recordings.

More than 800 lectures were digitized by the 92NY through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

06/29/2024

Chef Josh Kessler is no stranger to owning and operating upscale kosher restaurants. Six years ago, he founded Barnea Bistro, a restaurant on East 46th Street in Midtown. The kosher fine dining establishment was so successful that, 18 months after opening, he purchased the adjacent space and doubled his restaurant’s size.

Earlier this month, Kessler opened Bonito 47 — a 7,000-square-foot restaurant that, like Barnea Bistro, seats 150. This new spot is on West 47th Street, conveniently located between the theaters of Broadway and the heavily Jewish Diamond District.

Following the success of his Barnea Bistro, Chef Josh Kessler opens Bonito 47, an upscale kosher restaurant specializing in "world cuisine."

06/28/2024

When the fifth of his attackers was sentenced to prison in January, Joey Borgen — who was brutally assaulted by a group of pro-Palstinian protesters near Times Square in 2021 — believed his long ordeal was finally over.

Yesterday, however, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that his office has tracked down a sixth attacker in Florida, extradited him to New York and indicted him on hate crimes for the attack.

Months after five men were sentenced for the attack, a sixth, Salem Seleiman, was apprehended in Florida and charged with hate crimes.

06/28/2024

Happy birthday to the one and only Mel Brooks! Today, the iconic director, actor, producer and songwriter is 98 years old! ⁠
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Born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn in 1926, Mel Brooks channeled the Yiddish accents and Jewish sensibilities of his old neighborhoods into his many characters. ⁠
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Brooks worked his Jewish obsessions into films like “The Producers,” and "History of the World Part I." His signature move is to inject Jews into every aspect of human history and culture.⁠
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Read more about Brooks's life, legacy, and biography here: https://buff.ly/3pokw33

06/27/2024

After pulling his support from his alma mater, Columbia University, billionaire Robert Kraft announced he will donate $1 million to Yeshiva University to establish a program to support any transfer students to the flagship Modern Orthodox university.

YU has said it is expecting an influx of students who have left their secular schools amid pro-Palestinian protests.

In April, Kraft had announced a split with his alma mater, Columbia University, over the school’s handling of its pro-Palestinian protests.

06/26/2024

Police in New York have arrested a man who allegedly demanded that “Zionists” identify themselves on a crowded subway car around the time of a controversial protest earlier this month at a Manhattan exhibit commemorating the Nova music festival massacre.

Anas Saleh, 24, was arrested on Wednesday morning, the NYPD told the New York Jewish Week.

“This is your chance to get out,” the man shouted in footage that circulated widely on social media.

06/26/2024

Anyone stepping inside 81 Leonard Gallery — an artist-run space named after its Tribeca address — will come face to face with Adolf Hi**er.

The Hi**er on display at this gallery, one of dozens dotting the tony Manhattan neighborhood, sports the recognizable “toothbrush” mustache and swoop of brown hair that characterize portraits of the N**i leader.

“Yitler,” created by artist Marina Heintze by layering images of both men’s faces, is one of 38 pieces currently on view at 81 Leonard as part of a pioneering group show, “Artists on Antisemitism.” A project of the Jewish Arts Salon, a global network of Jewish artists based in New York City, 21 artists are exhibiting work that both captures and responds to hatred of the Jewish people — an ancient phenomenon that has renewed itself in recent years.

“Artists who never really formally said, ‘I'm Jewish’ are all of a sudden seeing how important it is to them," a curator said.

06/26/2024

George Latimer defeated Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the Democratic primary in New York’s 16th Congressional district on Tuesday, a significant setback for progressive critics of Israel in a closely-watched race with national implications.

Latimer, a centrist who hewed to a pro-Israel position during the campaign, was declared the winner by the Associated Press and other news outlets around 40 minutes after the polls closed at 9 p.m. With 70% of votes in, Latimer led Bowman by more than 11 points.

For pro-Israel Democrats, Bowman’s loss marked a significant victory in a year of widespread protest against Israel on the left.

06/25/2024

The Jewish impulse to remember a tragedy even as it is still unfolding, before its historical significance is fully understood, is explored in a new book by Jeffrey Shandler.

“Homes of the Past: A Lost Jewish Museum” is about the attempt in 1944 by YIVO, the Yiddish research center that had been transplanted from Vilna to New York during World War II, to create a museum in the city devoted to the Jews of Eastern Europe.

YIVO sought a home in New York for a museum dedicated to the vanished "homes" of Eastern Europe.

06/25/2024

The primary election between Rep. Jamaal Bowman and George Latimer has become one of the nation’s most closely watched votes due to its focus on Israel.

But the international issue has also become a factor in down-ballot Democratic primaries across the five boroughs of New York City, as progressive candidates for State Assembly have linked their criticism of Israel to a range of local issues, from police brutality to state tax law.

Progressives in down-ballot races have also made criticism of Israel central to their campaigns.

06/24/2024

For quite a few years, the kosher Patis Bakery chain was expanding across New York City like cookie dough in a warm oven.

