Love It. Fear It. Smear It.
Is 'Halachic' Going Mainstream?
Sitting Shiva for Spot?
A 'Crazy' Look at Paris Strip Palace
Boycotting Israel and My Olive Tapenade
From Esperanza to Shprintze
Israeli Gas Masks Help Get You High(er)
Was Adolf Hitler Leader or Follower?
Why My Daughter Isn't Bilingual — Yet
Preaching Lost Art of Fermentation
'Homegrown' Story of West Coast Jews
Remembering Mike Wallace
Sisters in Skivvies on the Lower East Side
An Anthem for LGBT Youth
Jewish Gangsters at the Mob Museum
Mayim's Most Important Role
‘Cabaret’ Comes to Tel Aviv
A Transsexual at Yeshiva University
'Strange' Evolution of Legendary Song
Kehinde Wiley Paints Israelis in Color
Nudge, Nudge. Wink, Wink.
Sweating in the Cleveland Schvitz
Berlin Film Festival Gets Serious, Mostly
Addicted to Aggadah
Why Do Men Write All the Baby Manuals?
Jewish Oscar Winners, From Allen to Zinner
Cleveland Rocks — Not Really
Raised Christian, But Jewish by Birth
Be My Israeli Valentine
The Jew and Hitler's Bug
Academy Awards Slideshow
Oscar Wins for ‘The Artist’; ‘Footnote’ Shut Out
The Jewess of 'Downton Abbey'?
The Allure of the Burka
Who Will Light Up Jewish Kids Lit?
Leonard Cohen's Old Whine in a New Bottle
Stephen Colbert vs. Maurice Sendak
X-Rated Dispute in Knesset
A Fraught Journey To Judaism
Bringing Real Bagels to the Motor City
Saying Mazel Tov in Mandarin
Strange Origins of David Cronenberg's 'A Dangerous Method'
How Jews Stayed in Good Spirits During Prohibition
The Word 'Jew' Has Fallen Out of Favor
Last Song of Hitler's Favorite Crooner
Making Foodie Resolutions for New Year
For the Glove of the Game
Adrienne Cooper Embodied Progressive Spirit
TV Ripped My Son From Reality
How Authentic Is ‘Porgy and Bess’?
Sandra Bernhard Shows Her Softer Side
Gimme Some New Time Religion
Tintin and the Anti-Semites
Gimme Some Old Time Gossip
Jewish Cookies Santa Would Love
The Hanukkah Bush and Christmas Dreidel
Techies rejoice: Steven Spielberg, the master of techie movies, is making a techie TV show.
At today’s Microsoft XBox event in Washington, the company launched their new product, XBox one, before announcing they were teaming up with the Jewish filmmakers to create a television series based on the Xbox-exclusive, first-person shooting game, “Halo.”
The show, titled “World of Halo,” will be an Xbox Live exclusive, following suite to companies which create original content for their products, like Netflix’s move with the “House of Cards” series.
Spielberg took the stage, digitally, after the announcement, to address the crowd of the new project, NBC reports.
“For me, the Halo universe is an amazing opportunity to be at that intersection where technology and myth-making meet to create something really groundbreaking,” Spielberg said.
Like most of us, the perfect night for Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman consists of one alone— and in flannels.
The self deprecating celebrity conveyed her idea of an awesome night in her new music video, “Perfect Night,” which is part of YouTube’s Comedy Week that kicked off this past Sunday.
In a perfectly auto-tuned voice that sounds like a more nasal Britney Spears, Silverman hilariously deadpans lines like, “tonight is the night, I’m gonna celebrate, stay at home order in, watch a movie, then masturbate.”
Black Eye Peas star Will.i.am pops in throughout the video via Skype to note Silverman’s expertise in “rocking them sweatpants,” “shaving them armpits,” and selecting a film of choice on Netflix (which is a Holocaust documentary, by the way).
