Whenever you encounter the phrase “Do not go gentle,” or a performance of Under Milk Wood, or a reading of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, please know that their currency and America’s respect for Dylan Thomas is due, in large part, to John Malcolm Brinnin and The 92nd Street Y …
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Back by popular demand, two of the smartest, most incisive political reporters in America join us tonight for In the News with Jeff Greenfield — a deeply intelligent, highly entertaining look at the coming election year …
“I’ve been trying to figure out what makes me me. I understand the raw materials, at least as much as anyone who got a C+ in Biology, but then what do you have to put in the mixing bowl to end up writing like I write, playing like I play, being interested in the corners of the world that most excite me? …
On April 18, two of music’s most compelling vocal artists – mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and baritone Justin Austin – bring the immersive concert work COTTON to our stage …
Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, and his relationship with 92NY, is the stuff of legend. In 1953, at the invitation of John Malcolm Brinnin (the Poetry Center’s director at the time), Thomas premiered his now classic Under Milk Wood, a “play for voices,” to great acclaim on our stage — only six months before his death. Brinnin’s subsequent memoir about Thomas, published two years later, was a scandal — depicting Thomas as a self-destructive alcoholic and a poetic genius in equal measure. …
Can listening to classical music more closely enrich how you experience the world? Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, contributing essayist and critic for The New York Times and founder of Beginner’s Ear listening events, leads a fascinating new Roundtable course exploring how it can. In The Art of Listening she shares her insights and the skills anyone can learn, as she demystifies classical music along the way. She talked with us ahead of the course. …
What is 92NY? A category on an episode of Jeopardy! Next Friday, March 8, in the semifinals of the Tournament of Champions, the classic trivia show will put your knowledge of 92NY history to the test in a category called 150 YEARS OF THE 92ND STREET Y. …
The sweep of 150 years of history at The 92nd Street Y is nowhere embodied more fittingly – or more vibrantly – than in dance. On March 12, we present one never-before celebration on our stage and unveil another in our art gallery. We hope you’ll join us! …
As we head into our celebration of Laura Nyro next month at Lyrics & Lyricists – Soul Picnic: The Songs and Legacy of Laura Nyro (Mar 2-4), led by Broadway’s Judy Kuhn – we thought we’d share a few words from a dozen of the many luminaries who have admired her and counted her as an influence
In celebration of Black History Month, we're looking back at ten of the iconic Black artists who have presented audacious, innovative, ingenious work on our stages — some of the most definitive American art and creative thought of the last century — a tradition that continues to this day …
Ahead of his conversation with Malcolm Gladwell next Sunday, February 4, writer Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie) sat down with us to talk about his new novel, The Little Liar — and his perspective on why his books have resonated with millions of readers all over the world …
MTV’s Josh Horowitz has hosted countless interviews and screenings at 92NY with the biggest stars in the Hollywood firmament — the actors and filmmakers who define movies, TV, and comedy today — in live recordings of his hit podcast, Happy Sad Confused …
Our marquee Recanati-Kaplan Talks series continued to set the bar for conversation in America — a joyful, raucously entertaining, critically informative forum that defines our society. This week, we invite you to watch — or watch again — some of our programming team’s favorite talks of the year, for free. A small way to thank you for being part of our community again in 2023 …
Ruth Goodman, founder and director of the Israeli Dance Institute and the Parparim Ensemble of Israeli Dance and Song, has been leading 92NY’s popular Israeli Folk Dance program for over 40 years. What sustains her passion? …
When faced with a life-altering health challenge, what does someone need most? Dr. Carole Brafman, a psychiatrist on the voluntary faculty of Mount Sinai, believes it’s support for both body and mind. It’s the reason she made a professional shift from her work as an internist into the field of mental health. “There is such a strong mind-body connection,” she says. The less stressed you are, the more at peace you are, and the better you can physically feel” …
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Everyone deserves an intellectual community. Since launching Roundtable, 92NY has striven to offer access to our global community of learners to everyone who wants it — no matter where you are or what fascinates you, on your own terms
