Good Monday morning, New York. We’re exhausted from the NYC Marathon — we actually had to walk uphill to watch it pass by on First Avenue.
ON THE DOCKET: Nine members of a bizarre Orthodox sect dubbed the “Jewish Taliban” are being tried over allegations of child kidnapping in a federal court in White Plains, New York. (JTA)
- Other members of the group, formally called Lev Tahor, are in Iraq, trying to cross the border into Iran and settle there, according to activists who have been monitoring their activities.
RABBIS AND WIVES: Two women rabbis who first met while undergraduates in the joint Jewish Studies program between List College and Columbia University tied the knot at the Conservative movement’s Ramah camp in Palmer, Massachusetts — becoming the first-ever same-sex Conservative rabbis to be wed. (JTA)
- Rabbi Ariella Rosen and Rabbi Becca Walker were married in an egalitarian ceremony in which some blessings were changed to say “bride and bride,” and each woman broke a glass.
NEW YORK NOSH: Padma Lakshmi visited the Lower East Side for an episode of her Hulu food program “Taste the Nation.” (JTA)
- In the episode, titled “Happy Challah Days,” the author, model and food mogul stops at Russ and Daughters appetizing shop on Houston Street, the Tenement Museum, the Pickle Guys and New York’s Central Synagogue, where she discusses the history of Hanukkah with Rabbi Ari Lorge.
@%#&!: Bronx native Susie Essman — who plays the volcanic, foul-mouthed Susie Green on Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” — speaks to our colleague Andrew Lapin about the show’s longevity, her views on “cancel culture” and playing Jewish mothers. (JTA)
AROUND THE JEWISH WORLD, WITH JTA
- A theater in London apologized for the “unconscious bias” that led a playwright to give an avaricious billionaire character the Jewish-sounding name “Hershel Fink.”
- Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking at a virtual ADL conference, denounced the “anti-Jewish hatred” that leads some to single out Israel in their attacks.
- Ron Kampeas reports on the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas, where former President Trump appeared in a video and presidential hopeful Nikki Haley sharply criticized the pro-Israel lobby for its bipartisanship outreach to Democrats.
JEWS & SPORTS
ESPN does a deep dive into the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team, which is enjoying the longest active winning streak in men’s college basketball. Head coach Elliot Steinmetz’s secret weapon: Y.U.’s recruiting pool “may be small, but it’s national, even global.” (ESPN)
REMEMBERING
Aaron Feuerstein, the devout Orthodox businessman who became known as the “Mensch of Malden Mills” for continuing to pay his workers even after the textile factory he owned burned to the ground, died at 95 on Thursday. Feuerstein also bucked the trend that saw industrial manufacturing leave the area by rebuilding the family-run factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
PEOPLE & PLACES
Meet Josh Kramer, the new New York regional director of the American Jewish Committee. (Cleveland Jewish News)
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WHAT’S ON TODAY
The 22nd annual Rutgers Jewish Film Festival is underway, now through Sunday, Nov. 21. The festival features films from the United States, Israel, Germany and Switzerland and online discussions with filmmakers, scholars and guests. All films will be available in the “Virtual Cinema” and five film screenings will be presented in person at Rutgers Cinema and the Princeton Garden Theatre. For more information or to purchase virtual film tickets, visit BildnerCenter.Rutgers.edu.
Jewish Theological Seminary’s fall learning series, “Six Days Shall You Labor: Perspectives on Work in Jewish Text and Tradition,” continues with Dr. Jonathan Ray, Samuel Eig Professor of Jewish Studies, Georgetown University, discussing the stereotypes and reality of Jewish work and economic roles in the medieval world. Register here. 2:00 p.m.
Join Hadar for its Fall Lecture Series with Rabbi Ethan Tucker as he revisits familiar and obscure rabbinic midrashim — law, legends and folklore — which, on the surface, seem fantastical. Register for all three sessions here. 8:00 p.m.
Photo, top: A man crosses a street in Brooklyn’s Hasidic South Williamsburg neighborhood as runners compete during the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon, Nov. 7, 2021. The 26.2-mile race returned after a forced break in 2020, drawing 30,000 runners. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
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