She eventually retires to bed for a screening of a bizarre porno, but not before drinking coconut water and lathering in coconut butter.
Larry David has got himself a long beard and hair for his upcoming HBO film, “Clear History,” leaving the Jewish funnyman basically unrecognizable.
After watching the bald character on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for so many years, the character in his new film, out this August, resembles nothing of the personality of anal, self-inflicting, persona, just by the fact that he has hair— and lots of it.
The new trailer doesn’t have any dialogue so we don’t know for sure if there will be any David-isms, but film director Greg Mottola of “Super Bad,” said the movie has a lot of improv, according to New York Mag.
“Clear History” will also star Bill Hader, Jon Hamm, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Danny McBride, and Amy Ryan.
Ashton Kutcher met the parents.
Over the weekend, the Steve Jobs impersonator was spotted in London hanging out with the parents of his Jewish girlfriend, “Oz” star Mila Kunis.
The Hollywood power couple have been dating for about a year now, and this was Kutcher’s first time meeting the Kunis family, the Daily Mail reports.
Kunis’s parents, Mark and Elvira, were visiting their daughter in London, where she lives while filming her new movie, “Jupiter Ascending.” Things with the parents must have gone well because paparazzi snapped photos of Kutcher and Kunis happily holding hands as they went for a stroll around Hampstead on Sunday, with Kunis’s parents following closely behind.
This is somewhat of a big step for Kutcher and Kunis — only two months ago, Kutcher told Elle that he is extremely private about his relationship with Kunis and will do all that he can to keep it that way. Yet weeks later, he’s strolling around town, getting cozy with the family.
Perhaps trying to invoke the good fortunes of his Jewish ancestors, New York Knicks Power Forward Amar’e Stoudemire sported a yarmulke this past weekend, ahead of the Knicks sixth play-off game against the Indiana Pacers.
Attempting to bring some spirituality to the sport, Stoudemire, who found out his mother was Jewish back in 2010, was wearing a black velvet yarmulke when he spoke to reporters at a shootaround hours before the game Saturday morning.
When one reporter asked if he was wearing the religious item for good luck, Stoudemire responded with a “Shabbat Shalom,” according to the New York Post.
Stoudemire has turned to his Jewish roots in the past for some luck. In March, he put together a minyan before undergoing surgery for a fractured knee, and he wore a yarmulke and talit to his wedding back in December.
Unfortunately, the yarmulke did not bring Stoudemire any luck, as the Pacers beat the Knicks Saturday night, 106 to 99.
Maybe next time he should refrain from working on Saturdays.
Sleep with one eye open, Ron Burgundy—there’s competition on the set.
Jewish hiphop bombshell Drake is slated to star in the Anchorman sequel, alongside Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate.
Drizzy was spotted with the filming crew this past weekend in New York City, rocking the classic 1970’s look with an afro, classic sideburns, and leather-bomb jacket, according to the New York Daily News.
Other guest stars expected in “Anchorman: the Legend Continues,” out December 20, include Mr Kim Kardashian Kanye West, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, Amy Poehler, Harrison Ford, and Jim Carrey.
At the May 13 Emerald Isle Immigration Center’s 2013 Annual Robert Briscoe Award Ceremony at Manhattan’s 21 Club honoring Robert Astrowsky, assistant secretary of the United Federation of Teachers and Edward Grebow, president and CEO of Amalgamated Bank, EIIC chair Brian O’Dwyer told the assemblage: “At a bad time in Belfast, in a dark alley, a man was confronted by a thug: ‘Are ye a Catholic or a Protestant?’ The man replied ‘I am a Jew.’ The thug persisted, ‘Are you a Catholic Jew or a Protestant Jew?’” After the laughter subsided, O’Dwyer introduced the “dueling clergy” — Monsignor James Kelly, pastor of St. Brigid in Brooklyn and Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, of Temple Israel in Lawrence, N.Y. Both spoke passionately about the interfaith effort to help the devastated Jewish and Irish communities in the wake of “Superstorm Sandy.” With a twinkle in his eye, O’Dwyer joshed: “In typical Irish-Jewish tradition, we proclaim a winner, and this being an Irish room, the fix is in already.”
