Jewish Blogs

Major League Dreidel Gives News Spin to Old Hanukkah Game

When it comes to Hanukkah there’s really only been one traditional way to play Dreidel. The four sided spinning top has four Hebrew letters on it. Each letter tells you what to do if it lands on that letter — you win, you get half, etc. It might be fun the first time you play, but after several years of ...

Maggid: A Blueprint For Self

Magid begins with the words “Ha lachma anya, This is the bread of poverty.” In what sense ismatza the bread of poverty? The Maharal explains that matzah is a simple food. It contains only two ingredients: flour and water. We should approach Pesach with simplicity. Simplicity implies bitul hayesh, self-nullification. Self-discovery entails going back to being ourselves, which is what liberation is about. Animals have no ...

Madoff Vouches for Mets Owners Wilpons and Katz

Does anyone want Bernie Madoff to vouch for them? Oy, bad idea, that makes no sense at all.Lets apply Talmudic interpretation to the story below. Our premise is that it’s a confessed and proven fact that Madoff is the world’s biggest liar.When Madoff says that Mets owners Wilpon, Wilpon and Katz knew nothing about his scam, we Talmudically interpret that ...

Madoff Music

Yeah? You thought were done with Bernie Madoff? Well think again! Because we are only getting started. This week, Six Points announced its fellows for 2010. And let me tell you, they do not disappoint. To prove this, you have to look no further than the project of Alicia Jo Rabins, of Girls in Trouble fame.Why don’t we have to look any ...

Madoff Drama at the Garage Theatre at FDU in Teaneck: October 25 to November 11

Our first play of the season is Imagining Madoff by Obie – Award winning playwright Deborah Margolin. It is a provocative, compelling and somewhat controversial piece. When Ms. Margolin sent Elie Wiesel the original version of the script that fictionalizes Wiesel’s real life betrayal by Bernard Madoff, the renowned author wrote back, threatening to take legal action against any production. ...

Madoff and his Jewish Friends Merkin, Chais, Levy, Shapiro and Picower

Yes, as we have said from day one of the scandal, Bernie Madoff is a Jew. Using the opportunity afforded her by the release of a new book by a New York Times reporter (Diana Henriques, “The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust”), Jane Eisner of The Forward now reminds us that Madoff’s biggest investors and ...

Macy’s and Israel

At the turn of the twentieth century, two of the wealthiest and most famous men in America were a pair of Jewish brothers named Nathan and Isidor Straus. Owners of R.H. Macy ‘s Department Store and founders of the A&S(Abraham & Straus) chain, the brothers were multimillionaires, renowned for their philanthropy and social activism.In 1912, the brothers and their wives were touring Europe, ...

Ma, What Does S&M Mean?

Like some of you out there, I wasn’t allowed to listen to “Non-Jewish music” as a kid. My father was allowed of course, but that was because he lied to us about it. Looking back, that seems to have been the general idea of chinuch in our house. Anyhow, the reason I bring this up is because I constantly hear complaints about ...

Lucy Kramer Cohen: A Public-Spirited Woman, A Private Inner Life

Ever dream of making a film about someone you wanted the world to know more about? I did, and after ten years, I have completed A Twentieth Century Woman: Lucy Kramer Cohen 1907-2007 about the life of my aunt. It started out as a family project, but as the years went by, I found it was a story that resonated with me ...

Lucky Loser

Contests aren’t really my thing. I don’t buy lottery tickets or wager on sports (or, for that matter, even know much about them; until recently I thought Miami Heat was, well, a straightforward description, with the upper-case “H” a nod to the humidity).Once, though, nearly thirty years ago, I put my name into play for a truly special prize. It ...

Louis Danto: A Recollection of My Favorite Cantor

Recently in my research for my current book, I learned that the great cantor Louis Danto passed away this year July 23, 2010 at age 81. Here is my recollection of the chazan extraordinaire, from a working draft of the chapter on the “performer” in my current book project.Cantor Louis Danto was a happy Hazzan. His chanting was upbeat and ...

Lost and Found in Brooklyn

This past weekend I was lost — and found — in Brooklyn.My Sunday began with an appearance on a panel about the Arab Spring at the chic, hipsterish Brooklyn Book Festival. It was an animated discussion, and my fellow panel-members were amiable, but I felt lonely, very much in the minority as I spoke out against the brutal attack on the Israeli ...