1.Will He?

All done with the awards show formerly known as the State of the Union, 47 can now return to the game of chicken he likes to play with the ayatollah. While it may be a pageant (see Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro in Wag the Dog) for the former Miss Universe pageant owner, it is a big unknown for millions of Israelis who care very little that a squadron of F-22s is now stationed in the Negev.

"Some Israelis have been making plans to leave — to Europe, to the United States, even to Eilat — before flights are canceled again. Others are doing the opposite, scrapping trips abroad, afraid of getting stuck outside the country if the airspace closes.

"For those with no plans to leave Israel, even getting out of its population centers, which sustained multiple direct hits the last time, feels like a good idea. 'Nobody wants to be in this city again when bombs are dropping,' said Tzvi, a Tel Aviv resident who declined to give his last name.

Read more in JTA: "Embracing go-bags and gallows humor, Israelis live in limbo as Trump teases war with Iran."

2.Weinbergs' Gold

Yes, that overtime goal was made by Jewish Devils player Jack Hughes.

"Jewish moms everywhere are kvelling (and reminding you that, yes, he is Jewish). Yet none has more reasons to kvell than Hughes’ own Jewish mom — Ellen Weinberg-Hughes. She has not one but two sons on that winning team. Her oldest son, Quinn Hughes, a defender for the Minnesota Wild, played alongside brother Jack. And Weinberg-Hughes was also on the coaching staff of the U.S. women’s hockey team as a Player Development Consultant. That team won gold the day before the men’s team did, making Ellen, technically, the first of the Hughes family to win Olympic Gold."

In Kveller, read, "Jack Hughes' Jewish Mom, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, Is a Hockey Legend, Too." And did you know Jack Hughes was the first Jewish man to be a No. 1 NHL draft pick?

3.Not the People of My Book

A Hamas leader was published in a formerly respected medical journal (PLoS One, issued by the San Francisco-based Public Library of Science) supported by colleagues from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom and University Hospital of North Norway in Tromso. Examples for bias and slanted political propaganda are everywhere, their academic appearance is paid for by ... well, you can guess.

This week's sampler is from Tablet Magazine and I thank Mayim (Farrah Fowler) Bialik for pointing it out: "PEN America's Jewish Exception."

"PEN America forced Suzzane Nossel (its longtime CEO) out when the 'declared Zionist' refused to have the organization state that Israel was committing genocide. PEN America issued no public condemnation of the McCarthy-esque 'Is Your Favorite Author a Zionist?' list; no statement objecting to the targeting and cancellation of Gabrielle Zevin based on a presumed political identity; no statement defending the canceled book-launch events of Brett Gelman; no statement condemning the rejection of advertising for Bernard-Henry Levy's book; and no statement opposing the boycott of Israeli writers and cultural institutions."

4.Like the Sweet Song of a Choir


"Baz Luhrmann is bringing Elvis Presley back to the big screen. Following the success of his 2022 film Elvis, his new concert documentary, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, assembles never-before-seen footage pulled from the Warner Bros. archives, buried for decades in Kansas salt mines. It is a reminder that Elvis was not just heard, he was seen. And behind that spectacle stood a Jewish tailor, a creator of the 'rhinestone cowboy' look, who dressed icons from Elvis Presley to Elton John and even Ronald Reagan. His name was Nudie Cohn.

"Born Nutya Kotlyarenko on December 15, 1902, in Kyiv, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), he grew up in a Jewish family. Although his father was a bootmaker, Nutya began apprenticing with a tailor at the age of 8. By 11, he and his brother Julius were sent to the United States to escape very common anti-Jewish pogroms. Upon arriving at Ellis Island, an immigration official misunderstood and misspelled his name as 'Nudie.' Later in life, Cohn would say the agent had done him the greatest favor of his life. And that is how the name that would come to define country music style was born.

"Nudie Cohn himself was as flamboyant as his designs, always dressed in bedazzled suits and, notably, mismatched boots. According to his granddaughter Jamie Nudie, he wore mismatched boots to commemorate his humble beginnings as a poor Jewish boy who couldn’t afford a matching pair of shoes. Once successful, however, Nudie became a shameless self-promoter, appearing on television, gracing the cover of Rolling Stone, and driving around Hollywood in his infamous 'Nudie Mobile'— a white Cadillac convertible adorned with steer horns, signature embroidery and silver-dollar detailing. For a Jewish immigrant who arrived with nothing, spectacle was a way of taking up space in a country that often preferred Jews to stay invisible."

For more, read "The Jewish Tailor Who Dressed Elvis (and Basically Everyone Else)." And you can check out the documentary locally at Picture Show at SouthCoast Market Place.

5.Modi, Ariel and Yochai

Some of the funniest names (my opinion) in comedy are missing from this Forward piece (oh, well), but the point is made. No longer Mel, Joan, Lenny and Larry - not even Jerry. There is an entirely new gig going. No longer kvetching, mothers and accents. Bring in the new.

"Everyone is in therapy. Everyone is anxious. Everyone can poke fun at their crazy families. Everyone — or plenty of people, at least — uses at least a few Yiddishisms. Schlep, klutz and mensch are hardly limited to members of the tribe.

"What it means to be Jewish in the U.S. has changed since the early days of Jewish comics on the Borscht Belt. We’ve assimilated and spread out across the country, and the accent is fading away. You have to tell people you’re Jewish for them to know, most of the time. So, many Jewish comics are doing exactly that."

Learn about the new faces and voices and what they're doing in The Forward's "How a new generation of comics is changing the face of Jewish comedy - and Judaism itself."

6.March Madness

Aren't you mad after 30"+ of snow? (For more on that, read "New Bedford 'walloped' by largest snowstorm in city history" in The New Bedford Light.)

"March marks the beginning of spring, when some of our favorite ingredients come into season. But it can still be really cold, so in this roundup, we've included 31 March recipes that are ideal for all kinds of weather," opens Food & Wine's Favorite March Recipes.

F&W is not alone in celebrating the month that brings us spring. There's also Half-Baked Harvest's "31 Recipes to Cook in March" and Epicurious's "33 Best March Recipes." Below are three to get you started.

For Your Calendar

Sunday, March 15, 1:30 PM

The second installment of the Speakers Series comes to our community when we host Aviva Klompas at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Please save the date.

Klompas is a co-founder and CEO of Boundless. She has made a name for herself as an outspoken advocate for the Jewish people and as a leading Israel educator. Before launching Boundless, she served as the director of speechwriting for Israel's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City and as a senior policy advisor in the Ontario government supporting efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in Canada.

A prolific writer, Aviva has written articles that have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, The Jerusalem Post, and other international publications. She is also the author of two books. Her first, Speaking for Israel, reflects on her time as a speechwriter for Israel and offers an honest and entertaining insight into Israeli diplomacy. Her second book, Stand-Up Nation: Israeli Resilience in the Wake of Disaster, released in 2024, details Israel’s remarkable and longstanding work in international development. More can be found in this Hadassah Magazine profile, “Aviva Klompas Is Reimagining Israel Education.” 

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