Shabbat Shalom, New York. Every Friday, The Jewish Week emails a recap of the week’s best stories, which you can print out for offline reading. Register here for “The Jewish Week / End”. Get today’s issue here.
OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION
The highly transferable Delta variant continues to “burn” through New York City, 4 New York Reports.
- All five districts of the city are “high transmission” areas where additional precautions should be taken against COVID-19, including universal indoor masking, according to the CDC.
- Existing vaccines have proven to be effective protection against the variant.
Here’s how the synagogues in NYC are adapting to the High Holidays approach:
- The Jewish Center in Manhattan recommends that all persons, including those who have been vaccinated, wear masks in the synagogue. All unvaccinated people and children who are not vaccinated must wear a mask.
- Kehilath Jeshurun parish will hold an outdoor service on the high holidays in addition to the indoor services.
- Beit Simchat Torah parish says they “hope” to offer personal high holiday services with limited seating for those who are fully vaccinated. In any case, the services are streamed live.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
A new show from the creators of “Fauda,” which launches today on Netflix, takes place in Tel Aviv and New York City.
- “Hit & Run” plays Lior Raz, the ball-headed hero from “Fauda”, who plays a former Israeli secret service agent who tries to solve the murder of a loved one.
- “This show is about grief and loss and chase and revenge,” Raz told the New York Post. Our colleagues at Kveller have information about the new series.
A new documentary about a college student’s relationship with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict opens today at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image.
- “The Viewing Booth” focuses on an American Jew who often reacts defensively to videos of clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians.
- “We all bring our own prejudices into the things we see,” says the film’s Israeli director, Raanan Alexandrowicz, to our colleague Andrew Lapin.
- Alexandrowicz and Maia Levy, the subjects of the film, will be personally at the museum on Sunday. Details here.
BEYOND THE AUTHORITY
Long Island Jewish leaders and parents saved a local day school by buying it.
- The Hebrew Academy of Nassau County planned to close their Plainview Elementary School to expand their West Hempstead campus. Instead, they sold the school to local executives who wanted to hire the same staff and rename the school The Mercaz Academy.
- “This school is an integral part of Jewish life in central Long Island,” a Mercaz supporter told The Jewish Week.
WHAT ELSE
President Biden elected Chanan Weissman as the White House liaison with the Jewish community – a role the Baltimore native played in the final months of Obama’s presidency.
A call to “defuse” Hillel at Rutgers University never happened, JTA reports: Jewish leaders seemed too eager to believe the worst about pro-Palestinian activists on the contested campus.
Ruth Pearlwho devoted the last part of her life to preserving the legacy of her son Daniel, a journalist murdered in Pakistan, died at the age of 85.
FOOD
Our colleagues at The Nosher remember the New York story of Gold’s horseradish.
- The company was founded in the Brooklyn home of two Jewish immigrants, Hyman and Tillie Gold. (Hyman inherited his horseradish grinder from a cousin who sold the root on the streets of Borough Park and somehow ended up in jail.)
- After years in Brooklyn and Hempstead, Long Island, the descendants of the Golds sold the brand to LaSalle Capital, a Chicago-based investment firm, in 2015.
THE BIG IDEA OF TODAY
“Jackie Mason owed the rise, fall, and rise of his career to his audience’s perceptions of his Judaism, ”writes Andrew Silow-Carroll. When the theater goers finally hugged him, it was because he reminded them of a Jewish ethnic identity that was quickly disappearing.
SHABBAT SHALOM
A misinformation industry has spread distrust of executives, institutions and the media. This week’s Torah portion suggests that critical thinking is required to distinguish between trustworthy messengers and false prophets, writes Rabbi Ben Goldberg.
WHAT’S UP
International Ladin singer / songwriter Sarah Aroeste, Accompanied on the piano by long-time Israeli collaborator Shai Bachar, she draws on her family roots from Macedonia and Greece while she performs traditional and original Ladin songs. Attend this concert, presented by the Museum and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, in person or watch the live stream from home. Find out more and register here. Sunday, 3:00 p.m.
JCRC-NY Presents Jewish Heritage Night with the Brooklyn Cyclones against the Hudson Valley Renegades. The $ 16 entry package includes a limited edition Jewish heritage, a Brooklyn Cyclones cap, and a $ 5 donation to the JCRC. Get your tickets for the game at Maimonides Park on Coney Island here. Sunday, 4:00 p.m.
Photo above: Lior Raz in a scene from the new Netflix series “Hit & Run”, which is set in Tel Aviv and New York City. (Jojo Whilden / NETFLIX © 2021)