Jewish Harry Potter
(Below are some impressionistic thoughts not based on any recent or detailed reading of either the books or the films.) J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has been criticized for “its complete lack of sexual identity, gender and religious diversity” given that all of the “main characters are all white, Christian, cisgender and heterosexual.” What is […]
Howard Jacobson, Prestwich and Me
Sue Fox reflects on her hometown connections with the author Howard Jacobson. The writer, Howard Jacobson, who is older and much cleverer than me acquired his sense of humour in North Manchester. He grew up streets away from our Prestwich home, in Bowker Vale. It now has a MetroLink Station on the route from Piccadilly in […]
A Revolt Against Jewish Body Shaming
Yvette Deane writes about the Iraqi Jewish punk rock band challenging notions of beauty and Jewish power. On the fifth night of Hannukah, Loolwa Khazzoom released her latest single, “I Love My Jew Fro.” Khazzoom and her punk rock band, Iraqis in Pajamas, opened the song with a Hebrew poem, Ya Hasel Yona Mehaka, traditionally […]
A Serious Man’s Bar Mitzvah
Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel reflects on A Serious Man as it approaches its thirteenth-year anniversary. Here, I offer my original review (slightly edited) in retrospect, followed by a postscript in which I add some thoughts. I have not found reason to reconsider what I originally said. I confirm my past observations with a tribute to the […]
Seinfeld Yomi: The Contest
Jarrod Tanny shares another of his daily Talmudic discussions of the sitcom Seinfeld. “THE CONTEST”, s4e9, first aired on November 18, 1992. GEMARAH: Fellow Sages, let’s get started, said Rav Huna convening the meeting. The reason I sent out an advanced notice to prepare for our shiur is because our subject for today, “The Contest,” […]
Israel and Covid
Sue Fox charts the hassle of flying to and from Israel in the age of Covid. Israel here we come. Never mind PASSENGER LOCATOR FORM, what I need is a brain locator form. Flights to Israel were bought pre-Covid. It was barely two years ago but I seem to have aged another decade. When Israel […]
The Jewishness of ‘A Clockwork Orange’
Nathan Abrams explores the underlying Jewishness of Kubrick’s notorious 1971 film. ‘So what is a nice Jewish boy from The Bronx like Stanley Kubrick doing making bizarre films like “A Clockwork Orange”’? Craig McGregor asked in the New York Times, referring to the controversial movie which was released fifty years ago today. One of the reasons was that it dealt with Kubrick’s long-term […]
A Jewish Panther
Aidan Beatty reviews a new biography of Meir Kahane. It is now generally well recognised that America has never recovered from the 1960s; the Civil Rights Movement brought about the dismantling of Jim Crow segregation in the South but that was then replaced by the mass incarceration and unreformed police brutality that Black Lives Matter […]
The Kosher Beatles
As The Beatles: Get Back streams on Disney+, Nathan Abrams considers the Beatles’ Jewishness. As we know, beetles are not kosher but maybe the Beatles are. Let’s put this in context. Liverpool, where the Beatles hail from, has been a magnet for Jews since the eighteenth century. According to JCR-UK, there have been over 20 […]
Jewish Maternal Journal
Laura Godfrey-Isaacs celebrates the powerful legacy of journaling by Jewish women and girls. When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! But, and that’s a big question, will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer? — […]