Short Takes

Back In The Old Neighborhood

11/13/2012 | Robert Goldblum | Managing Editor

They may have been sitting in plush chairs in the ornate sanctuary of a synagogue in the Silk Stocking district, but for one night last week authors and journalists Leon Wieseltier and Yossi Klein Halevi were two sons of Brooklyn back in their native borough.

Big Data, Big Crush

11/13/2012 | Helen Chernikoff | Staff Writer

Jews who find geeks cute finally have a replacement for Jonah Lehrer.

But it is not getting in the way of Kosherfest, the annual trade show of the kosher food industry scheduled for Nov.13-14.

Remember him, the intellectual It boy? He fell from grace this summer after revelations that he fabricated Bob Dylan quotes.

Acoustic Strings Attached To Israel

11/06/2012 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week

Oren Neiman is sitting in his Westchester apartment with no electricity, yet another victim of Hurricane Sandy. Fortunately, his musical partner Gilad Ben Zvi still has power, “and we’re spending a lot of time there,” Neiman sheepishly admits.

Kosherfest Carries On

11/06/2012 | Amy Spiro | Special To The Jewish Week

Hurricane Sandy may have crippled New York and New Jersey, knocking out power, displacing thousands from their homes, complicating the elections and, after some mayoral flip-flopping, leading to the cancellation of the New York Marathon.

But it is not getting in the way of Kosherfest, the annual trade show of the kosher food industry scheduled for Nov.13-14.

Mitt Romney, Your Bubbe

10/23/2012 | Helen Chernikoff

Big Bird. Binders. “A bunch of stuff.” Another Internet meme has joined the slew spawned by the election. But this time, unlike the Irish “malarkey,” it’s got a Jewish ethnic angle.

Mitt Romney used the word “tumult” several times in Monday night’s debate to refer to the results of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy in the Middle East, appropriately stirring up a storm of discussion online and in traditional media.

Wiesel And Hanks: New Fast Friends

10/23/2012 | Gary Rosenblatt

Few would put the names Elie Wiesel, Tom Hanks and Sting in the same sentence, much less the men themselves in the same room.

But there they were last week in the majestic Celeste Bartos Forum of the New York Public Library where The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity honored the Hollywood actor, producer and humanitarian with its inaugural Arts for Humanity Award, and the famed British musician performed for his celebrity friend