The Jewish Week | Short Takes

Sergey Novikov, seated at left, plans to build an anti-conservatory as a member of PresenTense’s first Moscow fellowship class.
PresenTense Joins JDC In Russia
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Helen Chernikoff | Staff Writer

Russia has long been known for its musicians — and for the grueling conservatories in which those musicians are trained. The notion of learning and playing an instrument for pleasure is a foreign one, but with the support of PresenTense, the Jewish social entrepreneurship incubator, Sergey Novikov is trying to change that.

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Sorry, “Downton” fans: Lady Cora Grantham, nee Levinson of the Cincinnati Levinsons, is a bit of an anachronism.
To Daven At Downton?
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Helen Chernikoff | Staff Writer

Not since the news that Princess Kate Middleton’s mother’s maiden name was “Goldsmith” launched a million Google searches have the masses gotten so excited.

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Valerie Steele of Fashion Institute of Technology will address the meaning of couture.
JTS Skirts Convention
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | Helen Chernikoff | Staff Writer

A few years ago, thanks to a change in policy, gay rabbinical students at the Jewish Theological Seminary were finally able to come out of the closet.

Now clothes are also emerging from the closet, so to speak — included as a topic worthy of scholarly study at the Conservative movement’s flagship institution.

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Oprah learns about chasidic culture.
Oprah Goes Orthodox (Sort Of)
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | Julie Wiener | Associate Editor

Not since Melanie Griffith donned a sheitel to play an undercover cop in the 1992 film “A Stranger Among Us,” has an A-list celebrity (not counting Matisyahu) brought an entourage a film crew into chasidic Brooklyn.

But in a two-part series beginning Feb. 12, talk show diva Oprah Winfrey’s new TV program brings viewers to Crown Heights and Borough Park, where chasidic families she interviews, according to the “Oprah’s Next Chapter” website, “lift the veil, revealing the secrets to their usually private and mysterious way of life.”

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Playing for the Tribe: Growing interest in Jewish educational video games.
Game Time For Teachers
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 | Julie Wiener | Associate Editor

David Bryfman, director of the Jewish Education Project’s New Center for Collaborative Leadership, would love one day to see Hebrew school teachers team up with computer programmers to develop educational games.

In the meantime, he’s hoping to get more Jewish educators trained in “games-based learning” — exploring ways to add high-tech and low-tech play in their classrooms, learning how to use free game-designing platforms like ARIS, SCVNGR and Gamestar Mechanic.

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Sweet dreams: Yiddish lullabies, like Masha Benya’s, are experiencing a revival with the help of Workmen’s Circle.
Rock-a-bye, My Baby, With A Yiddish Melody
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week

Somewhere in the world a restless child is waiting for sleep to come. A doting mother leans over her offspring, murmuring a song to speed the little one to slumber. The odds are pretty good that the lullaby with which she soothes the child is in not in Yiddish.

Lorin Sklamberg and the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeiter Ring probably won’t shift that probability much, but they’re going to try this winter, with the Klezmatics founder and lead singer teaching a series of workshops on the Yiddish lullaby beginning on Feb. 7.

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Leaving for L.A. later this year, Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn is preparing a “Social Sermon” for a social congregation. Steve Lipman
Crowd Sourcing The Sermon
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 | Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn, the Los Angeles-born spiritual leader of an Upper West Side synagogue who is returning to his hometown later this year, says his decision to have the major components of one of his farewell sermons contributed via Facebook and other web-based technologies isn’t an enigma.

But his reason is an Enigma.

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In prayer, in transit: Two views of the JCC in Manhattan by the street artist “Specter.” Photos by Lois Stavsky, Dani Mozeson
Street Artist Marks JCC’s 10th Anniversary
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 | Caroline Lagnado | Special To The Jewish Week

When planning a major anniversary, an organization might introduce a new logo or invite guests to a gala event. The JCC in Manhattan, now marking its 10th year, chose to hire a street artist to paint a community portrait.

The result is a six-part mural-like installation completely filling the Laurie M. Tisch Gallery’s 100 feet of exhibition space in the center’s lobby. This unique commemoration samples the various people who have found a home at the JCC.

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Sanctity or sensationalism? Cover of Conservative movement’s magazine, with picture of hand-holding women wearing tefillin.
Women Rabbis Question Suggestive Tefillin Photo
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 | Stewart Ain | Staff Writer

Was the winter issue of Kolot, the magazine of the Conservative movement, “stooping to sensationalism” or raising questions about women wearing tefillin?

Those were the questions asked in a letter to the editor by Conservative women rabbis in response to the magazine’s cover picture of two women holding hands while wearing tefillin. The letter called the photograph “disturbing and beneath the magazine that represents the unified voice of our movement.”


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“Soul to Soul” stars Tony Perry, left, Magda Fishman and Elmore James.
Common Chords: Black Soul, Jewish Soul
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 | Steve Lipman | Staff Writer

On a Midtown stage next week, the week of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, two African-American singers will sing a medley of traditional slavery-inspired blues and jazz songs. Within a few minutes they will be joined by an Israeli-born performer, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors — and the trio will sing together in English and Yiddish.

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