“I am so Reform, that the last kosher occasion I went to was my bris,” confessed Rabbi Rosenbaum who told of a “beautiful Russian ubermodel whom I converted who wanted Israeli citizenship. Here I was a Reform rabbi and, [just] my luck, at that moment, the Israeli rabbinate was not even accepting conversions by Orthodox rabbis in America!” After contacting Bibi Netanyahu’s office,” Rosenbaum said he was told: “ ‘With your involvement with the Emerald Isle [and] the Vatican,’ they didn’t want to piss off the Catholics so they accepted the conversion.” Msgr. Kelly countered with a bit about Irish guys making fun of “Old Jewish guys telling jokes” a reference to the Off-Broadway hit, “Old Jews Telling Jokes.” On a serious note, he informed, “in Ireland the prior week, the Irish government gave amnesty to those who deserted the Irish Army to join the fight against Hitler’s Nazi Germany…. Desertion in Ireland was very serious, but there was the fear that if Germany had invaded Britain, then Ireland would be next on the list.”
The annual Emerald Isle Immigration Center event honors Jewish leaders for their work in bettering the lives of immigrants. The event is named for Robert Briscoe, the former Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin (the honorific title for the chairman of the Dublin city council) who was raised Orthodox by his parents, who came to Ireland from Lithuania. Ben Briscoe, the mayor’s son and himself a former Lord Mayor of Dublin, flew in from Ireland to present the awards. In an Irish brogue, he mused about “following in my father’s footsteps…. You’ll never be as good as your father…. I think it’s a bad mistake for sons and daughters to ape their fathers and mothers.”
Getting on the comedy bandwagon, Ben Briscoe told of a constituent at the time his father was politically active who could not get in to the Irish police force because in those days “you had to be ‘perfect in wind and limb’ and the man had a bit of his thumb missing. When he petitioned, the applicant commented that Jews were allowed to join the force and ‘they got a little bit of them missing.’” Briscoe said: “The law was changed. True story.”
Gwyneth Paltrow hated the Met Ball.
“I’m never going again,” she told USA Today. “It was so un-fun. It was boiling. It was too crowded. I did not enjoy it at all.”
Did Beyonce’s enormous train take up too much space? Was Marc Jacob’s suit too shiny? Were there too many plebs gawking from the sidelines? Who knows.
Nevertheless, the actress vowed never again, after walking down the red carpet in a hot pink Valentino gown. We accepted it, and moved on.
But in case you were curious about what it takes to look that good at a party you hate, Gwynnie described the process of choosing and fitting her Valentino gown with stylist Elizabeth Saltzman in this week’s GOOP newsletter. Every sketch, stitch, styling, and agonizing shoe-decision is meticulously documented, and despite her declaration that “we’re all a little too old to dress up punk,” Paltrow didn’t have a single bad word to say about the whole thing.
“The Met Ball, at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is always the year’s most elaborate display of incredible fashion and this year was no different,” the post reads. “The theme was ‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’ and when the house of Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri asked me to join them, I was thrilled to see what they would create with my right fashion hand, Elizabeth Saltzman.”
“We got all inspired in the goop office about punk making a comeback through subtle influence and thus, we asked one of my absolute favorite websites, the most excellently curated SSENSE, to show us how we could work it into our spring/summer wardrobes,” she added.
Maybe hanging out with the bright and beautiful wasn’t so bad after all.
A contestant on Wednesday night’s “College Jeopardy” is probably hiding in a cave somewhere to keep from being hunted down by Steven Spielberg, after she giving an alarming answer to the following question: “Spielberg made a great film about this man’s list.”
Oops.
On Monday, TMZ photographed Farrah Abraham buying a pregnancy test.
