Israel at 70: LABA Fellows Look Back with Longing and Sorrow

On the occasion of the Jewish state’s 70th anniversary, we’ve asked our LABA fellows with Israeli backgrounds for their perspectives. Jewish State of Mind // Tal Gur Israeli-American composer and multi-instrumentalist Tal Gur was born in Israel and grew up in an Air Force base in the valley of Jezreel, where the sounds of combat

The Feast of Memory: An Exceptional LABA Tradition

The Feast of Memory is an ancient LABA tradition, where everybody is asked to share a food, either tasty or nasty, connected with a personal memory or story.  At the end of the evening, a collective memory emerges, evoking a collective history. Having overcome a mighty hangover, here LABA alum Gordon Haber recalls this year’s feast.  “This

Unscrolling Purim

Israeli-American playwright Zohar Tirosh-Polk is a current LABA fellow. For this year’s Purim celebration, she reminds us how the heroine of the Megillah can inspire us to heal a broken world. Carnival Lately I’ve been feeling kind of quiet and stuck. Whether it’s Israel preparing to send African refugees back to war zones, the Israeli prime

Boozy Jews!

LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture is a program of the 14th Street Y that uses classic Jewish texts to inspire the creation of art. Every year we celebrate our new fellows with DRUNK, an evening of wine and performance inspired by Jewish texts. This year the teachers were the redoubtable Ruby Namdar, author of The

More artists. More wines. More texts. One night only.

On Saturday, November 18th, at 7:30 PM at the 14th Street Y, LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture will kick off its 10th season with DRUNK, an intoxicating evening of art, performance and Jewish texts. Below, LABA fellows Yael Sloma, Tal Gur and Zohar Tirosh-Polk reveal their drinking habits (or lack thereof) and serve up

Meet Fellow Zohar Tirosh-Polk

Born in Brazil to Israeli parents, Zohar continues to explore the idea of home and the possibility of peace in her work. Her plays: Pieces, Land/Holy, Home/Front, The Zionists, Theo’s Dream, Waltz, and Six have been produced and developed at the The New Group, Magic Theatre, The Lincoln Center Theater’s Director’s Lab, New Repertory Theatre,