Iconic Jewish comedian Jackie Mason, z”l, who passed away last weekend at the age of 93, was the classic Borscht Belt performer. Born Yaakov Moshe (Jacob) Maza to an Orthodox family, Mason came from a long line of rabbis but made his impact not in the pulpit but in comedy. He received semicha and briefly practiced as a rabbi, but

On Monday morning, as our team began to prepare a report about Unilever-owned Ben & Jerry’s decision to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, we were stopped in our tracks by our advertiser and friend Dani Secemski of Teaneck’s Glatt Express Supermarket. While many people had started posting about the sour

A fashion designer once said, “Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” While there is truth to this statement throughout the year, it is particularly accurate this Shabbat, known as Shabbat Chazon, the Shabbat immediately preceding the fast of Tisha B’Av.

According to Rabbi

In last week’s edition, we published an article about our editor Elizabeth Kratz winning what is known in Jewish journalism as the Simon Rockower Award, for an article she wrote last July.

For those who don’t know or didn’t read the article last week, the Rockower Awards are sponsored by

With graduation season behind us and day camps, sleepaway camps and summer programs all starting in the past week or so, and as the weather has gotten even hotter this past week, perhaps you are planning your summer getaway or have already arrived at the beach or the mountains.

Wherever your favorite

Last month, the Maimonides Fund, with distribution assistance from the Jewish Insider, launched the first of four planned 2021 limited edition print and online issues of Sapir Journal (sapirjournal.org). The journal seeks to address the future of the American Jewish community and its intersection with cultural, social and political

Last month, as rocket fire from Gaza began raining down on the Israeli civilian population, social media memes, insults, horribly antisemitic statements and even blood libel on the cover of The New York Times began raining on the world’s Jewish population. The only difference was that Hamas’ rockets largely stopped as the IDF fought

About 11 years ago, my wife and I, along with our immediate family, spent a crowded but memorable Sukkot together with my in-laws at their old home in Montreal. Over what would be one of the last all-family Montreal Sukkot with all of my in-laws’ family, including all our nieces and nephews, we gathered together in my in-laws’

Many families with graduating seniors, middle schoolers and even kindergarteners are celebrating this strange school year’s conclusion with immense joy and thanksgiving. What a year it has been!

The vaccine that is slowly but surely bringing us back to one another is a blessing indeed, and we are so

Most of us know, intrinsically, that there is such a thing as objective truth as opposed to opinion, or perspective, or even “lived experience,” despite what The New York Times prints as their version of the news. Without invalidating that there is a vast array of legitimate opinion, perspective and lived experiences, pro and con, on

Assemblyman Gordon Johnson has served honorably in the New Jersey State Assembly since 2001. With the retirement of Senator Loretta Weinberg, I am pleased to support him in his candidacy for State Senate, for the primary election being held on June 8, 2021.

I have had the privilege of knowing Johnson for

Our work is cut out for us. American Jews are losing the street fight for Israel, a fact we all realized quite abruptly this past week. This affects any Jew anywhere—on social media, in a pizza store, on a walk on Shabbat in Teaneck or Brooklyn, even sitting in a car in traffic. If we have any Jewish identifier, a kippah maybe, or a skirt