The reality TV teen mom turned porn star was apparently worried that her antics with James Deen might have caused an unforeseen mishap.
Sources close to Farrah told TMZ that the former “Teen Mom” star hadn’t had sex with anyone other than Deen in over a year, and that the duo had not worn condoms during the shoot, despite Abraham not being on birth control. Smart.
Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be a publicity stunt to sell copies of “Farrah Superstar: Backdoor Teen Mom.”
Needless to say, sex-tape co-star James Deen was not happy.
“To say you’re potentially pregnant is not something to joke about,” Deen told Celebuzz. “When you knowingly involve another human being and a publicity stunt around that, a child is not something to be taken lightly. It’s not a game anymore and it’s really not cool.
“This is a type of publicity I do not agree with and I do not want to participate in,” he added. “Joking or lying or using pregnancy to get attention and media is not cool. It involves three people’s lives including the potential unborn child. It is not a subject to just throw around.”
Deen, who implied that the nature of the sexual act performed on the tape makes pregnancy a long shot, is conducting his own investigation into the matter.
“I spoke to the clinic where we both got tested before our scene along with my personal medical doctor regarding the subject. However, I am more concerned about the fact that Vivid told me she was on birth control. Had I known she was not taking preventive measures I would have never accepted the scene.”
Ultimately though Deen dimissed the whole thing as a list ditch attempt to squeeze out a couple more seconds of fame. “I personally think it is more hype and in time it will disappear,” he said.
If you’ve got an extra $20,000 a month lying around — and really, who doesn’t? — you’re in luck!
Kelly Bensimon, former star of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City,” is renting out her apartment in the Police Building at 240 Centre St., the New York Post reported. Occupying the fourth floor of the Beaux-Arts building, the three-bedroom, three-bathroom co-op unit is 2,600 square feet, with 17-foot ceilings and large windows. The owner is Bensimon’s ex-husband, photographer Gilles Bensimon.
Kelly Bensimon recently sold her Hampton beach mansion for $5.76 million, less than half the original $12 million asking price.
Sigh.
According to the Post, Douglas Elliman listing broker Steven Gold declined to comment.
The piano was tuned, the vodka was flowing and world renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin posed for photos with noshers and nibblers at the pre-concert reception of the YIVO Institute for Yiddish Research’s 12th Annual Heritage Gala at the Center for Jewish History on May 7. “Just as there is love at first sight, there is friendship at first sight,” said Elie Wiesel as he recalled his first meeting with Russian-born Kissin, the evening’s honoree. Recalling the cultural oppression of what he once dubbed, “The Jews of Silence,” a smiling Wiesel told the festive crowd that there is currently “ a million-strong Russian diaspora in America…in Israel. How can you not believe in miracles?”
Touting Kissin as “one of the greatest pianists in the world today who loves Yiddish,” Wiesel urged:“Listen to his poetry… What it meant to be a Jew in Soviet Russia!”
Following a dazzling performance of M. Milner’s “Farn Opsheyd” (Before Separation), Kissin, elegant in a tuxedo, stood in front of a background projection of a roster of Yiddish poets and their poems in English translation. In beautifully measured and articulated Yiddish, Kissin recited — from memory — ten love poems, ”each dedicated to a language—Yiddish.” The translated titles included Moyshe Kulbak’s “I Saw Yiddish Words,” Moyshe Nadir’s “Mother-tongue,” Itzik Fefer’s “Yidish,” Avrom Sutzkever “Yidish,” Binem Heler’s “In the Wonderful Language” and Evgeny Kissin’s own creation “Bobe-loshn” (Grandmother’s Tongue) and Forvert editor Boris Sandler’s “Moshl-kaposhl-shprakh” (Moshl-Kaposh Language).”
