By Bill Simons
Recently, as I was about to undertake “immersive” research in New York City’s Jewish delis, several kibitzers provided food for thought. From cousin Robert came shared memory and experience: “I was at Katz’s a few years ago and could go daily – those latkes, the …
By Arieh Ullmann
On our recent visit to Zurich for a family celebration, I took advantage of the stay in my hometown to visit an exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Hakoah soccer club Zurich (FC Hakoah) where I had played in the 1950s and 1960s, first as a ju…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
The Allegheny Mountains of Appalachia are not the easiest place to be Jewish. For example, Jean, one of the two narrators of “Take What You Need” by Idra Novey (Viking), recalls a classmate asking to see her horns. But Judaism generally takes a backseat in Nove…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
The documents and manuscript fragments found in the Cairo Geniza offer scholars a treasure trove of information about life in medieval Egypt. However, as Oded Zinger notes in her “Living With the Law: Gender and Community Among the Jews of Ancient Egypt” (Univer…
By Bill Simons
Over the past half-century, Steven Spielberg arguably ranks as the most significant and influential American film director, as well as a protean producer. Spielberg has created more blockbusters than any other filmmaker, past or present. Embracing multiple genres, his movies…
