Good morning, New York, and happy birthday to Carole King, who turns 80 today! Read an ode to the Brooklyn-raised Jewish singer-songwriter from our friends at Alma.
Building (Brooklyn) bridges: Lincoln Restler (in photo, left) won his City Council seat in Brooklyn with a sweeping 63% of the ranked-choice vote. The Jewish Democrat talks to The New York York Jewish Week about how he built a following among progressives and the area’s large haredi Orthodox population.
Shul vs. shul: Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline weighed in on the dispute between New York City’s Congregation Shearith Israel and the congregation that meets at Newport, Rhode Island’s famed Touro Synagogue.
- As we reported last week, Shearith controls the Touro building, and wants to replace its tenant’s current leadership.
- Cicilline, who is Jewish, released a statement saying, “The filing of official eviction proceedings against the Congregation in the District Court of Rhode Island is shameful and egregious.”
East side story: Filming has begun on a TV adaptation of “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s very Jewish, very New York novel. The author and show runner tweeted scenes being shot at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan.
High marks: One of the American architects behind the design of New York’s High Line and the renovation of MOMA was among the winners Tuesday of Israel’s prestigious Wolf Prize in the arts and sciences. Elizabeth Diller, of the firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, was recognized “for her exceptional and influential work connecting architecture to artistic practice, engaged in the public domain.” (Times of Israel)
Yiddish, she wrote: “Oedipus in Brooklyn” and “A Jewish Refugee in New York” are two of the recent titles in a spate of new translations of works by overlooked women Yiddish writers. The New York Times profiles the women scholars who are bringing the books back to light.
TODAY’S BIG IDEA
Jews across the political spectrum roundly condemned a flawed Amnesty International report calling Israel an apartheid state. However, writes Matt Nosanchuk, co-founder of the New York Jewish Agenda, defending Israel in the face of harsh criticism is not the same as working toward “a peacefully shared society for Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel.”
WHAT’S ON TODAY
City Council member Julie Menin (D-Upper East Side), the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, will host an “Antisemitism Town Hall,” with representatives of the NYPD and Jewish groups discussing ways to prevent and report bias crimes. Register in advance by clicking here. 7:00 p.m.
Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, and Brooke Baldwin discuss what history teaches about intolerant societies, the roots of America’s prejudices, and how to fight for a better future. Sign up here for this free 92Y event. 7:00 p.m.
