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Alex Edelman, the summer’s hottest comedian, finds a tough Jewish crowd at a senior home
(New York Jewish Week) – When Alex Edelman arrived at a senior living home for a conversation about his solo Broadway show, “Just For Us,” in which the central narrative is what happened when the Jewish comedian infiltrated a white supremacist meeting in Queens, attendees were ready with questions.
But first, they had to get the important stuff out of the way.
“Where are you from?” one senior asked. When Edelman said Massachusetts, they specified what they meant — “No, what part?” “Brookline,” he answered. But that wasn’t enough either. “No, what street?”
Having cleared that up, attendees moved on. The conversation between Edelman, who sat at the front of a dining room of around 60 residents of Inspir Carnegie Hill, a luxury senior living facility on the Upper East Side, went a little something like this:
“Where did you go to camp?”
Edelman: Seneca Lake, Camp Yavneh, a hockey camp and a few others.
“Where did you go to college?”
Edelman: NYU.
“Did your parents ever want you to be a doctor or a lawyer?”
Edelman’s father is a doctor and his mother is a lawyer, “and they wanted me to be happy.”
“What does your shirt say?”
Edelman: “Jesus, the savior of a new generation,” written in the style of the Pepsi logo.
Silence.
The lesson of the day seemed to be that even a comedian who has ostensibly made it all the way to the top — that is, a major solo show on Broadway, national acclaim, a New York Times Critics pick and various celebrity endorsements on social media — can find a tough crowd.
A cohort of residents at Inspir had attended 34-year-old Edelman’s show on Broadway as a group earlier in the summer. Inspir is not a specifically Jewish home, but about 80% of residents are Jewish, Executive Director Sloane Limoncelli told the New York Jewish Week. Edelman’s show was the 18th that Inspir residents attended this year.
On Tuesday afternoon, Edelman paid a visit to answer questions and talk about the show, and once the crowd were satisfied with his bona fides, they asked questions about antisemitism, Israel, Broadway and how he got into comedy.
When asked what surprised him the most about doing a solo show on Broadway, Edelman answered that it was harder physically than one might expect.
“It’s actually so much harder to do the show in 1,000 seats than it is to do it in 200 or 100 seats,” he said. “It requires a lot more energy. Every two days my body gives me another sign that it would like to stop. Like I have a stye right now and I’ll get a headache or something in me will try to explode and I can feel my body being like, ‘Would you like to please stop with the cortisol already?’ I just need to hold on for another two weeks.”
(Edelman’s eight-week run at the Hudson Theater will close Aug. 19.)
Edelman also talked about the unexpected death, at age 43, of his director and collaborator, Adam Brace, shortly before the show moved uptown.
“My director, who was my closest friend, passed away a month and a half before the run started, so that has injected a sad amount of meaningfulness into it,” Edelman told the Inspir residents. “So it’s been a nice little tribute to him. I’m surprised when I think about him. I’ll be on stage a lot and think ‘Adam would like this’ or ‘Adam would be really annoyed by this.’”
Guests also wanted to know if it was uncomfortable for Edelman to make a comedy show about a topic as heavy as antisemitism and how his show stood in contrast to “Parade,” the Tony-winning musical about an antisemitic lynching that closed earlier this week.
“Right now, people have an appetite for levity,” Edelman said, while also lauding “Parade” and saying he was both excited and nervous that its writer, Alfred Uhry, came to see “Just For Us.” “I think the world needs a little more comedy, especially about complex issues. They’re too important not to joke about.”
Edelman only had time to stay at Inspir for half an hour, which was confusing for guests who were told he would be there for a full hour and also that he would perform. After the talk, Edelman left for work and the seniors moved into the lobby for snacks, chatting and live piano music.
For Maggie Burke, the talk was underwhelming. “He was not prepared,” she said. “I thought he would have something else to say.” She told this reporter to give the audience a lot of credit. “If we hadn’t been asking our questions, I don’t know what he would have talked about,” she said.
