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Jewish culture

Director Rachel Israel, right, and producer Shai Korman arrive at the premiere of 'The Floaters' during the 2025 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, August 3, 2025. (Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images via JTA)
August 7, 2026, 1:53 am
With 2 new films, director Rachel Israel offers comic relief for Diaspora Jews on edge
In ‘The Floaters’ and ‘Influenced,’ the New York filmmaker shows Jewish identity as the backdrop for friendship, family and ambition rather than antisemitism or crisis
By Stephen Silver
Left, the Psychedelicatessen exhibition poster, 2026. Right, The artist Steve Marcus in his New York City studio, 2018. (Steve Marcus, Sid Kaplan)
July 26, 2026, 3:03 am
‘Rabbinic trips’: NY exhibit blends groovy psychedelic counterculture, Jewish tradition
On display through December at YIVO and the Center for Jewish History, visual artist Steve Marcus’s work brings together influences from Maimonides to the Grateful Dead
By Cathryn J. Prince
Jewish Culture Month mascot Mr. Pickle hops onto the psychotherapy couch at the event launch party in London, May 2026. (Sophie Shaw)
June 17, 2026, 3:33 pm
Touting ‘Less Oy, More Joy,’ UK Jewish Culture Month celebrates Jewish creators others shun
Organizers admit that first-ever festival is response to antisemitic blacklisting in wake of Oct. 7, while achievements are so numerous tours can be crafted around existing museum installations
By Florit Shoihet
Artifacts featuring three early 20th-century Jewish psychics — from left, Terfren Laila, Erik Jan Hanussen and Abraham Hochman — are featured in the YIVO exhibit, 'Jews Are Magic.' (JTA)
May 26, 2026, 4:59 pm
NYC exhibit ‘Jews are Magic’ traces Jewish occultism from palm readers to psychics
Opening today, YIVO display spotlights fortune-tellers, mind-readers, wonder rabbis, and the enduring appeal of the supernatural in moments of social anxiety
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Illustrative: A woman lays out tarot cards in the back of her shop in Norfolk, Virginia, June 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Finley)
May 20, 2026, 6:17 pm
Did medieval Jews hide a ‘secret synagogue’ in tarot cards? Boston exhibit turns over clues
‘Torah in the Tarot,’ named for researcher Stav Appel’s book of the same name, runs through June at the Vilna Shul, makes claim the deck was created by early crypto-Jews
By Rich Tenorio
A photo of the interior of Deborah Brodie and Jay Brill's residence in Rockville, Maryland. (Jonathan Edelman via JTA)
May 4, 2026, 1:27 am
After Maryland teacher’s death, 200-piece Judaica collection finds new life in Jewish museum
Amassed by Deborah Brodie over 35 years as hands-on tool for students with special needs, collection goes to Capital Jewish Museum with help of instagram account documenting inheritance stories
By Grace Gilson
Pinchas Cohen speaks at the USC Asian Health and Longevity Symposium on February 27, 2026. (Courtesy via JTA)
April 17, 2026, 2:50 am
Many peptides are named to sound like Yiddish words. Here’s why
Pinchas Cohen is the Jewish USC researcher behind discoveries like SHLP (‘schlep’), SHMOOSE and MENTSH, biological molecules that may help cure ailments and reverse aging
By Asaf Elia-Shalev
Illustrative: A rabbi leads a blessing with wine in hand and tallit draped over his shoulders (Courtesy / Moti Dolgin via JTA)
March 27, 2026, 4:14 pm
As Americans drink much less wine, kosher demand stays strong
A built-in ritual market and evolving consumer base are helping kosher libation outperform the industry, even as fewer secular Jews go the traditional route
By Asaf Elia-Shalev
Jewish Mandarin Chinese speakers gather in New York City roughly once a month to speak the language and share their experiences. (Jackie Hajdenberg/ JTA)
March 14, 2026, 2:13 am
For Chinese-speaking Jews in New York, ‘Mazel Tofu’ offers a new kind of community
The collective of Jewish Mandarin speakers formed two years ago through an only-in-NYC tale of serendipity and Jewish geography, and now meets monthly
By Jackie Hajdenberg
A man wearing a wolf costume with his daughter dressed as Little Red Riding Hood shops at a stall in the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, which was operating at limited capacity because of the war with Iran, during Purim in Jerusalem, March 4, 2026. (Theia Chatelle/ JTA)
March 4, 2026, 7:52 pm
Jerusalem marks a wartime Purim a day later than most, a tradition born in what is now Iran
With special status as a walled city during the time of the megilah story, the Israeli capital celebrates Shushan Purim with costumes, feasting and periodic runs to the bomb shelter
By Theia Chatelle
Female emissaries of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement gather for a group photo in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on February 6, 2026. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
February 8, 2026, 9:20 pm
From far corners of the Jewish world, the women of Chabad gather in freezing Brooklyn
Annual gathering of female emissaries provides a respite for those on the front lines of religious life in far-flung communities, performing outreach and providing vital services
By Grace Gilson
In this photo taken July 5, 2014, a server hands a small plate to a customer from a variety of dishes on a food cart at Bo Lings Chinese restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri. (AP/Charlie Riedel)
December 25, 2025, 6:14 am
Merry Jewish Christmas: How Chinese food became a time-honored tradition for US Jews
‘Chinese food and a movie’ has long been the trope of American Jewish Christmas, as, like other minority groups, Jews have created ways to adapt to the societies in which they live
By Samira Mehta
Henry H. Sapoznik, author of 'The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City.' (Audrey Martinovitch)
December 14, 2025, 3:50 am
From Black cantors to kosher health nuts, new book reveals lost histories of Yiddish NYC
Great for Hanukkah, ‘The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City’ by Henry H. Sapoznik is not your usual guidebook. In fact, many of the sites listed in it haven’t existed for decades
By Zack Rothbart
Ashriel and Maayan Ashush with their children Odeh and Naya at Bet Halev in Varkala, India, February 28, 2025. (Courtesy)
November 16, 2025, 11:48 am
In India, a Jewish home becomes a place for traumatized Israelis and others to breathe
After traveling the world, Maayan and Ashriel Ashush opened Bet Halev in the beach town of Varkala, welcoming thousands of Jews, non-Jews and those bearing scars from October 7
By Bernard Hacker
In her new book, 'As a Jew,' Sarah Hurwitz argues how Jews can reclaim a tradition that has too often been shaped by others' prejudices and ignorance. (HarperOne via JTA)
October 15, 2025, 4:24 am
Sarah Hurwitz wants Diaspora Jews to stop apologizing and reclaim their story
In her new book ‘As a Jew,’ the former White House speechwriter confronts the challenges of appreciating Jewish tradition at a time of rising antisemitism and a polarizing debate over Israel
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
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