Current LABA Fellow Rokhl Kafrissen recalls a late winter shabes memory of a dinner that never happened and a tradition that never was, but should have been. SHORT FICTION I admit that I’ve fallen into a rut. So much of what I write these days is polemical and issue driven. Polemics get clicks. Personal confessions
Current LABA Fellow Liba Vaynberg writes about Christmas trees and assimilation–and other features of growing up Russian and Jewish in the U.S. Who doesn’t love a Christmas tree? It’s objectively beautiful. Twinkly lights and capitalism and sometimes even a manger… I don’t really know what a manger is, but why not. Manger away. And then
LABA Fellow Willie Zabar writes about fire safety surrounding Hanukkah. We as Jews are defined by our traditions. My favorite of these is survival. As the oft-told summary of most Jewish holidays goes, “they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat!” On Hanukkah in particular we celebrate by lighting candles and cooking fried foods.
Former LABA Fellow Alex Weiser writes about Zionist leader Theodor Herzl’s legacy–and about using this legacy as the basis for a new opera. Early one evening last Spring, I entered a classroom on the 4th floor at the 14th Street Y to find a big table in the center filled with all sorts of my
Current LABA fellow Mark Katz describes his time working on Michael Dukakis’s 1988 presidential campaign. Election Day. November 1, 1988. A crisp sunny Boston day, maybe 45 degrees. If memory serves, it was a Tuesday. And because I has spend the previous twelve months as a campaign staffer who set an alarm clock for 5 am and
Current LABA fellow Jared Hoffman discusses which club he’d want to be a member of. This summer, I heard a phrase come out of my mouth that gave me pause. I was eating lasagna at a restaurant called Elegante (it was not particularly elegant) on the Rockaways with my friend Jen and her daughter. Somehow
Dear Friends, Welcome to a new year of LABA. A new year of ancient questions. A new year of investigating the laughter and the angst of HUMOR. From birth to death, pain complicates life–and humor, like a good analgesic, makes it palatable. I look forward to introducing our 2019-2020 LABA fellows: Charlie Buckholtz, Charles Gershman, Jared Hoffman, Mark Katz, Anna
Two Midwestern Jews walk into LABA. One for an interview in June 2019. The other for a LABA study session she’s been invited to check out. Both leave their LABA interactions changed and thoroughly hooked on LABA. Laura Newmark, the new Director of LABA, will remember that first night as a highlight of her early time
LABA Buenos Aires, or LABA BA, was the first LABA satellite program to emerge outside of the NY mothership. Sharing Jewish text and incubating new Jewish culture through art is the LABA mission that we are proud now extends globally. We are excited to announce that this winter, LABA BA will be co-presenting with the Theater at the 14th Street Y, A
Three times a year—on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths—all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place that He will choose. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed, but each with his own gift, according to the blessing that