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Neshama Carlebach–daughter of the famed singer Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach–has dedicated her career to giving her father’s songs new life through recordings and concerts. But she’s never done it like this before. On the 2009 album Higher and Higher, Neshama teamed up with the Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir, a 26-member gospel choir based…
A feminist rapper checks out how women were treated in the Torah. An advocate for the disabled discusses Moses‘s speech impediment. A gay activist (who’s also a Jewish educator) wrestles with the condemnation of homosexual sex. And it’s all animated. Each week, a cartoon series called G-dcast broadcasts the weekly Torah portion using a simple formula:…
“On October 13, 1991, my grandparents killed themselves.” The new memoir An Exclusive Love (originally published in German) is exactly what this opening sentence advertises: An account of the last day in the lives of two Holocaust survivors–the author’s grandparents. You might expect a shocking follow-up–loaded with gore or drama–to the incendiary first…
What is Heaven? Is it a wondrous, otherworldly paradise where everything’s perfect and no one has any worries? Or is it a mirror of our own world, only more surreal, and more forever? Goldie Goldbloom‘s short story “The Telephone of the Dead” begins with Marnie Gottfried receiving a call from her…
The Druze are a unique people living in northern Israel. Neither Jewish nor Muslim, they are Israeli citizens who have an interesting bond with the Jewish state. There are 120,000 Druze living in Israel, as well as larger populations in Syria and Lebanon. They are Arabs who broke away from Islam in the 10th…
“A bird may love a fish, but where would they build a home together?” The 2004 film “You Got Served” tells the story of two friends who overcome all obstacles to win a dance competition. The 1971 film “Fiddler on the Roof” tells the story of a bunch of Jews…
It’s always hard to move on after the death of someone close. No biblical character struggled with this more than Saul, the first king of Israel. When the prophet Samuel died, Saul was devastated. Throughout Saul’s reign, he’d depended on Samuel for advice and guidance. Shortly after Samuel’s death, the Philistine army threatened Israel,…
When the Communist Party came to power in Czechoslovakia in 1948, Ivan Klíma was abroad in London. He could have stayed there, but he chose to return to his native Prague, explaining that “most of London’s street names have no associations for me.” Klíma, one of Bohemia’s leading writers, was used to living…
Many Jews try not to make a big deal out of the New Year–at least, the one that starts on January 1. After all, we’ve already celebrated the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, a few months ago. But in actuality, traditional Judaism loves the concept of New Years. In Talmudic Judaism, there are four New Years: one…
Here’s one part of the Wild West that the Frisco Kid never saw. Rabbi Harvey, the comic book character, lives in a frontier town. He works as the town rabbi, greeting townsfolk, prospectors, and visitors at a “Stump the Rabbi” stand on Main Street. Here, he answers questions–practical, philosophical, or otherwise–for five cents apiece.…
The self-described “street folk” band The Mongrel Jews plays old-fashioned folk and bluegrass music. Though they’ve started playing proper concert halls and touring, the trio still plays music on the corners of their native Seattle. Instrumentally, the trio is composed of banjo, washboard, and harmonica. Lyrically, they borrow elements from the gargley-voiced Leonard…
Kosher symbols, called hekshers, appear on all sorts of food, from meats and cheeses to potato chips and soft drinks. Some, such as a U or a K in a circle, are commonly known. But what if you found a kosher symbol in the shape of a hexagon? Or a circle…
