Bruno’s Top Five Jewish Moments

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on June 22, 2009

New haggadahs bring fresh approaches to celebration

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on April 10, 2008

This season, several new haggadahs raise new questions. New interpretations bring new approaches to the seder, enabling readers and participants to bring new layers of meaning to their own celebrations of the holiday.

Which comes first—the parent or the egg?

By Tracy Hahn-Burkett
Published on February 7, 2008

"You do not get to make your children's choices for them. You can only choose how you will act when their choices are already made."

Those words, which appear in the afterword of Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben's manual for parents of adult children involved in interfaith marriage, summarize in two sentences the crux of his entire book.

Theater: Sex, lies and Yiddish land on ‘Chutzpah’ couch

By Celia Soudry
Published on January 24, 2008

In a story line that turns a sacred office of psychiatry into a house of fraternizing, a secretary into a jungle cat, a librarian into a sex fiend and a stripper into an academic, writer Mark Troy presents many shocking juxtapositions in the world premiere of his play, "Paging Dr. Chutzpah," at the Sidewalk Studio Theatre in Toluca Lake.

Bad therapy by troubled shrink is revealing TV

By Irine Schweitzer
Published on January 24, 2008

"In Treatment," a new HBO drama series, showcases therapist Paul Weston (played by Gabriel Byrne), treating a different client every day of the week and culminating in his seeking out supervision for himself with his ex-supervisor after an eight-year hiatus.

The Bible for dummies—and experts

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on January 24, 2008

In "How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now" (Free Press, $35) -- which recently won the 2007 Jewish book of the year prize of the National Jewish Book Awards -- Kugel's interest is not only in what the text says, but in what a modern reader is to make of it.

Eight Jewish albums hit high notes in ‘07

By George Robinson
Published on December 20, 2007

Jewish music of 2007 reviewed.

Do artists intuit scientific truths?

By David Wolpe
Published on December 13, 2007

Jonah Lehrer's book, "Proust Was a Neuroscientist," is based on a misunderstanding. Nonetheless, it is engaging, informed, wide ranging and altogether worth reading. At times it has the whip-smart feel of the best term paper you've ever read; if only one could adjust the thesis a bit, it would settle in to what is its real nature -- a provocative meditation, not a genuine discovery.

An Orthodox ‘cast-off’ holds God accountable

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on October 18, 2007

Dressed in black, Shalom Auslander wears three tiny silver blocks on a chain that falls close to his neck, with Hebrew letters spelling out the word "Acher," or other. This was a gift from his wife when he completed his memoir, "Foreskin's Lament." Acher was the name given to Elisha ben Abuya, a learned second-century rabbi, after he adopted heretical opinions.

Books: ‘The Year of Living Biblically’ includes a beard, snakes and peaches

By Amy Klein
Published on October 18, 2007

So while the book, which is categorized as "humor," may explain religion in a palatable way to the many secular rationalists in the Blue States who would never understand it from a religious person's point of view, "The Year of Living Biblically" can remind even the faithful, even those who "pick and choose" their levels of observance, why they do what they do. And that's not annoying.

Books: Philip Roth’s Zuckerman has left the building

By Rabbi David Wolpe
Published on October 4, 2007

Bipolar Express: ‘Idiot Box’ takes a trip

By Nick Street
Published on August 2, 2007

Rhoda, Mary, Laverne or Rachel would feel instantly at home in Donna Marquet's quirky-cute set for "The Idiot Box," a play currently at the Open Fist Theatre in Hollywood. The cloying "anyplace and no place" flatmates in the big city vibe is spot-on for "The Idiot Box," a shrewd, bittersweet pop-culture critique of American sensibilities post-Sept. 11.

What’s Up for 2007?

By Shoshana Lewin-Fischer
Published on December 28, 2006

YeLAdim will be mixing it up next year with more movies, books, music and TV reviews than ever before.

Proud to Have Guilt

By Chanan Tigay
Published on December 15, 2005

Guilt & Pleasure -- "A magazine for Jews and the people who love them" -- hit newsstands across North America last month, offering readers content ranging from long-form essays and memoirs to fiction, comics, photography and archival material.

Tommywood - A Well-Lit Place

By Tom Teicholz
Published on July 14, 2005

How does one create a literary community in Los Angeles?

The Silent Minority

By Gene Lichtenstein
Published on April 29, 2004

If there had been any doubts that I was in another country, they were erased when the first reviews of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" began to appear in the London press.

Jew the Right Thing

By Michal Lemberger
Published on November 13, 2003

Reviewed: "To Do Right and the Good: Jewish Approach to Modern Social Ethics," by Elliot N. Dorff (Jewish Publication Society, $34.95.)

"Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics," by Elliot N. Dorff (Jewish Publication Society, $25).

"Love Your Neighbor and Yourself: A Jewish Approach to Modern Personal Ethics," by Elliot N. Dorff (Jewish Publication Society, $34.95).

Beyond Miracles and Maccabees

By Denise Berger
Published on November 21, 2002

My mother was surprised when I said I was reviewing Chanukah books for kids. "Is there a lot out there?" she asked.

No Vacancy

By Teresa Strasser
Published on October 10, 2002

Last week, before the premiere of my new show "While You Were Out," I got my first big national magazine review.

Allegations at CSUN

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on April 6, 2000

Jacquelyn Barnette received the news during a recent meeting with Cal State Northridge officials: A CSUN administrative review had concluded that she was not fired from her student health center job because of anti-Semitism or retaliation.

Let’s Review

By Teresa Strasser
Published on October 28, 1999

Phobia: 1. A compulsive or persistent fear of any specified type of object, stimulus or situation. 2. An exaggerated or persistent dread of or aversion to.
Sitting in the front row of the McCadden Theater in Hollywood was my personal pit of snakes. I would rather be buried alive, in the dark, on top of a skyscraper covered with mice than be reviewed. But there he was, a theater critic from Backstage West trade paper, perched right in the front row to review my one-woman show.