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‘The Gett,’ a play about Jewish divorce, stems from an unlikely marriage between a Brooklyn synagogue and a theater company
(New York Jewish Week) — Despite being named for a Jewish bill of divorce, ‘The Gett” is a new off-Broadway play that began as a marriage between a Reform synagogue in Brooklyn and a West Village theater company that specializes in “diverse, challenging and provocative” works.
At Park Slope’s Congregation Beth Elohim, Associate Rabbi Matt Green had been trying to expand programming for “cultural Jews” — those who don’t necessarily feel religious or connected to a denomination, yet know they are Jewish and want to be Jewish.
Meanwhile, at the Rattlestick Theater, artistic director Daniella Topol had just put on a play about the Catholic nuns who started downtown’s St. Vincent’s Hospital in the 19th century, and wanted to direct a play about Judaism for her next project.
When Topol and Green were introduced in 2018 by Rosalee Lovett, who sat on the boards of both institutions, co-commissioning a play seemed like a natural fit — however unconventional.
The result is “The Gett: Or How a Woman Created Herself,” an original play produced by Congregation Beth Elohim and showing at the Rattlestick through Dec. 11. The 95-minute production — written by and starring Liba Vaynberg — centers on Ida, a recent divorceé navigating her relationship with herself, her mother, her ex-husband Baal, Judaism and God. With the plot points structured around the seven days of creation, Ida’s relationship with her Baal (in Hebrew the word can mean “master” or “husband”) is laced with a double meanings. The viewer can see the couple’s sometimes dangerous and sometimes loving relationship as a metaphor for the Jewish people’s relationship with God.
“These are organizations that have gone deeply into what they do and do it well,” Vaynberg told the New York Jewish Week. “CBE is bringing the best it has and Rattlestick is bringing the best it has — as opposed to a situation where everybody’s bringing half. It’s a very full marriage.”
“What’s powerful about this play is that it has been a really community-based development and a really thoughtful development in partnership between a synagogue and a theater,” said Topol, noting that this is the Rattlestick’s first-ever Jewish play, and first partnership with a synagogue.
Despite the biblical trappings in “The Gett” — which also stars Jennifer Westfeldt, Ben Edelman and Luis Vega — the play is funny and modern. “We’ve tried a number of different things, but so far, this is one of our greatest successes to offer content that’s serious for people who call themselves culturally Jewish,” Green told the New York Jewish Week. “It’s really important to me that this play fosters a broader conversation, even in some small way, about what our institutions can be doing differently.”
Performances have been full so far at the 99-seat theater, with CBE encouraging congregants to see the show by offering group trips and programming surrounding the play, including talkbacks with Rabbi Green that explore the Jewish themes in the show. On Friday night performances, CBE holds Kabbalat Shabbat gatherings with the audience before the show.
Ben Edelman and Liba Vaynberg in “The Gett.” (The Chamber Group)
“We tend to deride cultural Judaism as if it’s somehow flimsy, or unserious, but if you look at the Pew study, it’s the fastest growing self-identified demographic in our community,” added Green, who also leads Congregation Beth Elohim’s “Brooklyn Jews” cohort, which is a community of younger congregants who are looking to engage Judaism through culture, food and ritual. “Yet we spend very little time as a Jewish establishment trying to really understand what cultural Judaism is.”
Other recent efforts to include these “cultural Jews” include reading and discussion seminars on queer Jewish writers, a meditation group and, perhaps most notably, an “intergenerational mixer” held in partnership with the lifestyle brand “Old Jewish Men of New York,” which got a write-up in the New York Times Styles section.
As for theater, the play really stemmed from CBE and Rattlestick’s desire to work together after realizing their mutual ambitions and interests.
At the Rattlestick, “We really focus as a theater on finding ways to look at stories that deal with the complexity of our culture,” Topol said. “I had been thinking for a while that we wanted to do something that related to the complexity of the American Jewish experience.”
It was something the theater community clearly was interested in as well: When Topol and Green opened a call for submissions, they received over 100. Vaynberg’s play was selected in early 2020.
For Topol, who is Jewish but always saw her Judaism as separate from her directing career, it was a theme close to her heart. “In terms of what Jewish stories are represented on the stage, it feels like there’s some room to really explore some of those key questions that American Jews are wrestling with: identity, intermarriage, having children, ritual, how much do you carry on ritual or not, what your affiliation is or isn’t with Israel, with the Holocaust, with politics,” she said.
“It’s a swirl of all of those sorts of questions that felt kind of worth some creative expression in terms of the theater,” Topol added. (As it happens, “The Gett” will be the last play Topol directs in her six-year career with the Rattlestick — next, she will switch careers and study to become a nurse.)
Once Vaynberg’s play was selected in early 2020, the playwright unexpectedly had extra time to finesse the show. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rattlestick closed temporarily and put the production on pause.
