For many years during the Passover seder I have struggled with how to handle “the wicked son.” We are told that there are four sons: wise, wicked, simple and one who doesn’t know how to ask. Says the hagaddah: “What does the wicked son say? ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’ To you and […]
Curb Your Enthusiasm just aired its series finale this week, which gives me an opportunity to discuss a question that’s been on my mind for some time: is Larry David’s representation good for the Jews? Let’s start off by stating the positive – the man is hilarious and a comedic genius. I never watched the […]
Last year, at a car rental company, a Muslim man from Iraq who was bringing us our car, noticed my younger son, who looks the most like me of all of our children, replete with olive skin. It was the end of January, and even so, both my son and I looked brown. The Iraqi […]
I had the privilege of seeing Harmony last night, the final week before the show closes in an unfortunately short run. The production opened in mid-October and is having its last performance on February 4. While the show was created well before October 7, 2023, it’s almost like the writer knew how deeply the themes […]
2024: Sects, Lies and Videotape: Debunking deadly tropes about Jews and Israel in TV, film and media Jewish power and blood libels are millennia old tropes. Jews as “white Europeans” is a neo-Nazi canard that has shockingly been bolstered in Hollywood. This panel will explore the origin, danger, and use of these myths against Jews […]
At the start of the new year, The New York Times published a piece called, “I Left My Faith. God Didn’t Flinch.” The writer speaks about her journey from a modern orthodox girl to an openly queer nonbinary individual. She journals about the transition and the way Judaism presents in her life today. While I’m […]