Addressing the assemblage, YIVO executive director Jonathan Brent, recognized a roster of local political personalities as well as guests from Israel, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Poland, Russia and guests from ”as far away as New Jersey and Brighton Beach.” He described YIVO’s breadth and multi-faceted range, informing that its heritage “is in many languages: Yiddish, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Rumanian, English — from Hassidism to Bundism, from psychoanalysis to phenomenology, from nigunim (melodies) to jazz. A single document can be in three or four languages, this is the texture and context of our world.”
“We honor Evgeny Kissin this evening because he embodies so much of this great heritage, so many dimensions of this invisible world, and [he] is living proof of its vitality and creative strength.”
The evening’s sponsors, noted Brent, were “The Russian Tearoom and Stolichnaya [vodka].”
The Cannes film festival conjured up the “Roaring Twenties” on Wednesday with a glamorous opening night premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby”, complete with dancers in flapper dresses on the red carpet and umbrellas to keep off the rain.
Nicole Kidman, a member of the jury at the biggest cinema gathering of the year, wore an off-white gown embroidered with spring flowers as she made her way into the Grand Theatre Lumiere past a wall of camera flashes and expectant fans.
“I’m going to blow away! I feel like Mary Poppins,” the Australian actress joked.
She and eight other members of a panel led by Steven Spielberg must decide at the end of the 12-day festival who wins the coveted Palme d’Or for best picture, one of the most coveted movie honours outside the Oscars.
The cast of “The Great Gatbsy” arrived to loud cheers with all eyes on Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby in the flashy adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel.
British actress Carey Mulligan, who plays the love interest Daisy, wore a low-cut, rose-coloured dress, while Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan, making his Hollywood debut in the film, sparkled in a black sequined dinner jacket.
Inside the huge theatre, and away from the rain, Spielberg received a standing ovation before introducing his jury.
“I expect to be surprised, I expect to be moved,” he said, referring to the 20 movies vying for awards presented on May 26.
The choice of “The Great Gatsby”, which is not in competition, for the prestigious opening night slot in Cannes surprised some as it is rare for the festival not to open with a world premiere.
Ah, Jews and the ’80s. Clearly a winning combination.
ABC’s fall lineup includes a time machine to society’s most amusing (or made-fun-of) decade, via “The Goldbergs.” There’s the typical Jewish mother Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey — whose bright purple eyeshadow is thickly painted on), gruff dad Murray (Jeff Garlin), crimp-iron abusing oldest sister Erica (Hayley Orrantia), awkward pasty middle child Barry (Troy Gentile — who really looks like a Barry) and wacky grandpa Al (George Segal).
Every loving (read: harsh and guilt-ridden) word is captured on videotape (it’s the ’80s after all) by aspiring director Adam (Sean Giambrone), who’s adult narrator voice sounds an awful lot like Patton Oswalt.
The show will provide Tuesday night comic relief from 9 p.m. to 10, airing right after the long-awaited “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
From what we can see in the trailer, it’ll either be incredibly amusing, offensive, or a combination of both, so long as the “Flava Flav” references are kept to a minimum.
What do you think? Watch the trailer below:
LOS ANGELES - Actor Zachary Quinto has transitioned swiftly from a television villain into an unlikely action film star in J.J Abrams’ rebooted “Star Trek” franchise, playing the series’ most recognizable half-Vulcan, Spock.
The 35-year-old actor, who gained fame as super-villain Sylar in sci-fi television series “Heroes,” will reprise his role as the pointy-eared first officer of the starship Enterprise in “Star Trek Into Darkness,” which will be released in theaters on Friday.
The actor spoke about the challenges of playing Spock and why he chose to go public about being gay.
Q: “Star Trek Into Darkness” has more action, set pieces and destinations than the 2009 reboot. Is that right?
A: You’re right. It’s a larger scale version of the “Star Trek” story. The first one was about re-conceiving people’s perceptions of “Star Trek,” and trying to infuse it with new energy. The self-contained and more intimate nature of that film made sense. Now, people are more familiar with us as these characters so this movie builds on that and expands on it.
