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Lily Henley, 31, Ladino singer/songwriter
Lily Henley, 31, is a Brooklyn-based folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose most recent release, an album of new Ladino songs, “Oras Dezaoradas” (“Hours Without Hours”), was named the album of the year by our partners at Hey Alma. “I grew up playing fiddle and singing often at home with my family in English, Hebrew and Ladino, and listening to a wide palette of music from all over the world,” Henley tells us. Influenced by traditional Sephardic songs and culture, along with Celtic, folk and pop music, the album, which was recorded in Brooklyn during the pandemic, “is an exploration of transience, heartbreak, autonomy and change, and includes both completely original songs and also new melodies which I wrote to cradle traditional lyrics as Sephardi singers have done throughout our history,” she says.
For the full list of this year’s 36 to Watch — which honors leaders, entrepreneurs and changemakers who are making a difference in New York’s Jewish community — click here.
Who is your New York Jewish hero?
There are so many, but I’m going to say my father, Eric Henley. It will surprise him, because he’s one of those rare people who never really looks for any sort of congratulations from anyone. He loves to be part of a team, and what he cares most about is having a meaningful effect in what he does every day. He’s an MD and MPH who has worked in public health for his entire career. He’s someone who is always educating themselves and who almost never gives advice without being asked. When he finally retired from full-time work a little while ago there were so many people I had never met who cried and said he had been their most important mentor. There’s almost nothing he enjoys more than music, and he’s always been supportive of the winding and uncertain path I’ve been on as an artist.
What’s a fun/surprising fact about you?
I am the proud owner of pet snails (not kosher, but very beautiful).
How does your Jewish identity or experience influence your work?
As a singer working in both English and an endangered Jewish language, Jewish identity is both a source of continued inspiration at the heart of everything I do artistically, and something which has caused a great deal of complicated self-examining. It is important to me to shine a light on underrepresented Jewish culture, history and experience, to connect to the wider Jewish world, and at the same time to continue to use my music and my voice to bridge the divide between Jewish and non-Jewish culture in a way that rejects assimilation and monolithic expressions of identity and creativity. I see pathways and parallels between my own complex Jewish experience and the experiences of people from a myriad of identities and backgrounds, and I see my music as an expression of my desire to connect to people regardless of our differences.
Was there a formative Jewish experience that influenced your life path?
When I was 8 my mother helped organize a community Pesach seder in Crestone, Colorado. It was attended by nuns from a local Carmelite monastery, the caretakers and attendees of the Hindu ashram, monks from the neighboring Buddhist temple, members of a nearby Protestant church and a myriad of community members. The seder was lead by a 70-year-old Holocaust survivor from Germany, and in preparation, our Hebrew-speaking neighbor taught my sister and me the four questions along with a handful of beautiful Hebrew songs, many with Sephardi melodies. My sister and I still sing these on Shabbat with our family.
What is your favorite place to eat Jewish food in New York?
Historically, all the best Jewish food has been found on my grandmother’s table!
How can people follow you online?
@lilyhenley on Instagram or at lilyhenley.com
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The post Lily Henley, 31, Ladino singer/songwriter appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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UK PM Starmer Says There Could Be New Powers to Ban Pro-Palestinian Marches
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a media statement at Downing Street in London, Britain, April 30, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jack Taylor/File photo
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government could ban pro-Palestinian marches in some circumstances because of the “cumulative effect” the demonstrations had on the Jewish community after two Jewish men were stabbed in London on Wednesday.
Starmer told the BBC that he would always defend freedom of expression and peaceful protest, but chants like “Globalize the Intifada” during demonstrations were “completely off limits” and those voicing them should be prosecuted.
Pro-Palestinian marches have become a regular feature in London since the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the Gaza war. Critics say the demonstrations have generated hostility and become a focus for antisemitism.
Protesters have argued they are exercising their democratic right to spotlight ongoing human rights and political issues related to the situation in Gaza.
Starmer said he was not denying there were “very strong legitimate views about the Middle East, about Gaza,” but many people in the Jewish community had told him they were concerned about the repeat nature of the marches.
Asked if the tougher response should focus on chants and banners, or whether the protests should be stopped altogether, Starmer said: “I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter.”
“I think it’s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect,” he said, adding that the government needed to look at what further powers it could take.
Britain raised its terrorism threat level to “severe” on Thursday amid mounting security concerns that foreign states were helping fuel violence, including against the Jewish community.
“We are seeing an elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the UK,” the head of counter-terrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said in a statement, adding that police were also working “against an unpredictable global situation that has consequences closer to home, including physical threats by state-linked actors.”
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War Likely to Resume After Trump’s Rejection of Latest Proposal, Says IRGC General
Iranians carry a model of a missile during a celebration following an IRGC attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – A senior Iranian military figure said that fighting with the US was “likely” to resume after President Donald Trump stated he was dissatisfied with Tehran’s latest proposal, regime media reported on Saturday.
The comments of General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, one of the top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, were relayed by the Fars news agency, considered as a mouthpiece of the the powerful paramilitary body.
“Evidence has shown that the Americans do not not adhere to any commitments,” Asadi was quoted as saying.
He further added that Washington’s decision-making was “primarily media-driven aimed first at preventing a drop in oil prices and second at extricating themselves from the mess they have created.”
Iranian armed forces are ready “for any new adventures or foolishness from the Americans,” he said, going to assert that the Iran war would prove for the US a tragedy comparable with what was for Israel the October 7 massacre.
“Just as our martyred Leader said that the Zionist regime will never be the same as before the Al‑Aqsa Storm operation [the name chosen by Hamas leadership for the October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel], the United States will also never return to what it was before its attack on Iran,” he said. “The world has understood the true nature of America, and no matter how much malice it shows now, it is no longer the America that many once feared.”
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Trump Says US Navy Acting ‘Like Pirates’ to Carry Out Naval Blockade of Iranian Ports
A view of Iranian-flagged cargo ship M/V Touska as the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Spruance conducts its interception in a location given as the north Arabian Sea, in this screen capture from a video released April 19, 2026. Photo: CENTCOM/Handout via REUTERS
President Donald Trump said on Friday the US Navy was acting “like pirates” in carrying out Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports during the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
Trump made the comments while describing the seizure by US forces of a ship a few days ago.
“We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said in remarks on Friday evening. “We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates but we are not playing games.”
Some of Tehran’s vessels have been seized by the US after leaving Iranian ports, along with sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters.
Iran has blocked nearly all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz apart from its own since the start of the war. Trump has imposed a separate blockade of Iranian ports.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
The war has raised oil prices and led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Trump, who has offered shifting timelines and goals for the war that remains unpopular in the US, has faced widespread condemnation over his comments on the conflict, including when he threatened to destroy Iran’s entire civilization last month.
Many US experts said last month that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes after Trump threatened to target civilian infrastructure.