“A musician of probing intellect and open-hearted vision” is how The New York Times has described pianist Conrad Tao. On December 6, that vision centers on Rachmaninoff, as Tao explores the romantic side of the iconic composer in his concert Rachmaninoff Songbook …
The songs of music icon and 25-time Grammy Award winner Stevie Wonder fill the soundtrack of our lives. As Lyrics & Lyricists gears up for IN THE KEY OF LIFE, a celebration of Wonder’s extraordinary songbook and legacy, the show’s artistic director and featured performer, Broadway’s Darius de Haas, talked with us about his deep connection to Stevie Wonder’s music, its place in the American Songbook, the song that’s particularly meaningful to him, and more …
World-renowned pianist Garrick Ohlsson is one of 92NY’s most treasured musical friends. He has performed on our stage more than a dozen times, his last solo concert in an empty Kaufmann Concert Hall on March 14, 2020 – a sudden pivot to our very first livestreamed event when the pandemic closed our doors …
Ahead of her upcoming conversation with Helen Garner, The New Yorker’s Merve Emre sat down to talk to the Unterberg Poetry Center’s new director Sarah Chihaya about the great Australian novelist — Garner’s exquisite powers of description, her growing popularity in the US, the arc of her career, and more …
Ahead of her upcoming reading with Sandra Cisneros, we talked to acclaimed poet and sound artist LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs about her strikingly personal new book, Village, the poetry of grief, her singular performance style, expecting the unexpected, and more
Revered saxophonist Joshua Redman opens the 2023/24 Tisch Music Season with music from his lyrical new album where are we. Ahead of his September 27 concert, he talked with us about the project and sharing the melodic spotlight with a vocalist for the first time, his wide musical lens, taking on The Boss, and more …
Ahead of her upcoming conversation with #1 New York Times bestselling author and surgeon Atul Gawande (Being Mortal) on September 22, we talked to Pulitzer Prize finalist Kay Redfield Jamison (An Unquiet Mind, Robert Lowell: Setting the River on Fire) about the fascinating history of psychotherapy, her changing perceptions of mental illness in America, how artists have contributed to our understanding of mental health, and her new book, Fires in the Dark. …
In the vibrant tapestry of New York City’s ’90s arts scene, a tap dance revolution was gathering artists and musicians from all over the nation, Michelle Dorrance among them. Shows like Black and Blue, Jelly’s Last Jam, Bubbling Brown Sugar and Sophisticated Ladies had ignited a renaissance of interest in tap, setting the stage for a transformative period of the art form …
“We are in the business of making sure people live their happiest, most intellectually engaged lives,” says 92NY Director of Continuing Education Melanie Macchio. “Roundtable allows that to happen at a scale we never could have dreamed of even a couple of years ago.” …
Ahead of our upcoming landmark reading in celebration of Daughters of Latin America — hosted by Rosie Perez and including contributors Jamaica Kincaid, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Esmeralda Santiago, and many more — editor Sandra Guzmán talked to us about the joyful work of curating the anthology, the relationship between language and survival, the importance of bringing marginalized voices to the center of our literary conversation, and much more …
Poetry Center Co-Director Ricardo Alberto Maldonado joined 92NY 16 years ago, and his contributions to our institution’s literary culture have been immeasurable — he’s served as a crucial force in the curation of our reading series, organized our writing workshops and literary seminars, administered the Discovery Poetry Contest, and much more …
Broadway lost an icon, the world a gifted mensch, and The 92nd Street Y a treasured friend with the recent passing of Sheldon Harnick. One of musical theater’s most celebrated lyricists, Harnick’s creations include the Pulitzer Prizewinning Fiorello!, She Loves Me, and his groundbreaking nine-time Tony Award-winning Fiddler on the Roof – Broadway’s original longest-running show and one of the world’s most performed and enduring musicals …
Summer is almost here – and that means it’s time for camp! Our 92NY Camps team has been working hard to put the finishing touches on their plans for this summer to ensure everyone has an awesome time. We asked Lauren Wexler, Director, Children’s Enrichment & Engagement, what families can do to ensure they get the most out of camp this year …
One year ago, The 92nd Street Y, New York launched Roundtable, a new destination for online learning — a place where people with a voracious love of ideas can gather to deepen their knowledge, widen their perspectives, and get inspired by some of the world’s brightest thinkers …
