Culture

A lawn chair sits as nature takes over the indoor pool area of Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel on July 5, 2012 in Liberty, New York. The hotel, closed since 1986, is one of many Borscht Belt hotels that shut down over the years. (John Moore/Getty Images)

January 7, 2025, 2:04 pm

The Borscht Belt hotels were cornerstones of Jewish family life that have no real replacement

A Jewish nonprofit executive argues for a contemporary successor to the Catskills, where families can be together in a low-key way.

By Sara Fredman Aeder

Attendees wear hats reading "Make America Pray Again" before former U.S. President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump addresses Christian broadcasters at the National Religious Broadcasters International Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, on Feb. 22, 2024. (Kevin Wurm/AFP via Getty Images)

November 6, 2024, 12:21 pm

What Christian nationalism has in store for Jews and other religious minorities

Christian nationalists, who make up a segment of Donald Trump’s base, are working to pull the country in a direction that scholars agree isn’t very hospitable for Jews.

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Love and marriage. (Credit: Hoang Dong Photo/Pixabay)

August 16, 2024, 1:42 pm

Online AI-powered Jewish speed-dating event hopes to draw 5,000 people

The event, held hours after Tu B’Av (the “Day of Love”) bills itself as the “biggest speed-dating event ever.”

By Howard Blas

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff affixes a mezuzah at the vice president’s residence in Washington, D.C., in 2021. (Photo courtesy of The White House)

August 16, 2024, 9:25 am

A mezuzah in a Harris-Emhoff White House? It might not be the first.

Doug Emhoff said he’d put a mezuzah in the White House. Whether Jewish law requires him to is a matter of dispute.

By Unitha Cherry, Louis Keene | Forward

'Bachelorette' Jenn Tran gives a rose to Jewish contestant Jeremy Simon. (Disney/John Fleenor)

August 15, 2024, 5:18 pm

A ‘Bachelorette’ contestant this season is the great-great-grandson of the last chief rabbi of Kovno

“Honestly the idea of Jewish-Buddhist kids sounds fun. I feel like it would be fun with you.”

By Jackie Hajdenberg

Leslie Howard as Sir Percy Blakeney with Merle Oberon as Lady Blakeney in “The Scarlet Pimpernel” (1934)
(Tunbridge photo for London Films, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

August 13, 2024, 6:27 pm

Did ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ inspire Raoul Wallenberg’s Holocaust heroism?

Wallenberg saw an anti-Nazi remake about the superhero with a double life. ‘Pimpernel’ also inspired Stan Lee and Larry David

By Beth Harpaz

Portrait of Gertrude Stein (Carl Van Vechten, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

September 21, 2023, 11:37 am

She was an outsider, a Jew and an iconoclastic artist — kind of like Picasso

A new exhibit in Paris explores the friendship between Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso

By Mervyn Rothstein

March 27, 2023, 10:11 am

JFilm celebrates three decades of showcasing independent Jewish films

“We would not be here and have the stature that we have in the Jewish film festival world if it were not for the Jewish community of Pittsburgh,”

By David Rullo

March 16, 2023, 10:20 am

Jews win religion popularity contest in new poll

Jews like themselves and so do other people, according to the Pew Research Center

By Adam Kovac

Adriana Fernandez is a non-Jewish nanny to Jewish children in Boca Raton, Florida. (Photo courtesy of Adriana Fernandez)

December 6, 2022, 1:39 pm

‘Non-Jewish Nanny’ to Orthodox children becomes a social media sensation

Adriana Fernandez can pronounce Pesach perfectly, and is well-versed in the rules of “shomer negiah” and “tznius.”

By Alan Zeitlin

There's no question, you're about to hear something special. Photo of DJ Digital Dave at DJ Collective by Phillip Van Nostrand

November 7, 2022, 11:32 am

When it comes to tunes, golden oldies still shining at Pittsburgh parties

Requests for tracks like "It's Tricky" and "Dancing Queen" are giving DJs "double vision," but past hits are current "bangers"

By Adam Reinherz

October 31, 2022, 12:34 pm

Filmmaker brings tender tale of Jewish vampire to Pittsburgh

Delightful portrayal of innately human emotions exhibited by unhumans, earns Noah Segan's "Blood Relatives" a 'Yasher Koach'

By Adam Reinherz

Ariana DeBose as Anita and David Alvarez as Bernardo in "West Side Story" (2021). (Niko Tavernise/20th Century Studios)

December 15, 2021, 1:09 pm

Jews were the creative forces behind ‘West Side Story.’ Should they be?

Were Spielberg and Kushner the right people to attempt a remake of “West Side Story,” or should that task have fallen to Puerto Rican creatives?

By Jordyn Haime

Michael Oren speaks at Bar-Ilan University in Israel in 2014. (Yoni Reif via JTA)

September 29, 2020, 2:15 pm

Michael Oren published a book of short stories.

He’s more worried about the future of literature than democracy.

By Ben Sales

Mark Davidson, left, and Josh Green, enjoy a basketball game between alma matter rivals George Washington University and Stanford University. Photo circa 2000. Courtesy of Mark Davidson

September 18, 2020, 3:03 pm

Jewish podcasters take time to “Take A 20”

Longtime friends Mark Davidson and Josh Green decipher sports, culture and music — so long as the events are 20 years old

By Adam Reinherz