Новости за 24.06.2016

After climbing the famed golden staircase at Venice’s Palazzo Ducale, I came upon the princely apartment of the bygone Doge (chief magistrate) and was greeted by a rumbling, clanking sound from within. The noise was the audio component of a dome-shaped installation that glowed a fiery orange. The piece, which greets visitors upon entering an ambitious new exhibition called “Venice, the Jews and Europe 1516-2016,” hosted in the very apartment, was meant to evoke a foundry, where metals are poured and cast. Читать дальше...

Donald Trump was in Scotland Friday, reopening the newly renovated Trump Turnberry golf resort and holding court on Britain’s impending departure from the European Union. He’ll have his work cut out for him when he gets back to the United States: According to a Federal Elections Commission financial disclosure form released earlier this week, Trump’s presidential campaign has a mere $1.3 million on hand, a lesser war chest than any number of members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Imagine if an academic lecture on Jewish studies could not be held in Washington, D.C. out of fear that participants would be unsafe. That’s exactly what happened this week in the capital of the European Union.

With all the insane and frankly terrifying news coming out of the U.K. today—and can I just say that I still don’t understand why on God’s green Earth you would put something as important as Brexit up for a public vote—there is at least some solace because one great British institution is still making a modicum of sense.

Following the Orlando shooting, the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, a Modern Orthodox high school in the Bronx called its students, grades 8-12, into the auditorium for a vigil and prayer service for the Pulse nightclub victims. The event soon became an unprecedented showing of support from the school’s administration for its own LGBT student body, a population at risk.

With today’s episode, Tablet will bid farewell to Vox Tablet and the tremendous forces of creativity and skill that were behind it, Julie Subrin and Sara Ivry. Over the past 11 years, they’ve produced nearly 500 episodes, covering everything from the lessons of genocide studies and new ways of praying to Bollywood, and interviewing everyone from Michael Chabon to Dave Berman to Jill Soloway to Luzer Twersky, and many more in between.

Presumably you know about modern-day gay kidlit classics like And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, illustrated by Henry Cole; The Purim Superhero by Elisabeth Kushner, illustrated by Mike Byrne; and Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. But hey, just in time for Pride Weekend here in NYC, let’s talk about some brand-new children’s books with gay or transgender characters!

Recently my 14-year-old brought a bright yellow pamphlet home from school, a handout from her school’s gay-straight alliance. The pamphlet was called “Coming Out as a Supporter.” Josie and her friends found it hilarious. Who the heck would need to “come out” as an ally? They giggled at the the booklet’s hushed and somber language:

Since 2005, the Vox Tablet team—producer Julie Subrin and host Sara Ivry—have done our best to create a Jewish podcast with conversations, stories, and reports from across the Jewish cultural world. But good things—even pioneering, award-winning podcasts—come to an end, and their makers move on to new adventures elsewhere.

To borrow that old marketing chestnut, if you read only one Torah portion this year, make it this week’s. An astonishing story in a book thick with them, it teaches us a lesson in leadership that resonates particularly loudly these days.