Articles written by Talia Lavin
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Jon Stewart on filming in, and talking about, the Middle East
NEW YORK (JTA)-Jon Stewart's directorial film debut, "Rosewater," is set to premiere at film festivals in the United States and Canada this September. So the Hollywood Reporter took the opportunity...
Campus divestment votes surge, but pro-Palestinian activists don't get many wins
NEW YORK (JTA)-On Twitter, pro-Palestinian activists dubbed it "DivestApalooza." Student governments at three Southern California public universities all voted on divestment resolutions targeting...
From farm to seder table: Locally grown matzah on the rise
NEW YORK (JTA)-In their small farmhouse bakery in Vermont, Doug Freilich and Julie Sperling work round the clock producing matzah in the period preceding Passover-a matzah that feels ancient and...
In Crimea, a Karaite community carries on, and welcomes Russia
(JTA)-Russia's annexation of Crimea, the strategically critical peninsula that dangles from Ukraine into the Black Sea, has drawn international condemnation. But for the leader of the All-Ukrainian...
Putin's Jewish embrace: Is it love or politics?
(JTA)- When even Russian policemen had to pass security checks to enter the Sochi Winter Olympics, Rabbi Berel Lazar was waved in without ever showing his ID. Lazar, a Chabad-affiliated chief rabbi...
Ukraine Jews hunkering down
(JTA)-The turmoil in Ukraine has left one of Europe's largest Jewish communities on edge. After an outbreak of violence in Kiev last week that left dozens of protesters and policemen dead, President...
Menachem Stark, slumlord or saint? Depends who you ask
NEW YORK (JTA)-The murder of Menachem Stark has sparked intense media scrutiny of the Brooklyn real estate developer's troubled business record, prompting the New York Post to ask "Who didn't want...
6 Degrees (no Bacon): Jewish celebrity roundup
Stiller's Western Wall romancing NEW YORK (JTA)-Ben Stiller revealed to Parade magazine that he has some fond memories from visiting Israel as a teen. The actor and director, promoting his new movie,...
Jewish artists pushing the technological frontier
NEW YORK (JTA)-Jazz music drifts from speakers down to the cherry wood tables of the West Cafe in Brooklyn as the Israeli artist Nurit Bar-Shai prepares to show examples of her latest work. With deft,...
In Ukraine protests, young Jews are marching with ultranationalists
(JTA)-On the last evening in November, at least 31 protesters were taken into custody and dozens treated for injuries following a violent confrontation with Ukrainian police in Kiev's Independence...
Intentional communities initiative aims to put Jews back in touch with the land
NEW YORK (JTA)-For most of the seven years Tova Kinderlehrer lived with her young family in Pittsburgh, she wished she were somewhere else. Her son wasn't doing well in school, her husband's construct...
Dialing the dead: Rebecca Rosen is psychic to the stars
(JTA)—Many Jews feel a connection with their ancestors, but how many have regular conversations with them? Rebecca Rosen, a 36-year-old mother of two, is one who does. Rosen lists her profession as ...
New York community devastated by Hurricane Sandy still rebuilding
NEW YORK (JTA)—Nine months ago, Natalia Demidova crouched on the second floor of her Staten Island home and watched her neighbor’s SUV race a 10-foot wave down the street. The wave crashed thr...
Husband of terror victim pens memoir of quest to meet bomber
NEW YORK (JTA— David Harris-Gershon, author of the forthcoming memoir “What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?,” is frank about the contradictions in his perso...