It opened more than a dozen locations in a range of neighborhoods, gaining renown among kosher-keeping diners for its high-quality pastries and urban cafe culture, and was in talks to move into the space vacated by Russ & Daughters in the Jewish Museum.

Then business hit some bumps. Last week, the chain filed for bankruptcy.

The company sold gift cards to raise capital. Now customers are racing to cash them in.

06/23/2024

In Israel, Shany Granot-Lubaton and her husband, Omer Lubaton-Granot, had worked for Labor Party lawmakers. When they moved to NYC two years ago, Granot-Lubaton hoped to take a break from Israeli politics — but instead, she founded a movement to protest the Netanyahu government and, after Oct. 7, to support the hostages, displaced Israelis and the families of victims.

“She has really revolutionized the Israelis in America, specifically New York, in political activism,” a progressive Israeli activist in New York tells Luke. The couple are moving back to Israel this week.

After gaining prominence in NYC by advocating for Israeli democracy — and then fighting for the release of hostages held by Hamas — and activist and her husband, Omer Lubaton-Granot, are returning to…

06/22/2024

Hundreds of volunteers are making a final push in the days before the June 25 congressional primary, which pits Bowman against centrist Democrat George Latimer. Their 16th district covers Westchester County as well as a sliver of the Bronx and has a large Jewish population.

The Democratic race in this blue district is seen as a bellwether for the clash between centrists who support Israel, like Latimer, and progressives like Bowman who are among its most outspoken critics.

The race has received significant national attention, and millions in campaign spending, but in the suburbs that make up the bulk of the district, volunteers want to make sure Jews actually turn out to vote.

A Democratic race is seen as a bellwether for the clash between centrists who support Israel, like Latimer, and progressives like Bowman who are among its most outspoken critics.

06/21/2024

When an exhibit memorializing the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival arrived in New York in mid-April, there was very little marketing. The producers did not disclose any information about its location until just a few days before it formally opened to the public.

But now, ahead of the exhibit’s closing on Saturday, more than 100,000 visitors have walked through the Lower Manhattan space during its two-month run, according to organizers — with a notable uptick over the past week.

The surge is in part a response to a large Pro-Palestinian protest outside the exhibit on June 10.

Ahead of its closing on June 22, some 2,000 to 3,000 visitors each day have attended the Lower Manhattan exhibit, which recounts the horrors of the Nova Music Festival massacre on Oct. 7.

06/21/2024

This heat wave through NYC is no joke! Here's a little history of some past summers (courtesy of the archives at YIVO)⁠
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1. A group of children and an adult play on the rooftop of the Educational Alliance, which was originally a settlement house for East European Jews immigrating to New York City.⁠
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2. A Hungarian-Jewish family spends the day bike-riding in Rockaway, 1897.⁠
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3. Also part of the Educational Alliance, a gardening club Harvest Festival in Seward Park, 1924

(YIVO Institute Archives)

06/20/2024

When anti-Israel activists protested outside a Lower Manhattan exhibition commemorating the victims of the Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, they were condemned as antisemitic by some of Israel’s critics as well as its defenders.

On the way to the protest, masked activists had swarmed subway cars, demanding any “Zionists” identify themselves and reigniting a debate over anti-masking laws in New York.

The week before, protesters defaced Brooklyn’s iconic OY/YO sculpture with pro-Palestinian graffiti and stormed the museum lobby, sparking an uproar.

The protests were all linked by one group — a hardline pro-Palestinian activist organization called Within Our Lifetime.

The hardline pro-Palestinian group has spent years building up its following with street rallies in New York, and sparking controversies along the way.

06/19/2024

JTA chats with Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry, the stars of the new tragicomedy “Treasure.” In the film, real-life New Yorker Dunham plays a New York journalist who takes a trip to Auschwitz with her Holocaust survivor father, played by Fry.

“We feel it's the very moment for this film,” said director Julia Von Heinz.

06/19/2024

New Yorkers bracing for the year’s first major heat wave can now turn to sesame bagels and chocolate babka for cooling relief.

Russ & Daughters and Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream, two hip New York eateries, are teaming up to create three unique ice cream treats inspired by Russ & Daughters’ most beloved Jewish classics: halvah, bagels and babka.

Beat the heat with a sesame bagel ice cream sandwich and more.

06/18/2024

New York City’s schools chief has taken the unprecedented step of removing from their positions two elected parent leaders who have played major roles in stoking controversy over the Israel-Hamas war.

The two parent leaders booted from roles on local Community Education Councils were Maud Maron, the president of the council representing a Manhattan school district, and Tajh Sutton, who headed a council in Brooklyn.

Maron has harshly criticized pro-Palestinian student activism, while Sutton has promoted pro-Palestinian rhetoric and protests within the school system.

One of the parents, Maud Maron, has also denied the existence of transgender children and said she believed that was the real reason for her punishment.

06/18/2024

Jewish communities in Manhattan and Toronto are mourning Heather Conn Hendel, 48, a teacher, matchmaker and newlywed who died June 10 just days after giving birth to a daughter. A pillar of two New York Jewish institutions — the Manhattan Jewish Experience and Congregation Ohab Zedek — Conn Hendel was known for the special care she paid to the sick and elderly, to her students and to Jewish singles.

