Category: NEWS

The Amazing Jewish Story Behind ‘Over the Rainbow’ “Saturday Night Seder” was an amazing testament to the beauty and power of American Jewry. Over the span of just two weeks, Benj Pasek (Dear Evan Hansen), Alex Edelman and a group of incredible Jewish (and non-Jewish) stars (including Andy Cohen andFran Drescher,to name but a few) created an amazing Jewish show based upon the ritual Passover meal. Filmed entirely while social distancing, the variety performance raised more than $2 million dollars for the CDC Foundation The entire show was a delight, but one segment really stood out as an emblem to the power and resiliency of American Jews: Ben Platt’s and Judith Light’s performance “Over the Rainbow,” a  song written by two sons of Jewish European immigrants for a movie that came out just two months after Kristallnacht. Platt’s rendition of the song is magnificent —  the Dear Evan Hansen star brings a powerhouse performance to every song he sings — but this one is particularly inspired. As he sings, Light, his...

The Best Revenge: Holocaust Survivor Celebrates Birthday at Kotel Shoshana Ovitz OBM was born in 1915 and she miraculously survived Auschwitz. After the war, she met her husband Dov, who lost his wife & children in the concentration camps. Together, they moved to Haifa, Israel where she worked as a tailor and helped her husband in his business. This photo was taken 2 years ago in August 2019 when Shoshana celebrated her 104th birthday. As a gift, she requested that her 400 descendants come together at the Western Wall. She passed away at 105 years old. ...

Beneath the sharp suit and tie, beneath the flowing rabbinical robes, beneath the serious professional demeanour, beneath the beating hearts of our President, Executive Officer and Rabbi, lurks an addictive and driven desire to don lycra and helmets :   CYCLE RIDE TO SOUTHPORT “Following a chance discussion at the recent St Annes Shul BBQ, Rabbi Danny Bergson, Howard Lipman and Robert Pinkus rode their bikes from St Annes to the end of Southport pier and back, a round trip of 100 km. At the end of the pier they met fellow Southport cyclist and shul member Mike Briers, and Gillian Moonman. The round trip took 8 hours and a great time was had by all!” ...

"The Angel of Auschwitz" At age 16, Gisella Perl had graduated first in her secondary-school class, the only woman and the only Jew. She asked her father to send her to medical school, but he refused at first, fearing that she might forget her faith. But Perl was determined, assuring her father she would remain observant. Her father relented, and Perl went on to gain her degree in medicine and establish a practice in Berlin. When the nazi party rose to power in 1933, Jewish doctors were stripped of their positions and purged from universities and government. Perl and her husband, Ephraim Krauss, and their two children returned to their native Hungary, where she became a beloved doctor. Life was peaceful, for a while. Perl remembered evenings listening to her son play violin, in their home near the Carpathian Mountains. That halcyon time ended when Germany invaded in March, 1944. Dr. Perl and most of her family were rounded up and sent to...

Lytham St Annes Beach Huts are like gold dust this summer - here's what you get Essentially it's a hut at the side of the beach, but it's not any old hut St Annes Beach Huts at Lytham St Annes (Image: St Annes Beach Huts and Apartments) If you've been to Lytham St Anne's over the last few years you'll have seen the beach huts lined up on the seafront. Chances are you'll have seen how busy they are too, particularly in the warmer weather. So much so in fact that you'll struggle to get your hands on one even if you want to this summer, as the only ones available between now and September are cancellations.   But what makes a small hut at the side of the beach so special? The M.E.N's Manchester Family went along to find out. Each hut comes with a small ship's table, bench seating and four folding chairs, to use inside or outside. (Image: St Annes Beach Huts and Apartments) So what do you get? You get...

A major Jewish communal survey is taking place right now, designed to gather data about the impact of COVID-19. Conducted by our friends at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), the survey is exploring the thoughts and experiences of Jews living in the UK who are aged 16 and over. If that applies to you and you haven’t already been asked to participate, we would like to invite you to sign up to their research panel and complete the survey.   Join Panel ...

Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images   Men wanted to sleep with her and women wanted to be her, but all Marilyn Monroe desired was a sense of belonging. Distilled to the public as a “blonde bombshell,” Monroe’s legacy continues to be defined by the demons (childhood trauma, drug addiction) that led to her demise. Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, Monroe died tragically at age 36 in 1962. And yet, she remains an icon today, forever remembered as Hollywood’s loneliest seductress. It’s no question that Monroe’s private life was troubled — up to and during the height of her fame — but the one thing that gave her comfort was her Judaism. Yup, you read that correctly: Marilyn Monroe was Jewish. An integral aspect of her identity, Monroe’s Judaism is often overlooked in favour of her scandalous relationships with the Kennedys, her drug use, and her nude photos that launched Playboy magazine’s success — and that’s a shande. This month marks the 59th anniversary of her mysterious death — her body...

  In Sweden, there is a fascinating statue of a woman named Danuta Danielsson who became a hero in 1985 when she used her purse to clobber a white Nazi supremacist while he marched in a right-wing rally. What makes her statue unique among hero statues is that it captures her performing the heroic act of swinging her purse. It’s entirely an action-shot, a big departure from the universal practice of constructing hero statues intended to portray individuals as heroes. Danielsson’s statue isn’t about her as a person; it’s about her one specific act of courage that day. Heroism, it could be argued, describes an action, not a person. All around the world, and especially in the United States, statues of slave traders, warriors, and profiteers are toppling to the ground. Once revered as heroes, these statued individuals have been exposed as villainous human rights violators. With this in mind, Danuta Danielsson’s statue should be one that remains uncontroversial. Her statue portrays a heroic act...

Lady Kitty, here's what to expect from your middle-aged Jewish man Mazeltov to Lady Kitty Spencer and Michael Lewis who wed last week - but does the aristocrat know the quirks of an older Jewish man? Angela Epstein is here to help Lady Kitty Spencer and Michael Lewis after their wedding (Photo: Instagram) So it’s a huge mazel tov to Michael Lewis — the 62-year-old Jewish businessman who has just tied the knot with Kitty Spencer in a lavish three-day Italian wedding. As the eldest daughter of Charles “blood family” Spencer, and niece of the late Princess Diana, there is now an aristocrat — noch — in the Lewis fold. He meanwhile is the second Jewish person to join the Royal mispoche — following Sophie Winkleman, married to Lord Frederick Windsor. As we digest the fag end of the simcha, via breathless coverage in Hello! magazine, perhaps it’s time the former Lady Spencer was given a steer on what to expect from marriage to a Middle-aged Jewish...

Marcel Marceau was known worldwide as a master of silence. The world-famous mime delighted audiences for decades as “Bip,” a tragicomic figure who encountered the world without words. But during World War II, his skills as a mime came in handy for another reason: He used them to save Jewish children during the Holocaust. Marceau was recruited to help the French Resistance by his cousin, Georges Loinger, a commander in the secret unit who was part of the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, a Jewish relief group that smuggled Jewish children from occupied France to neutral countries. Loinger, who was credited with saving around 350 children, died on December 28, 2018 at the age of 108. Marcel Marceau, circa 1950. Abraham Pisarek/ullstein bild/Getty Images Their mission was to evacuate Jewish children who had been hiding in a French orphanage and get them to the Swiss border, where they would sneak to safety. But travelling with large groups of children was anything but easy. Marceau had a secret weapon: His...