A Boxing Promoter’s Trickiest Move Is Observing the Sabbath Dmitriy Salita, a 37-year-old former welterweight, is the rare Orthodox Jew in big-time boxing and, as such, he observes the Sabbath. From sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, he adheres to the faith’s prohibitions on phones, television or internet, and perhaps most difficult for his line of […]
Netflix’s ‘Shtisel’ Is Binge-Worthy TV on a Strict Form of Judaism What makes the Israeli series “Shtisel,” such groundbreaking television is that the characters are the black-hatted, side-curled men and bewigged women of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, a group that is known in Hebrew by the umbrella term Haredim and includes Hasidim. It is an insular subculture […]
Fundamentally Freund: The Stirring Revival of Sicily’s Bnei Anousim – “More than five centuries after the forced conversion to Catholicism of large numbers of Sicilian Jews, followed by the expulsion of the rest, a nascent rebirth is well underway, as growing numbers of Sicily’s Bnei Anousim (“Marranos”) now seek to embrace the heritage of their ancestors.” […]
Dear Jew in the City- What’s the difference between Hasidic vs. Orthodox Jews? What about the Jews on Shtisel vs. Hasidic Jews? Thanks, Michael Dear Michael- Thanks for your question. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I haven’t seen (and have no plans to see) Shtisel, so I can’t address that. But I can address […]
Religious Jewish fathers don’t get a very positive portrayal in the media. On the side of fiction, there’s Tevye, from Fiddler on the Roof, who is strict and expects his family to obey him. There’s Shulem from Shtisel, who tries to limit his son Akiva and his dreams of being an artist. And then there’s […]
In June, Variety features editor, Malina Saval, penned an important article: Too Jewish For Hollywood: As Antisemitism Soars, Hollywood Should Address Its Enduring Hypocrisy In Hyperbolic Caricatures of Jews where she discusses how Jewish parts in movies are often played by gentiles, as Jews are considered too unappealing to be on screen. Additionally, Saval notes […]
