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SIDE EFFECTS: Nearly 1 in 6 adult Jewish New Yorkers experienced financial setbacks during the pandemic, and three quarters of Jewish New Yorkers who said they have a substance abuse problem said it worsened during that period. (Jewish Week via JTA)
- That’s according to a forthcoming new study by UJA-Federation, which surveyed 4,400 Jews in and around New York City to guide its philanthropic efforts in the wake of the pandemic.
¿QUÉ PASA?: Spain promised citizenship to descendants of Jews persecuted and expelled during the Inquisition. At a rally in New York this week, activists and politicians asked why the Spanish government is slow-walking their applications. (Jewish Week via JTA)
SHELF LIFE: A half-day conference Sunday will urge archivists at museums and libraries to use their holdings and programs to foster understanding of and fight antisemitism. (Jewish Week via JTA)
- “We need to bring the history of antisemitism to life in order to combat it,” said Bernard Michael, president and CEO of New York’s Center for Jewish History, which is co-sponsoring the virtual, public event. The presidents of Princeton and Harvard Universities and the Librarian of Congress will take part.
AROUND THE JEWISH WORLD, WITH JTA
- Former football great and Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker canceled a fundraiser after learning that its hosts used swastika imagery in their anti-vax advocacy.
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “every” option was on the table if Iran does not engage in a good faith effort to negotiate the U.S. reentry into the nuclear deal.
- Sefaria, the online repository of Jewish text, has added a monumental German translation of the Talmud to its library.
TODAY’S BIG IDEA
Sally Rooney speaks onstage during a conference in Pasadena, California on January 17, 2020. (Erik Voake/Getty Images for Hulu)
Erika Dreifus was distressed when novelist Sally Rooney (above) said she wouldn’t allow her latest novel to be published in Hebrew by an Israeli publisher. Then she remembered how a 19th-century reader confronted Charles Dickens about antisemitism, showing the possibilities for engaging with authors who let you down. (JTA)
NEW YORK NOSHES
DIY: Carnegie Deli and the Brooklyn-based Matzo Project are selling a do-it-yourself home chicken soup kit.
- The $79 Better Than Bubbe’s Matzo Ball Soup Kit includes eight servings of the (not kosher) soup plus the ingredients for matzah balls.
- The deli’s iconic 7th Avenue restaurant closed in 2016, but the brand sells its meats and desserts online.
SHABBAT SHALOM
It’s never too late to change, as a 70-year-old Abraham finds out when he sets out this week on the journey of a lifetime. “What emerges, as the journey progresses, is Abraham’s dogged resolve to always move forward despite whatever difficulties he encounters, and realize his covenantal destiny,” writes Rabbi Gerald C. Skolnik of the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens.
- More wisdom: Judaism is a tradition of study and ritual, but also of song, writes Rabbi David Wolpe.
WHAT’S ON
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To celebrate the 100th anniversary of their membership in the Reform movement, Temple Shaaray Tefila presents a conversation with Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union of Reform Judaism; Dr. Andrew Rehfeld, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; Rabbi Hara Person, chief executive of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and Cantor Claire Franco, president of the American Conference of Cantors. Moderated by Rabbi Joel Mosbacher, senior rabbi of Temple Shaaray Tefila. Register at www.shaaraytefilanyc.org to attend in person or online. Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Photo, top: Protestors in front of the Spanish Consulate in New York City rally for those seeking citizenship under a law meant to repatriate Jews with Spanish heritage, Oct. 11, 2021. (Julia Gergely)
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