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The New York Jewish Week’s 10 most-read stories of 2022
(New York Jewish Week) — Before we turn the page on 2022, the New York Jewish Week is looking back at the calendar year that was.
Throughout the year, Jewish New Yorkers displayed a relentless creativity, continually redefining what being Jewish can look like in this diverse city. From a for-hire “hot rabbi” to a brand new synagogue founded after a painful ouster, from a pop-up Hanukkah cocktail bar to new appreciations of the Jewish deli, there was something for everyone.
And 2022 was a crucial year for us, too: After joining the 70 Faces Media family in 2021, the New York Jewish Week took a huge step forward this year — most notably with the exciting new look we launched in February. We unveiled a new logo, fresh branding and a completely redesigned website to make our storytelling shine.
Thanks for coming along for the ride with us in 2022. Here are the stories you read the most this year.
10. A new exhibit on Jewish delis explores the roots and rise of a uniquely American phenomenon by Lisa Keys (Nov. 10)
A view of the new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society, “‘I’ll Have What She’s Having’: The Jewish Deli.” (Lisa Keys)
Nothing says New York quite like an authentic Jewish deli. This November, the New-York Historical Society presented its new exhibit, “‘I’ll Have What She’s Having’: The Jewish Deli,” which traces the mouthwatering history of the Jewish deli, beginning with the first waves of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
9. Why this Holocaust survivor wears the same hand-knit sweater every Passover by Tanya Singer (March 29)
Holocaust survivor Helena Weinstock Weinrauch, 97, models the hand-knit sweater that she’s worn to the first Passover seder every year for the past 75 years. (Karen Goldfarb)
Helena Weinstock Weinrauch, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor, has worn the same hand-knit sweater every Passover for the past 75 years. It was made by her friend Anne Rothman, who stayed alive during the Holocaust by knitting for Nazis while a prisoner in the Lodz Ghetto.
8. Junior’s, NYC’s iconic Jewish cheesecake emporium, buys back guns to protect the city it loves by Julia Gergely (May 27)
People stand in line outside Junior’s restaurant to pick up food to go on March 16, 2020 in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
When Junior’s Restaurant owner Alan Rosen saw the headlines about gun violence in New York City, he “took it upon myself to do something.” Rosen worked with the New York City Police Foundation to run a gun buyback program at a local church. Rosen donated $20,000 toward the effort.
7. Rabbi ousted from Park East Synagogue announces new congregation on the Upper East Side by Julia Gergely (Feb. 16)
Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt and his wife, journalist Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, announced the name of their new congregation via social media on Feb. 16. (Screenshot from Instagram)
Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt announced his new congregation “Altneu” in February. Goldschmidt made headlines when he was abruptly fired from Park East Synagogue last year. “I feel like it is a tremendous opportunity to start a new synagogue in Manhattan; it’s not something that happens too often,” Goldschmidt told the New York Jewish Week.
6. This private, on-demand ‘hot rabbi’ may soon be the star of her own reality TV show by Julia Gergely (May 25)
Eisenstadt is a non-denominational rabbi who describes her observance as “hipsterdox.” (Alex Korolkovas)
Rabbi Rebecca Keren Eisenstadt — or “Rabbi Becky” as she’s known to most — is a private rabbi-for-hire for dozens of New York City families, mostly on the affluent Upper East Side. She goes by @myhotrabbi on social media, and Reese Witherspoon’s media company is making a documentary series about her life as a single rabbi looking for love.
5. Meet the bartender behind New York’s new Hanukkah-themed cocktail bar by Julia Gergely (Nov. 29)
Naomi Levy, 36, founded the Maccabee Bar in Boston in 2018. This year, Levy, who was named “Best Bartender” by Boston Magazine in 2019, brought the pop-up Hanukkah-themed cocktail bar to New York. (Ezra Pollard)
Bartender Naomi Levy was sick of feeling like a tourist during the holiday season, so in 2018, she launched the Maccabee Bar, a Hanukkah-themed pop-up in Boston. This year, Levy brought her cocktail bar to New York City, featuring drinks like the Latke Sour (apple brandy, potato, lemon, egg white, bitters) and an Everything Bagel Martini (“everything” spiced gin, tomato water, dill, vermouth), as well Jewish- and Hanukkah-adjacent small bites, such as latkes, sufganiyot and Bamba.
