Nextbook–February 10, 2009
Rarely do secular Jews picture the ultra-Orthodox building a snowman, sprawled piss-drunk across a table, or half-naked and covered in mud at the Dead Sea. But Israeli photographer Menahem Kahana’s exhibition of provocative, often humorous photographs—on display at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv through June 30—reveals a side of this community [...]
The Jerusalem Post–July 3, 2008
There is more than one way to serve God, the popular but controversial haredi singer Lipa Schmeltzer aims to tell his audience on his new album, A Poshiter Yid, or “a simple Jew.” One of those ways is music.
Given that this is his first album to appear since a group of [...]
The Jerusalem Post–Dec. 31, 2007
When one of the two warring factions of the Satmar Hassidim was looking to advertise its annual commemoration of the late Grand Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum’s escape from the Nazis, it decided to hire a pro.
It is after dark when Dave Porter, a burly 38-year-old Irish American with a tuft of blond [...]
The Jerusalem Post–November 1, 2007
The menu reads like many others – hamburgers, hot dogs and a slew of meat sandwiches. But on Thursday nights, the special is cholent. And behind the counter is a chef with peyot (sidelocks).
While food carts are a ubiquitous staple of New York culinary life, the arrival in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Williamsburg [...]
The New York Times–January 28, 2007
AT 10 o’clock on a recent Thursday night, the corner of 53rd Street and 13th Avenue in the heart of Borough Park was bustling with traffic. In this neighborhood, an ultra-Orthodox stronghold for the past decade, a sea of religious Jews clad in traditional black and white garb scurried in [...]
