Good morning, New York. Hope you survived yesterday’s Great Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp Blackout. It took us over six hours to find out that old weird tip for losing unwanted belly fat.
WINNING TOUCH: Brooklyn native David Julius, a professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on Monday. (JTA)
- The prize committee cited Julius and fellow scientist Ardem Patapoutian’s research into “receptors for temperature and touch,” which have improved treatments for pain caused by a range of diseases.
- Julius was born in 1955 and grew up in Brighton Beach, which he described as “a landing pad for Eastern European immigrants like my grandparents, who fled Czarist Russia and antisemitism in pursuit of a better life.”
POWDER KEG: Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-Bronx, spoke to the annual meeting of the Jewish Federations of North America Sunday, calling for vigilance in the face of rising extremism. (JFNA)
- Quotable: “We are sitting on a powder keg of antisemitism, and the Jewish community and all of us cannot afford to be complacent,” the vice chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security said. “The stakes are high, and we have to find [solutions] with the urgency of now.”
- Related: JFNA announced the launch of a campaign to expand its security program to every federation in the country, an initiative that will cost $54 million.
NAME GAME: Our partners at Kveller have a list of “18 Jewish Baby Names Inspired by New York,” including Barbra (as spelled by you-know-who); Grace (as in Paley, the bard of Greenwich Village); and Barney, inspired by Barney Greengrass, the Upper West Side sturgeon king.
AROUND THE JEWISH WORLD, WITH JTA
- Atlanta lawyer David Schoen, who defended Donald Trump at the former president’s second impeachment trial, was elected national chairman of the Zionist Organization of America.
- Spanish authorities are trying to identify descendants of Jews protected from the Nazis by Ángel Sanz Briz, a diplomat nicknamed the “Spanish Schindler.”
- A one-man show in England explores the many facets of its author and performer’s identity: Brazilian, Lebanese, Jewish and gay.
REMEMBERING
Alan Kalter, who served as the announcer and comic foil for David Letterman during his two-decade run on CBS’ “Late Show,” died Monday at a hospital in Stamford, Connecticut. He was 78. Kalter was born in Brooklyn and raised in the Long Island communities of Little Neck and Cedarhurst. Rabbi Joshua Hammerman of Temple Beth El in Stamford told congregants, “Beyond his fame and his golden voice, Alan was a past president of TBE and a true mensch, who was deeply committed to Jewish values and the Jewish people and was especially devoted to this, his home community.” (Newsweek)
PEOPLE & PLACES
UJA-Federation of New York announced its 2021 Ruskay Fellows, 19 rising leaders in the New York Jewish nonprofit sector “who are ready to make an impact on the Jewish community.”
OUT OF TOWN
Naomi Jacobson is reviving her performance as Dr. Ruth Westheimer in the one-woman show, “Becoming Dr. Ruth,” at Theater J in Washington, D.C., through Oct. 22.
WALKING TOUR
“Mendelssohn on the Hudson” is a self-guided historical and musical walking tour, experienced via smartphone or another internet-enabled device, that follows the footsteps of the German Jews and others who fled 1930s Nazi Germany to settle in Washington Heights. The self-directed historical tour route – created by Inwood Art Works – includes West 181 Street to the Heather Garden in Fort Tryon Park, and points in between. Explore and listen to each episode here.
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Learn about new developments in Israel-Palestinian Authority relations from Adam Rasgon, whose recent New York Times piece explored the issue. Register for this Israel Policy Forum webinar here. 2:00 p.m.
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Join the Museum of Jewish Heritage for a launch program for “What They Didn’t Burn: Uncovering My Father’s Holocaust Secrets,” Mel Laytner’s new book about desperate survivors turned hopeful refugees who rebuilt their shattered lives in America, all the while struggling with the lingering trauma that has impacted their children to this day. Moderated by Jane Eisner. Register here. 7:00 p.m.
Lilith magazine and Shakespeare & Co. invite you to celebrate the paperback publication of “Evening: A Novel” by Nessa Rapoport. The author will be in conversation with her daughter, writer and editor Mattie Kahn. RSVP here. 7:00 p.m.
Join UJA-Federation of New York and The Jewish Week for a conversation between Dara Horn — author of the new essay collection, “People Love Dead Jews: Reports From a Haunted Present” — and Abraham Foxman, national director emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League. Their wide-ranging conversation will touch on Jewish memory, history, identity and antisemitism. Monday, Oct. 11, 6:00 p.m. Register here.
Photo, top: Brooklyn native David Julius, a professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, was one of two recipients of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. (University of California, San Francisco)
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