“I hope fans of comedy will get a kick out of the stories behind my work, and really enjoy taking this remarkable ride with me.”—Mel Brooks I'm a fan, and I can't wait to take this ride with you Mel. I believe the reason it took Brooks 95-years...

I’ve seen the documentary “Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” three times now: twice on a modest-size home screen via the Hulu streaming service and once on a much bigger screen and sound system during the film’s...

If Marc Maron is in the movie, the experience can't be all bad. But with this entertainer, pretty much anywhere he shows up, good times will follow. He's versatile like good pizza dough; no matter how you stretch it or bake it, the taste is there. That...

Misha Defonseca had a secret. As she stood before the synagogue at Temple Beth Torah in Holliston, Massachusetts, she harbored a tale so remarkable that it would eventually catapult her to international notoriety. After a half-century of silence, Misha...

(JTA) — Ex-Orthodox Jews seem to be everywhere these days. Many critiques of this summer’s hit Netflix reality series “My Unorthodox Life” have pointed out that its release came on the heels of “Unorthodox” (2020), the successful Netflix drama...

(JTA) — Los Angeles’ Greenblatt’s Deli and Fine Wine Shop shuttered abruptly on Wednesday, ending nearly a century-long run for a fixture of Jewish food on Sunset Boulevard. Opened in 1926 and run by a single family since the 1940s, Greenblatt’s...

From Groucho Marx and the Borscht Belt to Sarah Silverman, many of America’s best-known comedians have been Jewish. And so important is humor to Jewish culture that a landmark study on American Jewish identity in 2013 found that 42 percent of American...

BERLIN (JTA) — “Jude, Jude, Jude einfach nur ein Wort.”  The phrase — “Jew, Jew, Jew is just a word” — comes near the start of the opening rap theme song to the German talk show “Freitagnacht Jews” (“Friday Night Jews”), a state-sponsored...

It’s a right of Jewish passage to wonder who out there in the world is Jewish too, especially famous people like actors, singers, athletes, and even social media stars and YouTubers. It’s just something we do. So, to better answer the question...

It’s August 14, 1971. “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” by the Bee Gees is enjoying its second of four straight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, “Klute” is the number one film at the U.S. box office, and tonight St. Louis Cardinals ace Bob...

This article first appeared on The Nosher. Hummus, a Middle Eastern chickpea and tahini dip, has been adopted and Americanized in every possible way in recent years. Americans haven’t just embraced hummus, they have found truly appalling ways...

Contrary to what one might expect, the central question raised by the all-over-the-map documentary “The Meaning of Hitler” is not “Can Hitler happen here, and now?” That was an interesting premise for academic debate in 1966. Not today. The...