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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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Hamas Warns Against Cooperation with US Relief Efforts In Bid to Restore Grip on Gaza
Hamas terrorists carry grenade launchers at the funeral of Marwan Issa, a senior Hamas deputy military commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip, Feb. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza has warned residents not to cooperate with the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as the terror group seeks to reassert its grip on the enclave amid mounting international pressure to accept a US-brokered ceasefire.
“It is strictly forbidden to deal with, work for, or provide any form of assistance or cover to the American organization (GHF) or its local or foreign agents,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
“Legal action will be taken against anyone proven to be involved in cooperation with this organization, including the imposition of the maximum penalties stipulated in the applicable national laws,” the statement warns.
The GHF released a statement in response to Hamas’ warnings, saying the organization has delivered millions of meals “safely and without interference.”
“This statement from the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry confirms what we’ve known all along: Hamas is losing control,” the GHF said.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May, implementing a new aid delivery model aimed at preventing the diversion of supplies by Hamas, as Israel continues its defensive military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group.
The initiative has drawn criticism from the UN and international organizations, some of which have claimed that Jerusalem is causing starvation in the war-torn enclave.
Israel has vehemently denied such accusations, noting that, until its recently imposed blockade, it had provided significant humanitarian aid in the enclave throughout the war.
Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians.
According to their reports, the organization has delivered over 56 million meals to Palestinians in just one month.
Hamas’s latest threat comes amid growing international pressure to accept a US-backed ceasefire plan proposed by President Donald Trump, which sets a 60-day timeline to finalize the details leading to a full resolution of the conflict.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that Israel has agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalize a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, though Israel has not confirmed this claim.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump next week in Washington, DC — his third visit in less than six months — as they work to finalize the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Even though Trump hasn’t provided details on the proposed truce, he said Washington would “work with all parties to end the war” during the 60-day period.
“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” he wrote in a social media post.
Since the start of the war, ceasefire talks between Jerusalem and Hamas have repeatedly failed to yield enduring results.
Israeli officials have previously said they will only agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms, and goes into exile — a demand the terror group has firmly rejected.
“I am telling you — there will be no Hamas,” Netanyahu said during a speech Wednesday.
For its part, Hamas has said it is willing to release the remaining 50 hostages — fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war.
While the terrorist group said it is “ready and serious” to reach a deal that would end the war, it has yet to accept this latest proposal.
In a statement, the group said it aims to reach an agreement that “guarantees an end to the aggression, the withdrawal [of Israeli forces], and urgent relief for our people in the Gaza Strip.”
According to media reports, the proposed 60-day ceasefire would include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a surge in humanitarian aid, and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, with US and mediator assurances on advancing talks to end the war — though it remains unclear how many hostages would be freed.
For Israel, the key to any deal is the release of most, if not all, hostages still held in Gaza, as well as the disarmament of Hamas, while the terror group is seeking assurances to end the war as it tries to reassert control over the war-torn enclave.
The post Hamas Warns Against Cooperation with US Relief Efforts In Bid to Restore Grip on Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UK Lawmakers Move to Designate Palestine Action as Terrorist Group Following RAF Vandalism Protest
Police block a street as pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather to protest British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans to proscribe the “Palestine Action” group in the coming weeks, in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
British lawmakers voted Wednesday to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, following the group’s recent vandalizing of two military aircraft at a Royal Air Force base in protest of the government’s support for Israel.
Last month, members of the UK-based anti-Israel group Palestine Action broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, a county west of London, and vandalized two Voyager aircraft used for military transport and refueling — the latest in a series of destructive acts carried out by the organization.
Palestine Action has regularly targeted British sites connected to Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems as well as other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza in 2023.
Under British law, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has the authority to ban an organization if it is believed to commit, promote, or otherwise be involved in acts of terrorism.
Passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 385 to 26 in the lower chamber — the House of Commons — the measure is now set to be reviewed by the upper chamber, the House of Lords, on Thursday.
If approved, the ban would take effect within days, making it a crime to belong to or support Palestine Action and placing the group on the same legal footing as Al Qaeda, Hamas, and the Islamic State under UK law.
Palestine Action, which claims that Britain is an “active participant” in the Gaza conflict due to its military support for Israel, condemned the ban as “an unhinged reaction” and announced plans to challenge it in court — similar to the legal challenges currently being mounted by Hamas.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000, belonging to a proscribed group is a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison or a fine, while wearing clothing or displaying items supporting such a group can lead to up to six months in prison and/or a fine of up to £5,000.
Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the recent attack, in which two of its activists sprayed red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyager aircraft and used crowbars to inflict additional damage.
According to the group, the red paint — also sprayed across the runway — was meant to symbolize “Palestinian bloodshed.” A Palestine Liberation Organization flag was also left at the scene.
On Thursday, local authorities arrested four members of the group, aged between 22 and 35, who were charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK, as well as conspiracy to commit criminal damage.
Palestine Action said this latest attack was carried out as a protest against the planes’ role in supporting what the group called Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
At the time of the attack, Cooper condemned the group’s actions, stating that their behavior had grown increasingly aggressive and resulted in millions of pounds in damages.
“The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton … is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action,” Cooper said in a written statement.
“The UK’s defense enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk,” she continued.
The post UK Lawmakers Move to Designate Palestine Action as Terrorist Group Following RAF Vandalism Protest first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US-backed Gaza Relief NGO Vows ‘Legal Action’ Against AP Claim Group Fired on Palestinian Civilians
Palestinians collect aid supplies from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-backed nonprofit operating aid distribution centers in the Gaza Strip, is pushing back forcefully against an Associated Press report alleging that its contractors opened fire on Palestinian civilians.
The GHF is accusing the AP of withholding key evidence and relying on a “disgruntled former contractor” as a central source.
“In response, we are pursuing legal action,” the organization said in a statement released Wednesday.
GHF said it conducted an “immediate investigation” after being contacted by the AP, reviewing time-stamped video footage and sworn witness testimony. The group concluded that the allegations were “categorically false,” stating that no civilians were fired upon at any of their distribution sites and that the gunfire heard in the AP’s video came from Israeli forces operating outside the vicinity.
“What is most troubling is that the AP refused to share the full video with us prior to publication, despite the seriousness of the allegations,” the statement read. “If they believed their own reporting, they should have provided us with the footage so we could take immediate and appropriate action.”
The nonprofit’s public rebuttal raises sharp questions about the AP’s reporting process, suggesting the outlet declined to engage with the organization in good faith and instead leaned on a source GHF describes as having been terminated “for misconduct” weeks prior. The group also claimed the AP’s recent coverage of its activities had begun to “echo narratives advanced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health.”
The AP has not yet responded publicly to the GHF’s accusations or provided clarification about its decision not to share the video footage before publication. The original report alleged that American contractors employed by GHF had fired weapons near or toward civilians.
The GHF statement confirmed that a contractor seen shouting in the AP’s video had been removed from operations, though the group insisted this was unrelated to any violence and did not constitute evidence of wrongdoing.
GHF, which describes its mission as delivering food to Gaza “safely, directly, and without interference,” said it remains committed to transparency but would not allow its operations to be “derailed by misinformation.”
The dispute highlights the fraught information environment in Gaza, where limited access and competing narratives frequently complicate the verification of on-the-ground events.
The post US-backed Gaza Relief NGO Vows ‘Legal Action’ Against AP Claim Group Fired on Palestinian Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.