Q: What is Spock struggling with in this film?
A: I think he’s learning how to be accountable and responsible to the people he loves and cares about. He is learning to embody and live the qualities of what it means to be a friend and what it means to be responsible to other people emotionally, because that’s not the place from which he leads. He needs to learn how to integrate that part of himself and honor the feelings he has for the people he loves.
Q: What do you learn from Spock on a personal level?
A: I have an inherent understanding to his nature, which is one of duality - the head versus the heart. That is certainly something I can relate to. As someone who has been considered pretty intellectual and wordy, I also have a deep well of emotional life. I understand what it means to be in constant relationship to both of those aspects of myself.
Q: Which of Spock’s qualities do you aspire for yourself?
A: The equanimity with which he deals with every situation in front of him, and the thoughtfulness and care he gives to measure his reactions. Sometimes I can be a little extreme in my reaction to something. I respect his reservedness and pensive consideration, which is an aspect of me but outweighed by my instinctual or impulsive reactions to things sometimes.
Stewart Rahr, pharmaceutical billionaire and self-styled “King of All Fun,” has reportedly agreed to pay a $250 million divorce settlement to Carol, his wife of 43 years.
According to the New York Post Rahr, 67, will hold on to the couple’s $45 million home in the Hampton, while Carol gets the $30 million Trump Park Avenue apartment. But all is not set in stone, as sources tell the Post that Rahr has yet to move out, and Carol has checked in to the Mark Hotel.
After Carol served him with divorce papers last December, Rahr rounded up Ben Brafman and David Aronson, whose firm repped Katie Holmes in her divorce from Tom Cruise, to serve as his lawyers.
The settlement ranks among the top 10 most expensive divorces in legal history, the Post reported. But still, small change for the orange-tinted playboy, who sold his business, Kinray, in 2010 for $1.3 billion.
Two words: prenuptial agreement.
“Late Night” just got a little more Jewish. A quarter Jewish, to be exact.
NBC has announced that “Saturday Night Live” writer-performer Seth Meyers will be taking over the show next year after current host Jimmy Fallon moves over to “The Tonight Show.”
“I am aware of the history,” Mr. Meyers told The New York Times before hosting “SNL” on Saturday. “Each chapter of my life has sort of been spent enjoying each of the guys who had the job. Letterman was sort of my first introduction to late-night television. And Conan was all through college and postcollege years. Jimmy, obviously, I think, does it as well as anyone could ever do it.”
Meyers, 39, will be working with SNL producer Lorne Michaels, who will also be executive producer to “The Tonight Show,” CNN reported. All three shows will be reunited at NBC’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a first since Johnny Carson moved “Tonight” to Burbank, California in the 1970s.
In an NBC press release, Meyers joked: “I only have to work for Lorne for five more years before I pay him back for the time I totaled his car. 12:30 on NBC has long been incredible real estate. I hope I can do it justice.”
It was chic, short and sleeveless at the “Women of Influence: The Event” reception at New York’s JW Marriott Essex House on May 7.
Following welcoming remarks by Jennifer Gross, chair, Women’s Executive Circle UJA-Federation of New York, emcee Bianna Golodryga, co-anchor, Good Morning America ABC News Correspondent, told the 250 guests: “As Jewish women, we lead by example…and it’s personal.” Thirty-three years ago her parents fled with her from the Soviet Union to Galveston, Texas. “They never let me forget who I was and where I came from.”
As event moderator, TV host Donny Deutsch, chairman Deutsch, Inc. . deftly challenged Elana Drell-Szyfer, CEO/General Manager of Ahava North America, Bonnie Fuller, founding president and editor-in-chief of HollywoodLife.com, Leandra Medine, “Man Repeller” fashion blogger and soon-to-be-published author and British-born fashion designer Charlotte Ronson, daughter of British personality and jewelry designer Ann Dexter Jones.