Vaynberg used the extra time to increase community involvement. She spoke with several women who are synagogue members who had gone through a divorce. She and Green conducted several roundtable discussions and focus groups to further explore congregants’ Jewish identities and how it has manifested in their relationships.
Vaynberg and Green created a “chavrusa,” a study partnership, to explore biblical and religious implications of the questions she had about creation, Jewish marriage and divorce and how much power a person has in their relationship with God.
Some themes in the play probe the same questions about cultural Judaism that Green had been asking at CBE. Protagonist Ida, for example, deeply cares about her Judaism and Jewish identity, and yet has trouble explaining just why and how it’s so important to her on a date with a non-Jewish man.
“By going to this play, you are engaging with Judaism,” Green said. “It’s not just about inspiring people to be involved with Judaism, but actually, it is a Jewish act to see this play.”
“This isn’t something synagogues do — it’s sort of strange,” Green remarked. “We want to do things differently and we as a congregation, want to inspire other congregations, other Jews, to do things differently.”
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NYPD Details Increased Security Measures for Passover Amid ‘Heightened State of Alert’ Against Terrorism Threats
New York City Police Department (NYPD) vehicles are seen in Brooklyn, New York, United States, on Oct. 13, 2024. Photo: Kyle Mazza via Reuters Connect
The New York Police Department (NYPD) will increase its presence around the city as New Yorkers celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover next week amid what Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described on Thursday as the most threatening terrorist landscape of her career.
“In my 18 years in government, which started in counterterrorism, I have not seen a threat environment quite like this one,” Tisch told leaders of the Jewish community who gathered at 1 Police Plaza for the NYPD’s annual pre-Passover security briefing. “It is clear that we will be in a heightened state of alert for the foreseeable future.”
“You will see increased patrols in the vicinity of synagogues and other houses of worship,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner said at the security briefing. She added that the NYPD will deploy members of its counterterrorism divisions, critical response command, heavy weapons teams, and K-9 units to “high threat” locations around the city.
The department is also relying on its system of cameras and sensors, monitored by members of the NYPD’s intelligence division, as well as as its international partners in the Middle East to help them with early-warning detection of threats against New Yorkers.
“These teams provide necessary deterrence and target guarding, and they should also provide reassurance that we are everywhere, that we can be omnipresent,” Weiner said. “There will be security measures that you see, and many others that you won’t. As this onslaught of misplaced retaliation, retribution, and hate continues, we will continue to do all in our power to interrupt it.”
In her remarks, Tisch mentioned four terrorist attacks that took place on US soil since the joint US-Israeli military strikes against Iran on Feb. 28. The attacks include a deadly mass shooting at a bar in Austin, Texas, on March 1, in which the gunman wore a shirt featuring the image of the Iranian flag; an ISIS-inspired attempted bombing at an “American’s Against Islamification” protest in Manhattan’s Upper East Side on March 7; a car ramming at a synagogue in Detroit, Michigan, on March 12 by a man whose family has ties to the Hezbollah terrorist organization; and the shooting of a ROTC instructor in Norfolk, Virginia, that same day by a gunman and known terrorist who screamed “Allahu Akbar.”
Tisch also noted attacks in Europe, including the arson attack targeting four Hatzalah vehicles parked outside a synagogue in north London early this week.
“These are perilous times to be sure. I know you feel the stress and anxiety in your synagogues, in your schools or community centers, and even in your own homes. I feel it too,” Tisch said. “But I also know the NYPD is laser-focused on keeping this city safe with one of the most impressive and sophisticated intelligence and counterterrorism operations in the world.”
She said the NYPD is preparing for a “safe and joyful Passover celebration” and talked about uniformed patrols officers being stationed over Passover around synagogues, Jewish schools, and other Jewish sites. “This work we do together is vital because on top of raising our terrorism level, escalating conflict in the Middle East is also fueling antisemitism around the globe and certainly here at home,” she noted.
In the immediate aftermath of the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic hate crimes in New York City surged 80 percent from Oct. 7 until the end of 2023, according to the police commissioner. By the end of last year, that number began to decline and overall hate crimes decreased by nearly 16 percent. However, since the start of 2026 – following the appointment of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — antisemitic crimes, as well as hate crimes overall, are again on the rise, she concluded by saying.
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Rubio, Pro-Israel Lawmakers Voice Alarm Over West Bank Settler Violence as IDF Warns of ‘Unacceptable’ Situation
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a US-Paraguay Status of Forces agreement signing ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, US, Dec. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that Washington is “concerned” by settler violence in the West Bank and expects Israel to act, as a growing number of pro-Israel lawmakers in the US and senior Israeli military officials warn that the unchecked attacks are harming Israel’s security and international standing.
Rubio, one of Israel’s staunchest supporters within the Trump Administration, said from France that President Donald Trump has opposed “any sort of change in the status quo in the West Bank” and indicated that Israeli authorities recognize the seriousness of the problem.
