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Ricky Jay attends the premiere of "Life of Pi" at the 50th annual New York Film Festival opening night gala, on September 28, 2012, in New York. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
November 27, 2018, 12:39 pm
Magician and actor Ricky Jay, of ‘Boogie Nights,’ dies at 72
Jewish entertainer consulted on dozens of movies, dazzled audiences with his sleight-of-hand artistry and was a historian of eccentric performers
By Bernard Condon
How to get rid of scorpions from a book of spells included in the mysterious magic-filled black suitcase given to Dr. Max Brodny in Moscow in 1959. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel)
November 9, 2018, 2:36 pm
The mysterious journey of a suitcase of magical amulets from Moscow to Jerusalem
A small tattered black valise filled with Hebrew scrolls was thrust at an American doctor in 1959. Six decades later, they are enchanting scholars at the National Library of Israel
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Detail from 'The Witch of Endor Raising The Spirit of Samuel,' by William Blake, circa 1800. Pen and watercolor on paper, 283 x 423 mm (Public domain, via wikipedia commons)
August 5, 2018, 5:22 am
Is Kabbalah real? One scientist sees no trick in humanity’s esoteric traditions
In his charmingly written ‘Real Magic,’ parapsychologist Dean Radin conjures up an argument that paranormal activity may indeed exist
By Jen Maidenberg
Escape artist Harry Houdini is shown before being lowered in a packing crate into the ice-covered Detroit River in 1907. (AP Photo)
June 22, 2018, 2:07 am
How Harry Houdini stayed chained to his roots as a rabbi’s son
A Maryland exhibit opening June 24 highlights the life and mysterious death of the world famous escape artist, born in Hungary as Erik Weisz
By Rich Tenorio
A 5th century ‘curse’ tablet written in Jewish Aramaic from Antioch, Turkey, which was recently deciphered by Tel Aviv University doctoral student Rivka Elitzur-Leiman. (Princeton University)
May 16, 2018, 5:53 pm
Ancient Jewish gambler’s chariot race curse found in decoded 5th Century scroll
A nailed-shut amulet uncovered in Turkey in the 1930s, written in Jewish Aramaic and newly translated, pleads for help from Balaam’s ass at the track
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
David Copperfield in New York City, Nov. 7, 2016. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
April 21, 2018, 2:36 am
David Copperfield forced by lawsuit to reveal signature trick
Audience member claims he suffered brain and body injuries while participating in show
By JTA
Israeli mentalist Lior Suchard, right, gestures as he stands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the annual toast with the foreign media in Jerusalem, January 10, 2018. (AP/Tsafrir Abayov)
January 11, 2018, 9:06 pm
Netanyahu drawing stumps mentalist Lior Suchard
PM had apparently agreed to make a sketch on stage, but then showed up with the doodle already in his pocket
By TOI staff
A bronze statue of the Satanic icon Baphomet, currently residing in a shed outside The Satanic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts (Courtesy)
October 26, 2016, 4:36 pm
In haunted Salem, a Jewish church founder preaches the art of ‘Satanic’ social change
At a former funeral home in a town inextricably linked to witchcraft, secular Jew Malcolm Jarry opens a new heaquarters for his Satanic Temple, a controversial movement with up to 50,000 members worldwide
By Matt Lebovic
Lior Suchard and Barbra Streisand (courtesy)
August 25, 2016, 7:32 pm
When Barbra Streisand went ‘mental’ for an Israeli mind-reader
Meet Lior Suchard, the mentalist who just wrapped a month of halftime performances on Babs’s concert tour
By Matt Lebovic
Illustrative: In this photo from April 1, 2010, activists from a civil organization reenact an execution scene in front of the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, as they protest a possible beheading of a Lebanese man accused of witchcraft in Saudi Arabia. (AP/Bilal Hussein, File)
August 23, 2016, 7:13 pm
Saudi jails man for ‘using sorcerer to bewitch employer’
Egyptian sentenced to 6 years for witchcraft, passing military info to Iran and violating labor laws
By AP and TOI staff
Author Helen Maryles Shankman brings X-Men sensibilities to Holocaust horrors in Wlodawa, Poland. (courtesy)
May 27, 2016, 5:31 pm
Raised with miracle of parents’ survival, author writes magical Holocaust tales
With the X-Men and vampires as her influences, Helen Maryles Shankman brings ‘fabulist’ realism to Wlodawa, Poland
By Matt Lebovic
Israeli magician Cagliostro sets Guinness world record by teaching a card trick to 1,576 school children in Haifa, June 1, 2015. (Courtesy of Beit HaGefen)
June 1, 2015, 7:39 pm
Israeli magician sets Guinness record
Israel Cagliostro teaches 1,576 Haifa school children a peace-themed card trick
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Magician Ran Gafner performs a close-up trick at a patron's table. (photo credit: photo by Shivi Isman)
November 4, 2014, 7:30 pm
And now for the next trick, making Hebrew disappear
It’s no Hogwarts, but Sorcerers’ Night, a magical comedy act, is shuffling the deck on English-language entertainment in Tel Aviv
By Debra Kamin
A Hamsa in the Zichron Tuvia neighborhood (photo credit: Shmuel Bar-Am)
November 1, 2014, 9:46 am
The devil is in the details on a magical mystery tour of Jerusalem
Tales from the dark side as our travel guru chases demons, counters curses, tests potions, and discovers the advantages of giving birth to ugly babies
By Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am
Bette Midler in the 1993 film 'Hocus Pocus,' a comedic twist on the Salem witch trials of 1692 (photo courtesy: Walt Disney Pictures)
October 31, 2014, 4:26 pm
More than ‘Hocus Pocus’ to Salem’s Jewish past
Biblical history and Mosaic Law permeated the lives — and deaths — of the Massachusetts Bay community which would not ‘suffer a witch to live’
By Matt Lebovic
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