Thursday, May 12, 2022

Good morning, New York. The New York Times has a piece about the 100th anniversary of “Abie’s Irish Rose” — a Broadway play about “a Jewish World War I veteran, his Irish Catholic bride and their disapproving families,” that ran for an unprecedented five years, despite terrible reviews. Don’t miss this delightful deep-dive. 

And, speaking of entertainment... 

Israeli celebrity chef Einat Admony is revamping the menu at Greenwich Village’s Olive Tree Café, the vaguely Middle Eastern restaurant that’s attached to the legendary comedy club the Comedy Cellar, and a place where comedians often gather. But the Balaboosta and Taim chef-owner isn’t just serving up excellent hummus — she’s performing standup sets as well.

We're also talking about...

Great debate: This week, online photo project Humans of New York featured a moving story about a Jewish trans teacher named DiCo. HONY readers have since donated $1.2 million to DiCo’s nonprofit, the Brooklyn Debate League. Read Philissa Cramer’s insightful interview with the former rabbinical student here. 

Green backers: New York philanthropists Michael Sonnenfeldt and Katja Goldman have donated $20 million to establish the new Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. 

Distant relatives: Brooklyn writer Joshua Cohen earned his Pulitzer Prize by parodying the relationship between American Jews and Israelis, writes critic Adam Kirsch.

Feeling Jew-y: Reviewing Malcolm Gladwell’s audiobook interview with Queens-raised singer-songwriter Paul Simon, Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin at Religion News Service asks: Is Paul Simon Jewish? Or Jew-ish?

Around the Jewish world

Is Anti-Zionism Antisemitism? (The New Yorker) 

Following Bat Sheva Marcus allegations, Orthodox feminist group will undergo an external review (JTA)

2022 sets the record in Jewish youth groups visiting Israel (Jerusalem Post)

15 ‘Righteous Gentiles’ lived in Ukraine when Russia invaded. An American Jewish group rushed to aid them. (JTA)

What's on today

Writing the Story: Exploring Family Holocaust Memoir

Thursday, May 12, 2:00 p.m. ET. Online.

The Leo Baeck Institute holds a panel discussion with authors Helen Epstein and Ariana Neumann, both children of Holocaust survivors, about what sparked them to write about their parents and grandparents, approaches they took, resources they used and what they discovered about their families on their journeys. Free.

Register here.

Spinoza's Philosophy

Thursday, May 12, 4:00 p.m. ET. In person.

At the Marlenee Meyerson JCC Manhattan, David Kleinberg-Levi discusses Spinoza’s ethics, his excommunication by the Amsterdam Jewish community, questions of his atheism or pantheism as well as his perfectionism as a matter of embodied ritual practice in mindfulness. Pay what you wish.

Register here.

This day in NYC History

Saul Steinberg, the Romanian-born American cartoonist and illustrator, died on this day in 1999 in New York at age 84. He was perhaps best known for a New Yorker magazine cover that put New York City at the center of the world (above). 

Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter incorrectly identified the year Irving Berlin died. It was 1989, not 1999.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day.

- The New York Jewish Week team

JTA / My Jewish Learning / Kveller / The Nosher / Hey Alma / The New York Jewish Week