4. The New York Jewish Week’s 36 to Watch 2022 by NY Jewish Week staff (June 28)
These individuals constitute the New York Jewish Week’s 36 to Watch for 2022. (Photos courtesy of the winners and Getty Images/Design by Grace Yagel)
Our signature annual project, 36 to Watch honors remarkable Jewish New Yorkers for their contributions in the arts, religion, culture, business, politics and philanthropy. Our list of changemakers returned in 2022 — but without the age restrictions of years past. This year’s group includes athletes, storytellers, politicians, comedians and more.
3. Passengers say Lufthansa threw all visible Jews off NYC-Budapest flight because some weren’t wearing masks by Jacob Henry (May 9)
Jewish passengers were greeted by the police once they arrived in Frankfurt. (Courtesy)
A group of Orthodox Jews was kicked off a Budapest-bound Lufthansa flight at JFK airport in May after allegedly refusing to comply with the airline’s mask mandate. A Lufthansa supervisor was seen on video saying “It’s Jews coming from JFK. Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems.”
2. New York Yankees get Jewish pitcher at MLB trade deadline by Jacob Gurvis (Aug. 1)
Jewish pitcher Scott Effross wears a Star of David necklace on the mound. (Screenshot from YouTube)
The New York Yankees acquired Jewish relief pitcher Scott Effross at Major League Baseball’s trade deadline this past summer. Effross, a self-described “Seinfeld enthusiast,” wears a Star of David necklace when he pitches.
1. A Holocaust survivor spends her 110th birthday knitting — the craft that was key to her survival by Tanya Singer (Jan. 26)
Rose Girone celebrates her 110th birthday on Jan. 13, 2022. (Courtesy of Dina Mor)
Rose Girone celebrated her 110th birthday in January in the most fitting way possible: by knitting. Girone’s passion for knitting has made her well known in the New York-area knitting community in recent decades, but it also played a critical role in her family’s survival earlier in her life. “Rose cannot imagine her life without knitting,” Girone’s daughter, Reha Bennicasa, 83, told the New York Jewish Week.
And here are five more stories that made an impact this year:
An afternoon with Shayna Maydele, possibly the most Jewish dog in New York by Lisa Keys
A Jewish group’s tip led to arrest of suspects who wanted to ‘shoot up a synagogue’ by Jacob Henry
A moving memoir of Jewish Brooklyn, told tchotchke by tchotchke by Andrew Silow-Carroll
Some Jews ‘do not comply’ with New York gun laws to protect their synagogues by Jacob Henry
Marc Chagall’s Catskills house is for sale — for $240,000 by Andrew Silow-Carroll
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From all of us at the New York Jewish Week, thank you for reading, and we wish you a Happy New Year! We look forward to covering the next chapter of the unfolding New York Jewish story in 2022. As always, feel free to reach out with tips, questions, or feedback, and if you’re so inclined, support our journalism.
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The post The New York Jewish Week’s 10 most-read stories of 2022 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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UK adopts sweeping measures against antisemitism in schools
(JTA) — The U.K. has adopted sweeping measures to combat antisemitism in English schools, prompting pushback from the country’s largest teachers’ union.
The move came after a new government-commissioned review found that three in five Jewish students reported experiencing antisemitism in English schools. The most common incidents were jokes, stereotypes and comments about Jewish people. About half of respondents who witnessed or experienced antisemitism said the incidents were not reported, most often because they did not think they would be taken seriously.
The government on Wednesday accepted 27 recommendations from the report, including dedicated antisemitism training for leaders and staff, improved recording of antisemitic incidents and moves to build a better understanding of Jewish life, identity and contemporary antisemitism.
The government commissioned the report following a spate of high-profile attacks on Jews in Britain, including an attack on a synagogue in Manchester last year that left two men dead.
The report’s author, Sir David Bell, the vice chancellor of the University of Sunderland and former chief inspector of schools in England, recommended addressing antisemitism distinctly from other forms of racism. He argued that antisemitism was a “uniquely complex” problem because of intertwined racial and religious dimensions, since Jewish identity can encompass both an ethnicity and a religion, along with expressions of prejudice that hold all Jews responsible for the actions of Israel.
The government will also encourage English schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The definition is supported by many mainstream Jewish organizations and has been adopted by 47 countries, including the U.K., but critics say that it conflates some forms of antisemitism with criticism of Israel.
British Education Secretary Lucy Powell called Bell’s review a “generational moment” and said that “implementation is now my priority.”
However, the National Education Union, the largest union representing teachers, lecturers, teaching assistants and support staff in the United Kingdom and Europe, raised concerns on Wednesday about recommending the IHRA definition for schools. NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said in a statement that the definition “risks deepening the problem rather than tackling it, and actively undermining efforts to confront antisemitism.”