Rubio’s remarks came amid months of attacks across the West Bank that have continued during the war with Iran.
The Times of Israel reported this week that the first 25 days of the war with Iran saw 257 incidents of extremist settler violence and land seizures, with at least seven Palestinians killed by Israeli civilians.
Many of the attacks have involved West Bank settlers physically assaulting residents — including elderly Palestinian women and children — torching Palestinian homes and vehicles, and hurling stones at cars on West Bank roads.
Israelis who have tried to document or stop the violence have also been severely injured by settlers. In February, two Israeli activists were hospitalized with serious head wounds after being beaten by settlers near Qusra.
Israeli soldiers have also been repeatedly attacked and wounded by settlers while responding to incidents.
“The Israelis themselves have expressed [concern],” Rubio added. “You’ve seen that some of these groups and individuals — maybe they’re settlers, maybe they’re just street thugs — have attacked Israeli security forces as well, so I think you’ll see the government there do something about it.”
The violence has drawn unusually sharp criticism from US lawmakers generally seen as strong supporters of Israel.
Among them are Reps. Ritchie Torres and Daniel Goldman of New York. Torres, widely regarded as one of Israel’s strongest advocates in Congress, said this week that “the crisis of extremist settler violence in the West Bank must be confronted, and the perpetrators must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” calling for “zero tolerance for violent extremism, no matter what form it takes.” Goldman similarly described the violence as an “outrage” and said, “the Israeli government must hold those responsible accountable, as the rule of law requires.”
One of the strongest warnings, however, has come from within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) itself.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said this month that attacks by extremist settlers on Palestinians and Israeli troops are “morally and ethically unacceptable” and cause “extraordinary strategic damage” to the military’s efforts during a multi-front war. Zamir stressed that the perpetrators “do not represent the settlements” and warned that such violence endangers “security, stability, and our values as a people and as a state.”
That warning took on added urgency when the IDF announced this week that it had diverted an infantry battalion that had been intended for fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon to the West Bank amid the latest wave of settler attacks, according to a report from The Jerusalem Post.
In a separate report, Zamir was also said to have warned ministers that the IDF risks “collapsing in on itself” under mounting operational demands and manpower shortages.
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Berlin Police Report Over 12,000 Offenses Connected to Anti-Israel Demonstrations Since Oct. 7 Attack
Supporters of Hamas gather in Berlin. Photo: Reuters/M. Golejewski
Berlin police have recorded more than 12,000 criminal offenses tied to pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the German capital since the start of the war in Gaza, according to newly released figures — laying bare the sheer extent of unrest that has accompanied months of anti-Israel protests in the city.
Officials had documented 12,493 offenses connected to demonstrations and related activity as of March, according to data compiled by a Berlin police task force established after the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
German media, which first reported the data, noted the special investigative unit has been probing individuals involved in illegal activity or with criminal records who drew attention at anti-Israel demonstrations in Berlin, tracking their activities and connections across the city.
Among the most frequent charges were 2,277 violent crimes, including 1,189 cases involving resistance to law enforcement officers. Police also recorded 3,453 cases of property damage, 2,205 propaganda-related offenses, and 1,046 incidents classified as incitement to hatred.
Authorities further reported that their records include 3,327 investigations involving at least one suspect with foreign nationality or multiple nationalities — roughly a quarter of all cases.
In total, suspects from 189 different national backgrounds or combinations of nationalities were identified.
Among non-German suspects, Syrian nationals accounted for the largest number of cases, followed by Turkish and Italian nationals.
This newly released report comes amid ongoing debate in Germany over the involvement of foreign actors in organizing or taking part in anti-Israel demonstrations.
Ahmad Mansour, an expert on Islamism, recently warned in a post on X that security officials have begun referring to so-called “travelers” — individuals who allegedly come to Germany specifically to participate in or organize pro-Hamas protests.
However, a Berlin police spokesperson told German newspaper Bild that authorities currently have no reliable evidence indicating the existence of organized waves of individuals traveling from abroad to attend the demonstrations.
Police spokesman Florian Nath also pointed to the role of online networks in mobilizing protesters, describing the pro-Palestinian activist scene in Berlin as highly active across social media platforms.
“No significant foreign influence can be detected in the publicly accessible online sources examined here,” Nath said in a statement.
Like most countries across Europe and the broader Western world, Germany has seen a shocking rise in antisemitic incidents over the last two years, in the wake of the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
According to recently released figures, the number of antisemitic offenses in the country reached a record high in 2025, totaling 2,267 incidents, including violence, incitement, property damage, and propaganda offenses.
By comparison, officially recorded antisemitic crimes were significantly lower at 1,825 in 2024, 900 in 2023, and fewer than 500 in 2022, prior to the Oct. 7 atrocities.
Berlin specifically has seen a record surge in antisemitism following the outbreak of war in Gaza.