Ahead of her upcoming reading of Gwendolyn Brooks’ Maud Martha, we talked to acclaimed actress Roslyn Ruff about her connection to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet’s sole novel, how she’s transforming text into performance, her longtime affinity for poets, and more …
One of the 20th century’s most celebrated and influential musicians, violinist Isaac Stern performed on our stage more than a dozen times over 50 years, from his first concert in 1943 to his last in 1994. On a May evening in 1979 – just a month before his historic, groundbreaking trip to China – Stern performed an evening of chamber music in Kaufmann Concert Hall. The concert was to open with a solo violin performance, which Stern originally planned to be Bach’s B-Minor Partita …
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Behind the Marshall Weinberg Classical Music Season that comes to a close next weekend – a season bookended with performances by premier violinist Joshua Bell and the superstar trio of violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and pianist Daniil Trifonov – is a man who plays no instrument but has been instrumental to every note. Marshall Weinberg is among the most generous supporters of classical music in the history of The 92nd Street Y …
Seventy years ago tonight, on May 14, 1953, the lights dimmed in 92NY’s Kaufmann Auditorium for the premiere of poet Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood — an audaciously inventive “play for voices,” as Thomas called it, blurring the line between poetry and theater …
On April 21, 1948, 21-year-old Harlem-born actor Harry Belafonte made his off-Broadway debut at The 92nd Street Y, New York in Sojourner Truth with the American Negro Theatre. Based on the life of the Black abolitionist and early civil rights icon, the play earned the young actor what he called, in his memoir, “my first critical praise in print” — a column written by activist and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who had attended the performance …
Colm Tóibín has written that Seamus Heaney “was not merely a central figure in the literary life of Ireland, but in its emotional life, in its dream life, in its real life. His skill at playing with rhythm, pushing phrases and images as hard as they will go, offered the poems an undertone, a gravity—a space between the words that allowed them to soar or shiver” …
Before he was one of Hollywood’s most glamorous stars, Tony Curtis was Bernard Schwartz, born in Manhattan in 1925 to Hungarian-Jewish emigrants, and an active member of The 92nd Street Y. The not-yet Tony Curtis participated in athletics, clubs, and performances, and on February 7, 1941, made his acting debut in the Y Playhouse production of Thunder Rock …
From John Coltrane to Jimmy Heath to Joshua Redman, Sarah Vaughan to Dianne Reeves to Cécile McLorin Salvant, Thelonious Monk to Bill Evans to Hank Jones to Kenny Barron – for nearly 70 years, The 92nd Street Y has been a home to the greatest artists in jazz …
Ahead of his upcoming 92NY reading with Quiara Alegría Hudes on May 4, we talked to 2021-2023 New York State Poet Laureate Willie Perdomo (Smoking Lovely: The Remix, The Crazy Bunch, The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon) on the porous relationship between writing and performance, infusing his poetry with dramatic dialogue, treating his audience to “the hottest set in New York City,” and much more …
Billy Stritch and Dick Scanlan, creators of our new Lyrics & Lyricists production, take you behind the scenes …
In 1883, while teaching English to Eastern European Jewish refugees at 92NY, poet Emma Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus” to fund the construction of the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal …
On February 23, 1941, noted tap-ballet dancer and choreographer Paul Draper made his first solo appearance at The 92nd Street Y, New York. In an explosive era of innovation that would come to define the institution, Draper would go on to make invaluable contributions …
On October 19, 1956, Sylvia Plath penned a letter to her husband, poet Ted Hughes, having heard about the 92nd Street Y and Harper’s poetry contest that was to kickstart his career …
Ahead of his reading with Ama Codjoe on April 10, Carl Phillips — a defining poet of his generation and the author of 16 collections of poetry — talked to us about his two new books, Then The War: New and Selected Poems, 2007-2020 and My Trade is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing, his influence on emerging writers, the unexpected joys of writing prose, and more …
On February 2, 1961, Norman Mailer’s reading at The 92nd Street Y, New York caused a ruckus. While reciting a string of characteristically crude couplets, the author found himself on the receiving end of a curt curtain call at the hands of an offended Dr. William Kolodney, the institution’s educational director …
When Michael O. Mitchell and I sat down to break bread and discuss music, we almost didn’t talk about music at all. We talked about life.