“The IHRA’s contested framing risks blurring the line between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and the genocide in Gaza, leaving teachers with uncertainty when they need clarity,” said Kebede. He cited a risk that “children who cannot critically explore issues through classroom discussion will instead seek their answers in online and unsafe groups.”
Kebede also encouraged Britain’s Department for Education to strengthen guidance on all forms of racism, not only antisemitism, saying that 65% of teachers report they have not received any antiracism training in the past year.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, an umbrella organization for British Jewish communities, celebrated the antisemitism report and the government’s adoption of its proposed measures. The group specifically praised the report’s “clear recommendations that schools and local authorities follow government guidelines by adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism as a tool to deepen understanding of contemporary antisemitism.”
“We remain concerned about undue external influence on schools driven by narrow political agendas, and tendentious materials seeping into schools and increasing disharmony, and we will continue to press for vigilance against this,” said the Board of Deputies.
The post UK adopts sweeping measures against antisemitism in schools appeared first on The Forward.
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Orthodox Jewish man stabbed in midtown Manhattan
(New York Jewish Week) — An Orthodox Jewish man is in stable condition after being stabbed on Wednesday evening in the Diamond District of midtown Manhattan. Police are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime.
Police told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident as a possible antisemitic attack, and Manhattan Shomrim — the Jewish community watch group — has asked people to share footage as police search for the suspect. No arrests have been made.
The victim was identified by police as a 26-year-old man, and Orthodox Jewish outlet COLLive identified him as a resident of Crown Heights, the neighborhood that is home to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement’s headquarters.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Police said they were called at about 5:50 p.m. on Wednesday after the man was stabbed in the back with “an unknown sharp object” on 47th Street near Fifth Avenue. ABC7 reported that the victim told investigators he believed he was stabbed with a needle or syringe.
According to the Chabad website, which published an interview with the victim, he is a recently ordained Hasidic rabbi named Joseph, who commutes to Midtown each day to wrap tefillin with Jewish merchants. The attacker, Joseph told the website, was a woman who seemed to be following him prior to the stabbing.
The attack comes as Jewish New Yorkers have been targeted in more than half of the hate crimes committed in New York City this year, despite making up about 12% of the city’s population.
In July, an assailant stabbed two men on the Upper West Side, including one who was leaving a synagogue, while yelling “Allahu akbar,” and was charged with committing hate crimes.
Louis Keene contributed reporting.
The post Orthodox Jewish man stabbed in midtown Manhattan appeared first on The Forward.
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VIDEO: A Hasid gives us a tour of Morocco in Yiddish
דער ירושלימער יוטוב־שטערן וועלוול קירשנבוים האָט לעצטנס אַרויסגעשטעלט אַ ווידעאָ אויף ייִדיש פֿון אַ פּרעכטיקן וויזיט, וואָס ער האָט געמאַכט אין מאַראָקאָ. עס באַגלייט אים זײַן חבֿר אַבֿרהם פּרץ.
אינעם ווידעאָ זעט מען ווי קירשנבוים דאַוונט שחרית מיט די אָרטיקע ייִדן און באַזוכט אַ גוט אָפּגעהיטענעם בית־עולם, וווּ עס ליגן באַערדיקט גרויסע צדיקים ווי למשל הרבֿ חיים בן עתר (1696–1743), באַקאַנט ווי דער „אור החיים“. „מענטשן מיינען, אַז נאָר אין אייראָפּע זענען דאָ קבֿרים פֿון צדיקים!“ זאָגט קירשנבוים.
מיר זעען אַ גרויסע, שיינע שיל מיט אַ פֿײַנער אַרכיטעקטור אין קאַזאַבלאַנקאַ; דעם גרויסן אַראַבישן שוק, וווּ קירשנבוים קויפֿט זיך אײַן מלבושים פּונקט ווי די מאַראָקאַנער גייען אָנגעטאָן. ער באַוווּנדערט אויך די שיינע טיי־גלעזער און טשײַניקן, וואָס מע פֿאַרקויפֿט דאָרט, און באַקענט זיך מיט אַ ייִדישן סוחר וואָס האַנדלט מיט זילבער און גאָלד, פּונקט אַזוי ווי זײַן טאַטע און זיידע האָבן געטאָן פֿאַר דור־דורות.
The post VIDEO: A Hasid gives us a tour of Morocco in Yiddish appeared first on The Forward.
