AMHERST, Mass.– Though the Yiddish Book Center’s building in Amhearst is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organization is offering a lineup of virtual public programs, which will be broadly accessible through Facebook and Zoom and posted on the Center’s website. Highlights of the virtual program lineup include a multimedia presentation by David Mazower on the NYC salon of […]

By BABETTE DUNKELGRÜN (JTA) – In Season 2 of the Hulu comedy “Shrill,” based on the book by Lindy West, there’s a restaurant scene in which the central character’s mom closely monitors her daughter’s food intake. It’s clear the tendency is familiar — even in their relationship as adults, the mother discloses her almost political stance against dessert and bread […]

By SHIRA HANAU NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Simmy Cohen has hardly read from the Torah since his bar mitzvah. When he’s not working at his marketing job from his home in Queens, New York, Cohen spends far more time these days reading children’s books to his 13-month old daughter. But with a spark of comedic genius and perhaps a […]

By SAM GLASER An excerpt from The Joy of Judaism On the first night of Nissan, we start counting until the moon is full on the fifteenth. This is Seder night, our annual birthday party as a nation. Some 3000 years ago, we were an enslaved people yearning for liberation from a decadent tyrant. Thanks to the genius of the […]

By ALAN GRABINSKY NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Unlike Shanghai or Hong Kong, which received Jews fleeing from World War II, Beijing does not have a robust Jewish history. In the words of Joshua Kurtzig, former president of the Reform congregation there, the massive Chinese capital is a “very transient city,” especially for Jews — meaning that many pass through without […]

By MARCIE OSTER NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Woody Allen’s memoir was released Monday, March 23, less than two weeks after it was dropped by its original publisher. Arcade Publishing published Apropos of Nothing,” The Associated Press has reported. The Hachette Book Group had announced on March 5 that it would cancel the publication. The book had been scheduled for release […]

SCHENECTADY–Sarah Hurwitz, author of Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life and in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There) will lecture on Tuesday, March 24, at 7 p.m. at Temple Gates of Heaven, 852 Ashmore Ave., Schenectady. The program is part of the congregation’s Adult Ed Talks “Read the Book—Meet the Author Series.” Rabbi […]

AMHERST, Mass.– To mark its 40th anniversary in 2020, the Yiddish Book Center has announced the launch of Decade of Discovery, a major new initiative designed to foster a deeper understanding of Yiddish and modern Jewish culture. Beginning in 2020, and continuing for each of the next 10 years, the Center will select an annual theme around which events, courses, conferences, […]

By FAYGIE HOLT (JNS) – There must be something about Jewish heroes of late. Not only is one featured in a new Hallmark Channel movie, “Holiday Date,” two were recently featured in romance novels from Harlequin’s Super Edition imprint. The latest, Holiday by Candlelight by Laurel Greer, is set around the December holiday season. It features a Jewish hero who has moved to a small […]

Memoirs of a False Messiah is Pamela Becker’s debut novel. Originally from New York, she has enjoyed a career as a marketing executive and consultant for several of Israel’s leading technology companies. After she was widowed with three small children, she co-founded and remains the active chairperson of the Israeli charity Jeremy’s Circle, which supports children coping with cancer treatment […]