Plus, Burke was offended at an apparent error on Edelman’s part. “He said my friend Alfred Uhry was 93 — he’s only 86!” she said. Burke was involved in Uhry’s play “Driving Miss Daisy” in 1987.
Myra, a woman who attended the Q&A, said she saw “Just For Us” and said she enjoyed it. However, she was “disappointed” by the conversation that afternoon.
“I thought it was going to be funnier than it was,” Peggie O’Brien, a woman standing nearby, said. “That was kind of a big letdown.” O’Brien had not gone with the group to see the show.
“Not everybody in the audience is Jewish. I realize that that’s the crux of his jokes, but why not lighten it up just a little bit,” added O’Brien, who is not Jewish.
As for Edelman, when asked by the New York Jewish Week if this was his toughest crowd yet, he said “Oh my God, yes.”
He added, however, that it was “a very fair room,” and that the crowd was “tough but fair.”
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The post Alex Edelman, the summer’s hottest comedian, finds a tough Jewish crowd at a senior home appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Ilhan Omar Slapped With Ethics Complaint From Conservative Watchdog Over Holding Rally With Ex-Somali PM
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) participates in a news conference, outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, April 10, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Jim Bourg
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has been slapped with an ethics complaint by the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a conservative watchdog group, for holding an event with former Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire.
Last weekend, Khaire took the stage with Omar in support of her reelection campaign. AAF argued Khaire’s presence at Omar’s campaign rally constituted a violation of the US Federal Election Campaign Act and demanded the congresswoman step down from office.
“We are deeply concerned by Ilhan Omar’s illegal campaign rally with the former prime minister of Somalia. Omar already has a long history of statements indicating her disdain for America and allegiance to Somalia, but this goes beyond statements,” the AAF wrote.
“Now her campaign has taken action to involve a foreign leader in an American election. She must resign immediately and return every dollar raised for her at this disgraceful rally,” the watchdog continued.
The organization argued Omar potentially committed two infractions against the Federal Election Campaign Act.
First, AAF alleged that the congresswoman “knowingly accepted former Somalia Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire’s services at her campaign events.” They asserted this action exceeded the “limited volunteer services permitted by a foreign national and involves impermissible decision-making.”
Second, the watchdog claimed that Khaire was possibly “compensated by a prohibited source.” The organization suggested that Ka Joog, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that focuses on “empowering Somali American youth,” organized and funded Khaire’s trip to America. AAF argued that Omar likely “knowingly accepted a corporate contribution associated with Mr. Khaire’s travel and lodging costs” with the goal of boosting voter turnout among Minnesota’s Somali-American community.
During Omar’s campaign rally in Minnesota last weekend, Khaire gave an impassioned speech, urging the audience to vote for the congresswoman.
“Support her with your votes, tell your neighbors and friends, and anyone you know to come out and support Ilhan Omar,” Khaire said. “And knock on every door you can so that she can be re-elected.”
Khaire then added, “Ilhan’s interests aren’t those of Minnesota or the American people but those of Somalia.”
“No one is above the law — even members of the Squad” of far-left lawmakers in the US House, AAF president Thomas Jones wrote in a statement. “Not only were Khaire’s comments about Omar deeply disturbing, but the rally was also a blatant violation of US election laws. Omar must resign immediately and return every dollar raised by Khaire for her campaign.”
Omar’s campaign counsel David Mitrani denied that the congresswoman violated any elections laws.
“This ethics complaint is another attempt by the far-right to smear the congresswoman,” Mitrani told the New York Post.
“Congresswoman Omar’s campaign had absolutely no involvement in requesting, coordinating, or facilitating Mr Khaire’s appearance or his comments, and accordingly there was no violation of law,” he continued.
Khaire’s claim that Omar’s “interests” are with Somalia rather than the American people raised eyebrows, with critics pointing out that she has previously criticized the American Jewish community for supposedly maintaining “allegiance” to the government of Israel.
“I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” Omar said during a 2019 speech in reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying organization aimed at fostering a closer US-Israel relationship.
