Archive for April, 2010

Sholom Rubashkin gave a tearful apology in court at his sentencing hearing this week over the criminal charges on which he’s been convicted. Prosecutors in the case have asked for a 25-year prison sentence, which, defense…

A young man wears his shtreimel on a brisk walk with his daughter so that her afternoon nap be a peaceful one.  I look away, I want to be alone. I walk on for a while and get to…

My cell phone vibrates. Nuchem taught me how to set it on vibrate when I’m in shul or, as I am now, at a simcha. Breindy wanted me to look around to see if it would be suitable…

BOOK REVIEW: Unlike most books, which I approach with an objective eye and mind, books about Hasidim instinctively arouse my jaundiced cynicism. My cynicism is justified: nearly every article or book or film about Hasidim gets it wrong. Most of these works are informed by presuppositions and stereotypes, and tend to overuse/misuse kitschy “Jewish”...
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Our esteem for the inestimable Baruch Herzfeld, Williamsburg bike lane advocate and Hasid-Hipster peacemaker, shot up when we read of his penchant for merengue dancing, complete with an article in Tablet magazine showing him with a…

in zebra patterned bodysuits

the dancers slither apart

shimmy in circles,

in odd jumpy steps

across the yawning space

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“Zah nisht kan naar!” thundered a voice about fifteen feet away. I turned to see a husky middle-aged clean-shaven man in a ragged suit jacket and mismatched pants conducting a domineering exchange with a bearded yingermann.

I was standing…

My name is Moishe: Male, Caucasian, age 26, five feet seven, circumcised, brown eyes, brown hair with a few strands of white. The guys call me Mo; often times Fat Mo, for the obvious reason. And why would I…

I hate weddings. And vorts and lechaims too.  I would have made some excuse, but the father is a friend of my husband’s and he’s some big macher in shul and so here I am sitting at a…

Where is the film
of the woman banging pans in rage
because her husband is late and the kids are fighting
or the man smiling because he caught the train
just in time
or…