November 28, 2011
Outspoken U.S. Representative Barney Franks (D-MA) announced today he would not seek re-election in 2012. Franks, who was the first openly gay national political figure, had served as a Representative for his district since 1980. He volunteered his sexual preference in 1987, but had been re-elected with little difficulty until 2010, when he achieved a narrow victory for his seat. Franks has been seen as one of the most liberal...
November 24, 2011
Miriam Rosenbaum, an Orthodox woman who attends Princeton and lives in the Bronx, was named one of 32 Americans recipients of the prestigious Rhodes scholarship. Rosenbaum, who plans to study bioethics while at Oxford, eventually hopes to become an advocate for elderly medical care and the disabled. Rosenbaum credited being inspired to help those less fortunate when she became familiar with the story of her grandfather’s Holocaust rescue by a...
November 23, 2011
Wodka Vodka released an announcement via its Twitter feed that the company had decided to remove its controversial holiday billboards. The billboards were displayed in several New York area locations containing a large text tagline, “CHRISTMAS QUALITY, HANUKKAH PRICING.” Above the large text contained an image of two dogs– one with a yarmulke and the other with a Santa Claus hat.
The New York Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called the...
November 22, 2011
MOLLYE BRONIK PENNER, the former president of Penner and Welch Drug Manufacturing and a lifelong resident of New Orleans passed away on September 19 from natural causes at Woldenberg Village. She was 86.
Penner was an active volunteer in numerous city philanthropic endeavors including the Greater New Orleans Chapter of Hadassah, B’nai Brith Girls (official advisor) and the city’s Chevra Kadisha Committee. She was a...
November 22, 2011
If it’s Thanksgiving time in New Orleans, then pianist, arranger and composer Michael Wolff can’t be far off. Raised as a youngster in New Orleans, he has returned to what he regards as his hometown yearly and has camped out at Snug Harbor, the city’s premiere jazz club, for most of the past five Thanksgiving holidays.
Wolff, who has played with highly regarded jazz and contemporary pop performers like Nancy...
November 21, 2011
The mission of the Crescent City Jewish News (CCJN) is to provide continuous coverage of news that will inform, support and promote the greater New Orleans Jewish community and their extended families located throughout the United States, Israel and the world.
November 18, 2011
Mac Miller, a Jewish rapper whose initial foray into the recording industry has resulted in sales of 140,000 units and still going, is traveling to the Big Easy for a concert tonight at the House of Blues. Miller has generated a lot of press for his work titled “Blue Slide Park” when it landed at the top of the Billboard charts, the first time an independent label has done so,...
November 06, 2011
Gilad Shalit is spending his second weekend of freedom as a patient at the Rambam Hospital in Haifa. According to reports, Shalit sustained damage to his hand during his 2006 abduction. Seven pieces of embedded shrapnel were removed during his surgery on Friday. Reportedly, his doctors are optimistic the surgery was a success.
November 03, 2011
The largest conference of European rabbis to meet in Poland since World War II has ended after addressing a number of what is perceived to be anti-Semitic threats to Jews living in Western Europe. According to the Jerusalem Post, so-called “militant secularism” is seen as a threat to two very important Jewish institutions: brit milah (ritual circumcision) and shechita (ritual kosher slaughter). Coupled with anti-Israel sentiment, the rabbis expressed concern...
November 03, 2011
Sam Wolfson, one of the two successful playwrights who brought us “Jewtopia,” travels to New Orleans from his Los Angeles home to oversee the first of several regional premieres of his new work “Play Dates,” bowing tonight at the Mid City Theatre for a three-week run.
Wolfson and partner Bryan Fogel have decided to work separately these days. But not to worry. As a play, “Jewtopia” did bring them both...