New series with celebrity seniors sharing stories, wisdom, and a few laughs while they navigate life under quarantine. SAN FRANCISCO – Comedic legend Carl Reiner offers the wit, wisdom and candor to help audiences navigate life under quarantine in the latest episode of the new digital series, Dispatches from Quarantine. The episode featuring Reiner premiered this week at Silver Screen Studios and on You Tube. Dispatches from […]

By PHILISSA CRAMER NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Astute viewers could find plenty of signs during the recent “Jeopardy!” Teachers Tournament that one leading contestant had some Jewish bona fides. There was the fact that Meggie Kwait teaches at Beit Rabban Day School, a Jewish school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. There was her covered hair, rare among game-show contestants […]

By EMILY BURACK NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – After winning an Emmy Award for the second straight year, Alex Borstein of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” movingly dedicated this victory to her Holocaust survivor grandmother, who defied the Nazis to stay alive. “Step Out Of Line!” “My grandmother turned to a guard … She was in line to be shot into […]

NEW YORK City (JTA) — The Tony Award nominations announced Tuesday, April 30, were dominated by “Hadestown,” a musical about the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice that garnered 14. One among the “Hadestown” nods was for best director for Rachel Chavkin, who is Jewish. She also had been nominated in 2017 for directing “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet […]

By MARCY OSTER NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Actress Carol Channing, who originated the starring role in “Hello Dolly!” on Broadway and won a Tony Award for her portrayal of the boisterous widow, has died. She was 97. Channing was the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Christian father and identified as “part Jewish.” At 16, she learned that her father […]

BY MARCY OSTER NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – From Michael Douglas’ Yiddish exclamation to more success for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” to Regina King’s Hebrew-letter tattoo, the 2019 Golden Globes had its fair share of Jewish moments. Rachel Brosnahan is not Jewish, but she does a convincing job playing a very Jewish woman in “Mrs. Maisel.” She won best actress in […]

By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Amos Oz would often speak in the kind of tossed-off epigrams that come only with a lot of practice. But just when you wanted to smack him for his breezy erudition, he would redeem himself with a flash of spot-on — and hilarious — self-awareness. Chronicling A Bridge Collapse In 2011, speaking at […]

By STEPHEN SILVER NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – When a huge auction was held at Sotheby’s in early December of items belonging to Frank Sinatra and his wife Barbara, the item that made the most headlines was one of the smallest: a hand-knit yarmulke, owned by Frank, which was purchased for nearly $10,000 by an unknown party. But untold, until now, […]

NEW YORK CITY (JTA) — A hand-crocheted yarmulke that once belonged to Frank Sinatra sold at auction for nearly $10,000. The black kippah, with musical notes and “Frank” decorating its border, was auctioned off by Sotheby’s on Dec. 6 in New York City as part its sale of items belonging to the estate of the singer’s late wife, Barbara. The […]