“Accusing Jews of harboring dual loyalty has a long, violent, sordid history,” said Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, in response to Omar’s comments.
During her five-year stretch as a US representative, Omar has emerged as one of Israel’s fiercest critics, repeatedly accusing the Jewish state of enacting “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians. She has supported the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, an initiative which seeks to economically punish and isolate the Jewish state as the first step toward its elimination.
The congresswoman came under fire after waiting a whole two days to comment on Hamas’ Oct. 7 slaughter of over 1200 people across southern Israel. Despite slow-walking a condemnation of Hamas’ atrocities, she was one of the first congresspeople to call for Israel to implement a “ceasefire” in the Gaza strip.
Omar enraged both Democratic and Republican lawmakers after she referred to Jewish college students as being either “pro-genocide or anti-genocide” while visiting Columbia University in April.
The post Ilhan Omar Slapped With Ethics Complaint From Conservative Watchdog Over Holding Rally With Ex-Somali PM first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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California Jury Convicts Neo-Nazi Who Brutally Murdered Gay Jewish Teenager
Samuel Woodward, recently convicted of the hate crime murder of 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein, a gay Jewish teenager from California. Photo: Orange County Sheriff’s Office
A jury in Orange County, California on Wednesday convicted a neo-Nazi of the hate-crime murder of a gay Jewish teenager he lured to the woods under the false pretense of a furtive hook-up.
According to court documents, Samuel Woodward — a member of the Neo-Nazi group the Atomwaffen Division — stabbed 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein over two dozen times in 2018 after pretending in a series of Tinder messages to be interested in a first-time homosexual encounter.
Bernstein was unaware of Woodward’s paranoiac and hateful far-right ideology, however. The now 26-year-old Woodward had withdrawn from college to join the Atomwaffen Division — whose members have been linked to several other murders, including a young man who killed his ex-girlfriend’s parents — idolized Adolf Hitler, and would spend hours on Grindr searching for gay men to humiliate and “ghost,” ceasing all contact with them after posing as a coquettish “bicurious” Catholic.
“I tell sodomites that I’m bi-curious, which makes them want to ‘convert’ me,” Woodward said in his diary quoted by The Los Angeles Times. “Get them hooked by acting coy, maybe then send them a pic or two, beat around the bus and pretend to tell them that I like them and then kabam, I either un-friend them or tell them they have been pranked, ha ha.”
In another entry, Woodward wrote, “They think they are going to get hate crimed [sic] and it scares the s— out of them.”
On the day of the killing, Woodward agreed to drive Bernstein to Borrego Park in Foothill Ranch, where he stabbed him as many as 30 times and buried him in a “shallow grave,” according to various reports. He never denied his guilt, but in court his attorneys resorted to blaming the crime on his being diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and feeling conflicted about his sexuality, LA Times reported. As the trial progressed, his attorneys also made multiple attempts to decouple Woodward’s Nazism from the murder, arguing that it was not a hate crime and that no mention of his trove of fascist paraphernalia and antisemitic and homophobic views should be uttered in court.
“No verdict can bring back Blaze. He was an amazing human and humanitarian and a person we were greatly looking forward to having in our lives, seeing wondrous things from him as his young life unfolded” the family of the victim, who has been described by all who knew him as amiable and talented, said in a statement shared by ABC News. “From this funny, articulate, kind, intelligent, caring, and brilliant scientist, artist, writer, chef, and son, there will never be anyone quite like him. His gifts will never be realized or shared now.”
With Wednesday’s guilty verdict, Woodward may never be free again. He faces life in prison without parole at his sentencing on Oct. 25.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post California Jury Convicts Neo-Nazi Who Brutally Murdered Gay Jewish Teenager first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Opinion: The folly of pro-Palestinian protesters screaming at Jewish teenage girls playing softball in Surrey, B.C.
Did the protesters even realize who would be on the field when they showed up?
The post Opinion: The folly of pro-Palestinian protesters screaming at Jewish teenage girls playing softball in Surrey, B.C. appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.