Tweaking the conversation with finesse and seychl (Yiddish for smarts), Deutsch’s queries and tidbits of male insight added edge to the dialogue. “Why [are] no women under 35 in the corporate top rung?” he asked. Ronson replied: “I feel I am lucky. I don’t work in corporate America. I lived and created in my own bubble.” Fuller answered, “American corporations need to do more to support women… The female brain is just as intelligent as the male.” Drell-Szyfer’s observation was that “just because a woman works hard and stays late in her cubicle does not mean she will get noticed. You still have to ask for it. It’s a hard thing to learn.”
When you think Sidney Poitier, many things come to mind: “In the Heat of the Night,” first black actor to win an Oscar, legend…
“Jewish” isn’t one of those things. And yet surprisingly, the main character in his debut novel, “Montaro Caine,” is Jewish, as are many of the characters.
What’s more, in an interview with CBS’s Leslie Stahl on Sunday, Sidney Poitier revealed an unlikely connection to the Tribe: the man who taught him to read.
Poitier described how sent from his home in the Bahamas to live with his older brother in Miami at the age of 15, he made his way to New York City, where he started dabbling in acting. Managing on only two years of school, the legendary actor struggled to read the scripts.
Until one day, working as a dishwasher to make ends meet, he met his Jewish mentor. That chance encounter, Poitier told Stahl, changed his life.
“There was one of the waiters, a Jewish guy, elderly man, and he looked over at me and was looking at me for quite awhile. I had a newspaper, it was called Journal American. And he walked over to me, and he said, ‘What’s new in the paper?’ And I looked up at this man. I said to him, ‘I can’t tell you what’s in the paper, because I can’t read very well.’ He said, ‘Let me ask you something, would you like me to read with you?’ I said to him, ‘Yes, if you like.’
“Now let me tell you something: That man, every night, the place is closed, everyone’s gone, and he sat there with me week after week after week. And he told me about punctuations. He told me where dots were and what the dots mean here between these two words, all of that stuff.”
He took you through high school,” Stahl replied.
“Yes, he did,” said Poitier. “And it wasn’t for long. I learned a lot. And then things began to happen.”
Read the full interview here.
No Woody Allen glasses for you!
An Orthodox Brooklyn yeshiva has decreed that thick, hipster-like frames are too trendy and modern and banned the students from wearing them, the New York Post reported.
Borough Park’s Bobover Yeshiva B’Nei Zion explained its reasoning behind the ban, in a recent letter written in Yiddish issued to parents of students. “We are asking that everyone buy simple glasses,” the letter read. “What we have to commit ourselves to is we have to stand on top of this and not tolerate the new modernism.”
Apparently the fourth through 12 graders and the older rabbinical students had taken a shine to the thick brightly colored plastic frames favored by their secular Williamsburg neighbors. Though school officials admitted to the Post that regulating glasses is difficult because of constantly evolving trends, they all agreed that these particular frames “give the child a very coarse look.”
“The good deed that accompanied the Jews in Egypt was that they didn’t change their names and clothes, and this same strength is still accompanying us and maintaining us in exile — in all generations,” the letter, posted by the blog Failed Messiah, reads.
The school forbids any child wearing these types of glasses to attend classes, and demands that parents force their kids to exchange the offending eyewear for simpler frames.
According to the Post, two Borough Park stores, Lumiere Eyewear and MS Optical, have already obliged. An employee of the latter shop told the Post that officials from the school had recently inspected the premises to make sure that the simple, acceptable glasses were displayed separately from the bold plastic ones.
“They basically said these are the Hasidic ones — and those are not,” the employee said.
This fashion advice is somewhat contrary to the one given given in Israel last year when Ultra-Orthodox entrepreneurs started selling extra-thick lensed glasses to blur out immodest women who might be wandering around the neighborhood.
Nerds, beware.
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Baby Boomers’ Rocky Road to Jewish Love
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