Conn Hendel was very involved in her New York City synagogue before moving shortly before her death to Toronto.

06/17/2024

To celebrate her second Tony of the night on Sunday, “Suffs” creator Shaina Taub turned to Jewish tradition.

Taub won awards for best book of a musical and best original score written for theater for the Broadway show about the women who fought to be able to vote in the United States. In her acceptance speech for the second award, she thanked her mentors and gave a shoutout to “all the theater kids out there.”

Then she quoted a Jewish text that she said had a prominent place in her show’s literature.

“The epigraph on my script is a quote from the Talmud: You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it,” said Taub, who also plays suffragist Alice Paul in the show.

Taub won for best book of a musical and best original score written for theater for "Suffs," in which she also stars.

06/16/2024

In December of 1912, Nathan Goldfarb, a Jewish watchmaker in New York, had an affair with a boarder who was staying in his home named Minnie Schechter. After Goldfarb’s wife, Lena, caught the wayward couple in the act, the pair absconded, leaving behind Goldfarb’s three children.

The Goldfarb affair — one of 18,000 case files recorded by the National Desertion Bureau in the archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research — is just one of the stories featured in a new exhibit about the bureau, “Runaway Husbands, Desperate Families: The Story of the National Desertion Bureau” that opens Monday at YIVO’s headquarters at 15 West 16th St. in Manhattan.

A new YIVO exhibit, “Runaway Husbands, Desperate Families: The Story of the National Desertion Bureau," examines a lesser-known aspect of Jewish immigrant life in the U.S.

06/15/2024

Our Julia Gergely paid a visit to Agi’s Counter in Crown Heights, whose chef, Jeremy Salamon, was a finalist for a James Beard award for Best Chef in New York State last week.

Salamon, 30, opened Agi’s in 2021 in honor of his Hungarian Jewish grandmother, and uses her heritage as inspiration for his menu, one of the rare places to indulge in Hungarian cuisine in New York City.

Jeremy Salamon, the chef and owner, was inspired to put new spins on traditions handed down by his family.

06/14/2024

Anti-Israel activists vandalized the homes of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum and other leaders of the cultural institution early on Wednesday, sparking condemnation from local officials.

Vandals splashed red paint and the words “blood on your hands” across the Brooklyn Heights residence of Anne Pasternak, director of the museum. They also hung a banner that accused Pasternak of being a “white-supremacist Zionist.”

Mayor Eric Adams called the incidents “overt, unacceptable antisemitism.”

The vandals also hung a banner accusing the museum director, Anne Pasternak, of being a “white-supremacist Zionist.”

06/13/2024

Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge,” premiered as the headliner at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival last week and begins streaming on Hulu June 25. ⁠
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The film explores the rise of von Furstenberg’s brand, her multiple love affairs — including her marriage to a half-German prince — the AIDS crisis, and her identity as a Jewish woman and child of a Holocaust survivor.

"I had realized who I was. And where I came from," the inventor of the wrap dress said about speaking about her mother's survival of Auschwitz.

06/12/2024

Anti-Israel activists took their roving protests on Monday to the street outside a Lower Manhattan exhibition commemorating the victims of the Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7.

On Monday night, the Nova exhibition posted a statement by music producer Scooter Braun, who helped bring the exhibition to New York, announcing that it would be extended until June 22 and responding to the protesters.

Demonstrators chanted "long live the intifada" in a downtown rally, drawing harsh criticism from city leaders.

06/11/2024

Prosecutors are moving to dismiss hate crimes charges against a woman charged with attacking an Israeli student on Columbia University’s campus in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel.

The suspect, Maxwell Friedman, who also goes by Malaika, was charged with four counts of assault and other offenses for allegedly striking the Israeli student with a stick on Oct. 11 during a dispute over Israeli hostage posters.

As part of the agreement, the suspect completed three sessions with Manhattan Justice Opportunities, a social services group, and made a public apology.

06/11/2024

"After watching “Queen of the Deuce,” out now on video on demand on Amazon and Apple TV and in select theaters, I kind of want to start a Chelly Wilson fan club," writes Lior Zaltzman.

"The documentary is all about Wilson, a gruff-voiced Jewish woman with short graying hair and stylish spectacles (including cat-eye glasses, which were invented by a fellow Sephardi Jewish mother) who owned an empire of p**n theaters in 1970s New York City — back when the Red Light District of Times Square was called 'The Deuce' — with names that all paid tribute to her Greek roots: Eros, Adonis, Venus.

Wilson was an immigrant from Thessaloniki, then known as Salonica, a hub of Jewish life destroyed by the N**is. She lost much of her family in Auschwitz and managed to escape the country in the nick of time, on the last boat out of Athens before the war."

After watching “Queen of the Deuce,” out now on video on demand on Amazon and Apple TV and in select theaters, I kind of want to start a Chelly Wilson fan club. The documentary is all about Wilson, a gruff-voiced Jewish woman with short graying hair and stylish spectacles (including cat-eye glas...