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A fashion show in Tribeca attempts to capture ‘The Jewish Uniform’
(New York Jewish Week) – Hip-hop music blasted through loudspeakers as about a dozen models strutted up and down a makeshift runway. Some of them wore cream knit loungewear, while others were clad in modest but elegant dresses accessorized with silk scarves.
The models, many of them student volunteers from Chelsea’s Fashion Institute of Technology, were donning “The Jewish Uniform,” at least as defined by the minds of Havurah, a cohort of self-described “frum” (religiously observant) New York-based 20-somethings aspiring to create a “renaissance of Jewish art.” In addition to the fashion show, Havurah has hosted readings, Torah study and concerts, and the group recently launched “Verklempt!,” a Jewish literary magazine.
Last Thursday evening, “The Jewish Uniform” highlighted 13 Jewish designers whose levels of experience ranged from amateurs to well-established brands like Batsheva, whose signature modest dresses and ultra-feminine womenswear first made a big splash in 2016. Directed by Havurah co-founders Daniella Messer and Eitan Gutenmacher — both 20-year-old students at New York University — the show’s looks were curated by Ashley Finkel, a 26-year-old e-commerce coordinator at La Perla and styled and staged by Lily Paige Sausen, 26, who runs an online vintage store.
Havurah’s motive is to create Jewish art and to understand the intersection of art and Judaism. The fashion show, in particular, aimed to celebrate and explore what makes an outfit Jewish — at least through an observant lens.
Ashley Finkel, left, one of the show’s curators, speaks with designer Elke Reva Sudin, May 11, 2023. (Saul Sudin)
“The intention of the show was to use fashion as a medium to bring together a community of creatives in NYC,” Finkel told the New York Jewish Week. “We’re very happy with how the evening turned out.”
Around 120 people attended the show, which took place in the outdoor space underneath the bulbous curve of the architecturally unique Tribeca Synagogue (49 White St.), an Orthodox congregation. The downtown neighborhood is now known for its hip loft buildings, but it was once a center of the textile and cotton trade industries in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The show’s creators, from left to right: Eitan Gutenmacher, Daniella Messer, Lily Paige Sausen, Ashley Finkel and Kayla Mantell, at the show on May 11, 2023. (Julia Gergely)
“I thought it was really cool to be able to show my looks in a Jewish show,” said Yarden Sopher-Harelick, a 24-year-old designer and FIT graduate who had three outfits in the show, including a blazer dress fashioned out of bubble wrap and a seatbelt.
Batsheva Hay, the Orthodox designer who runs the eponymous brand, donated four dresses to the show, though she wasn’t able to attend herself.
Each “Jewish Uniform” runway look had a tongue-in-cheek title and description that was presented in an accompanying program for the show, allowing the creative directors to build on their thesis about what makes an outfit Jewish — and to poke some lighthearted fun at Jewish customs as well. Take “The Yenta,” who wears a white blouse, pearls and a long black skirt: “She attends shul for one purpose: the tea. It’s piping hot, just like her outfit,” the program read.
The “Shabbat Snoozer” — a loose, comfortable, matching set in navy — was described as “the classic combination of a food coma and a few hours to spare before Havdalah,” while the “Cholov Yisroelnik,” described as “the kosher version of a milkmaid,” consisted of a headscarf, a pink gingham skirt and white top, with the model carrying a carton of milk instead of a clutch.
For first-time model Tara Dietzel, an 18-year-old first-year student at FIT, walking in the show and seeing clothes designed by Jewish designers was a way for her to envision how she might combine her Judaism, her love of modeling and her professional goal to become a fashion designer.
“It was so much fun and a good first step to figuring out how I can accomplish all of these dreams at once,” Dietzler told the New York Jewish Week after the show.
Tara Dietzler, left, models a design from Yarden Sopher-Harelick, right, May 11, 2023. (Julia Gergely)
Guests included many of the designers’ friends and family, who cheered enthusiastically as their models walked the runway. After the presentation, everyone came together over wine and seltzer. The designers posed with their looks and models walked through the crowd to show off their clothes’ texture and details up close.
At the event, Elke Reva Sudin, a Brooklyn-based designer and painter, launched “The Crown Collection,” a limited collection of silk head scarves. Nearly a decade ago, Sudin ran a similarly-missioned organization to Havurah called Jewish Art Now before founding Drawing Booth, a non-Jewish arts vendor where artists live-sketch guests at events. The scarves are her first foray into fashion.
Elke Reva Sudin, middle, stands with two models who donned her new line of headscarves, the Crown Collection, May 11, 2023. (Saul Sudin)
Sudin said that designing scarves — an item popular among Orthodox women, most of whom cover their hair after marriage, as per Jewish law — was a way for her to explore her own Jewish identity and spirituality as a married Orthodox Jewish woman. She found out about Havurah through a mutual artist friend.
“I’ve been out of the Jewish world for a while now and I appreciate that there was a Jewish space I could turn to launch my scarves, which are sort of my return to Jewish art while entering into the world of fashion,” Sudin, 35, told the New York Jewish Week. “Both my designs and Havurah have the same intent, which is to be inclusive and to create something not only beautiful, but meaningful to the Jewish community.”
