I grew up going to services. A lot of services. I was adept at counting the ceiling tiles, reaching into the thousands as my grasp of numbers grew more sophisticated.

Even as Israelis dream of peace and work to realize that dream, culture wars are stirring Israeli society. Enter the sensational, satirical show HaYehudim Ba-im or The Jews are Coming.

The protest movement, whose roots can be traced back to the original shutdown, has grown week over week. What began as several hundred people has swelled to more than 10,000 a few weeks ago.

Though much about the 2020 Emmy Awards ceremony is not yet known, one thing is clear: Jewish TV stars are well positioned to clean up.

What was it like to grow up in a communal children’s house on an Israeli kibbutz? Rachel Biale was born in 1952 and raised on Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin, overlooking the Jordan River. She is the author of the new memoir Growing Up Below Sea Level: A Kibbutz Childhood.

A truly captivating story, Picture of His Life asks us if a career-capping achievement can truly liberate us from a dark and difficult past.

“It always seemed like a joke, a priest and a rabbi, but I have a daily check-in with a Jewish chaplain and two Episcopal priests, and that need for mutual understanding is very real.”

There’s nothing funny about the virus that’s killing people around the world, and anyone who jokes about it is looking for trouble – maybe even tempting fate. For a little dose of comic relief, then, here are a few of my favorite Jewish jokes from tsuris past.

I carry the trauma of my ancestors, who were kidnapped and enslaved, who survived post-abolition racist terrorism, and who survived devastating Jim Crow laws. I also carry the history of the Jewish people, who have survived countless acts of violence, forced conversion, and genocide.