Good morning, New York. Happy 93rd birthday to celebrated Jewish cartoonist and author Jules Feiffer, who was born in the Bronx on this date in 1929.
Reward: The Anti-Defamation League is offering up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals who assaulted a 21-year-old Hasidic man in Crown Heights early Saturday morning.
- Related: Antisemitic hate crimes accounted for 38 percent — a plurality — of the total confirmed hate incidents last year, according to the NYPD Hate Crimes Dashboard.
$ for security: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is due at UJA-Federation of New York headquarters today to reiterate his support for doubling the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $360 million. Earlier this week, Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-New Jersey) and John Katko (R-New York) urged fellow lawmakers to support increased funding for the NSGP in the wake of the synagogue hostage-taking in Texas.
“Garden” variety: “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” is a beloved novel and film about a privileged Italian Jewish family on the eve of World War II. Now it has been reimagined as an opera, and composer Ricky Ian Gordon talks to The New York Jewish Week about setting the story to music for performances this week at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan.
The curious RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal library is being auctioned online this week. It includes more than 30 books about Jewish subjects, such as “It Takes a Dream: The Story of Hadassah” by Marlin Levin and “Kaddish” by Leon Wieseltier.
The race is on: The Jewish Vote endorsed Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-Bronx/Westchester) for reelection. The progressive group is an arm of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice. Bowman has been a critic of Israeli policy, but also took heat from the far left for visiting the country with a delegation sponsored by the left-leaning J Street.
Icecapade: Hailey Kops has plans to attend Touro College’s nursing school in Manhattan, but first she is headed to Beijing. The Modern Orthodox Jew from West Orange, New Jersey will be representing Israel in pairs figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Remembering: Bronx-born Len Tillem, who offered legal advice in a thick New York accent on radio shows broadcast in Northern California, died Jan. 13 at age 77. Tillem graduated from Far Rockaway High School in 1962, attended Brooklyn College and got his law degree at New York University. Drawn to San Francisco during the “Summer of Love,” he turned to radio to promote his law practice, eventually hosting a series of popular advice shows. His catch phrases included, “How come you’re cawlin’ a loy-yuh?” (J. The Jewish News of Northern California)
INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
The Lonka Project brought together 300 leading professional photographers from 35 countries to capture Holocaust survivors in a unique and memorable statement about their lives. Join a virtual panel discussion about the project with Jim Hollander, founder and co-director of The Lonka Project; Yigal Cohen, CEO, The Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum; and Sonia Kam, who survived the Holocaust as a “hidden child” and whose photograph is in the collection. Presented by The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights. Register here. Today, 3:00 p.m.
The Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization are launching a social media campaign ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 27, asking users to upload the name of one of the 6 million who perished in the Holocaust to their Instagram story using a specially designed filter. The “Forever in Their Name” filter includes a space for the victim’s name and a memorial candle as its background.
Photo, top: Anthony Ciaramitaro as Giorgio and Rachel Blaustein as Micol in the New York City Opera/National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene production of the opera, “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.” (Sarah Shatz)
The New York Jewish Week brings you the stories behind the headlines, keeping you connected to Jewish life in New York. Help sustain the reporting you trust by donating today.