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The post A fashion show in Tribeca attempts to capture ‘The Jewish Uniform’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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‘The Art of the Yiddish Monologue’ and other mini-courses in Yiddish
במשך פֿונעם חודש יאַנואַר 2026 וועט ייִוואָ פֿירן די ווײַטערדיקע מיני־קורסן אויף ייִדיש:
• „די קונסט פֿונעם ייִדישן מאָנאָלאָג“, וווּ מע וועט לייענען און אַרומרעדן מאָנאָלאָגן פֿון שלום עליכם, י. לץ פּרץ, דער טונקעלער, ב. קאָוונער, משה נאַדיר, רחל ברכות און יצחק באַשעוויס. מע וועט אויל אַרומרעדן די געשיכטע פֿונעם מאָנאָלאָג אין ייִדישן טעאַטער (שיין בייקער)
• שעפֿעריש שרײַבן, וווּ מע וועט אויפֿן סמך פֿון ליטעראַטור־מוסטערן באַטראַכטן די וויכטיקע באַשטאַנדטיילן פֿון פּראָזע — שפּראַך, סטיל, דיאַלאָג, געשטאַלט און פּייסאַזש (באָריס סאַנדלער)
• יצחק־לייבוש פּרץ און זײַנע באַציִונגען מיט די נײַ־געבוירענע ייִדישע סאָציאַליסטישע קרײַזן אין משך פֿון די 1890ער יאָרן (עדי מהלאל)
• די גרויסע אַקטריסע אסתּר רחל קאַמינסקאַ, וווּ די סטודענטן וועלן לייענען אירע זכרונות אויף ייִדיש (מיכל יאַשינסקי)
• די לידער פֿון דוד האָפֿשטײן, וואָס איז מערקווירדיק צוליב זײַן צונױפֿפֿלעכט פֿון דײַטשישע, רוסישע און אוקראַיִנישע ליטעראַרישע טראַדיציעס מיט תּנכישע און מאָדערנע ייִדישע השפּעות (יודזשין אָרנשטיין)
• די ייִוואָ־גדולים אין זייערע אייגענע ווערטער, וווּ מע וועט לייענען די שריפֿטן פֿון א. טשעריקאָװער, מ. װײַנרײַך, י. לעשטשינסקי, י. מאַרק, ש. ניגער, נ. פּרילוצקי, ז. קלמנאָװיטש, ז. רייזען, י. שאַצקי און נ. שטיף (דוד בראַון)
The post ‘The Art of the Yiddish Monologue’ and other mini-courses in Yiddish appeared first on The Forward.
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Suspect at Large in Brown University Shooting that Killed at Least Two, Injured Eight
Police vehicles stand near the site of a mass shooting reported by authorities at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., December 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Taylor Coester
Police in Rhode Island were searching for a suspect in a shooting at Brown University in Providence in which two people died and eight were critically wounded at the Ivy League school, officials said.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told a news conference that police were still searching for the shooter, who struck at Brown’s Barus & Holley engineering building, where exams were taking place at the time. Officials said police were looking for a male dressed in black and were scouring local video cameras in the area for footage to get a better description of the suspect.
Smiley said officials could not yet disclose details about the victims, including whether they were students. He lamented the shooting.
“We are a week and a half away from Christmas. And two people died today and another eight are in the hospital,” he said. “So please pray for those families.”
Brown is on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island‘s state capital. The university has hundreds of buildings, including lecture halls, laboratories and dormitories.
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he had been briefed on the situation, which he called “terrible.”
“All we can do right now is pray for the victims and for those that were very badly hurt.”
Compared to many countries, mass shootings in schools, workplaces, and places of worship are more common in the US, which has some of the most permissive gun laws in the developed world. The Gun Violence Archive, which defines mass shootings as any incident in which four or more victims have been shot, has counted 389 of them this year in the US.
Last year the US had more than 500 mass shootings, according to the archive.
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Rights Groups Condemn Re-Arrest of Nobel Laureate Mohammadi in Iran
Taghi Ramahi, husband of Narges Mohammadi, a jailed Iranian women’s rights advocate, who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, poses with an undated photo of himself and his wife, during an interview at his home in Paris, France, October 6, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
International human rights groups have condemned the re-arrest of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi in Iran, with the Nobel committee calling on Iranian authorities to immediately clarify her whereabouts.
Mohammadi’s French lawyer, Chirine Ardakani, said on X that the human rights activist was arrested on Friday after denouncing the suspicious death of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi at his memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Mashhad prosecutor Hasan Hematifar told reporters on Saturday that Mohammadi was among 39 people arrested after the ceremony.
Hematifar said she and Alikordi’s brother had made provocative remarks at the event and encouraged those present “to chant ‘norm‑breaking’ slogans” and disturb the peace, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The prosecutor said Mashhad’s chief of police and another officer received knife wounds when trying to manage the scene.
CALLS FOR RELEASE
The Norwegian Nobel Committee called on Iranian authorities “to immediately clarify Mohammadi’s whereabouts, ensure her safety and integrity, and to release her without conditions.”
The European Union also called for Mohammadi’s release. “The EU urges Iranian authorities to release Ms Mohammadi, taking also into account her fragile health condition, as well as all those unjustly arrested in the exercise of their freedom of expression,” an EU spokesperson said on Saturday.
A video purportedly showing Mohammadi, 53, without the mandatory veil, standing on a car with a microphone and chanting “Long Live Iran” in front of a crowd, has gone viral on social media.
Ardakani said Mohammadi was beaten before her arrest.
Reporters Without Borders said four journalists and other participants were also arrested at the memorial for human rights lawyer Alikordi, who was found dead in his office on December 5.
Authorities gave the cause of his death as a heart attack, but rights groups have called for an investigation into his death.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the crowd also chanted “death to the dictator,” a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as: “We fight, we die, we accept no humiliation.”
Mohammadi, who received the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, has spent more than 10 years of her life in prison, most recently from November 2021 when she was charged with “propaganda against the state,” “acting against national security,” and membership of “illegal organizations.”
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, said on Saturday that the opposition’s campaign in Venezuela was akin to that taking place in Iran.
“In Oslo this week, the world honored the power of conscience. I said to the ‘citizens of the world’ that our struggle is a long march toward freedom. That march is not Venezuelan alone. It is Iranian, it is universal,” she said on X on Saturday.