Michael and I come from two fundamentally different worlds, separated by the Atlantic Ocean. Missouri and South Africa could not be further apart; not just in distance, but also in culture
Ahead of acclaimed actor Josh Hamilton’s reading from Franz Kafka’s magnetic, riveting diaries on Monday, March 13, we talked to translator Ross Benjamin — who has brought Kafka’s complete diaries into English for the first time ever — about the inherent drama of Kafka’s style, why it demands performance, how translating has altered Benjamin’s perception of the writer, and more …
Ahead of Roslyn Ruff’s upcoming reading of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks’ only novel, Maud Martha, we talked to New Yorker staff writer and theater critic Vinson Cunningham about how he abridged the text for the performance — and why Brooks and Maud Martha deserve to be heard by a new generation …
“One year ago, this pilot program was just being launched. That it’s already making such a significant difference in people’s lives is remarkable,” says 92NY 60+ Programs Director Julia Zeuner. The program is 92NY’s Program for Cognitive Strength and Ability (PCSA). The concept behind it –dignified, strength-based programming for members of our community experiencing early to moderate cognitive decline – was one Zeuner long believed was needed …
Ahead of their upcoming Roundtable seminar on the groundbreaking science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler’s final novel, Fledgling, we talked to acclaimed author Nisi Shawl — editor of the Library of America edition of Butler’s collected works — about creating plausible vampire stories, the prophetic nature of Butler’s writing, their close friendship, and much more …
Pianist, composer, and improviser Gabriela Montero has been acclaimed around the world for her blend of firepower, lyricism, and imagination. Her award-winning career includes performing at President Obama’s first inauguration alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill and Itzhak Perlman. She is also a creative dissenter – Montero’s work as an artist is deeply informed by her advocacy …
92NY’s celebration of Tony Award-winning playwright John Guare is a gathering of some of the most influential artists in American theater and film. Spearheaded by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner and acclaimed actress Elizabeth Marvel, the evening includes appearances by Meryl Streep, Edie Falco, Ben Stiller, Ariana DeBose, Paul Dano, Suzan-Lori Parks, Dylan Baker, Zoe Kazan and many others …
NEA Jazz Master and triple Grammy Award winner Branford Marsalis is one of the most defining artists in jazz today. He is also one of music’s most expansive talents, performing Debussy with symphony orchestras, writing for film and theater (scores for George C. Wolfe films; a Tony nomination for Broadway work). He has collaborated with Sting and jammed with the Grateful Dead. But his musical home is with his renowned quartet – more than three decades in, one of the leading and most influential ensembles in all of music …
The Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact brings the mission of The 92nd Street Y, New York to life through grassroots global initiatives, leadership programs and civic movements. The Belfer Center has created a vibrant worldwide community built around big ideas and doing good …
You never know what might happen at a 92nd Street Y event. That’s true today and it was very much the case in 1952. One February night that year, two young Hunter College grads — Barbara Holdridge and Marianne Roney — came to a Dylan Thomas reading at 92NY, and their actions that night would change the course of their lives — and his …
Ahead of her upcoming Roundtable seminar on the short story — which offers incisive, close readings of three masterful stories by Elizabeth Bowen, Mavis Gallant, and Alice Munro — award-winning writer Tessa Hadley (author of Free Love, Late in the Day, The Past, and many others) talked to us about the mysteries of the form, the personal shock of reading Munro for the first time, why she loves reading in a group, and much more …
“Every artist brings their POV to a program they create,” says Amy Lam, Vice President of Tisch Music, “and the platform of a song recital is, I think, the best vehicle to really appreciate an artist for who they are. Through the selection of works, you come away with what makes an artist a great one, but also an appreciation of the human aspect and the values they stand for …
Ahead of his upcoming Roundtable seminar on T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, running in celebration of the great poem’s 100th anniversary — and Ralph Fiennes’ sold out staged reading — we talked to celebrated poet and critic Matthew Hollis about his new book The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem, the truth about “difficult” poetry, why Eliot’s voice sounds as fresh as it’s ever been, and much more …
One evening last May, six young dance students – our 92NY Recanati-Kaplan dance scholars – sat in the front row of Kaufmann Concert Hall as their teacher and mentor Sameena Mitta and her company MeenMoves performed on stage as part of our Future Dance Festival. Mitta was one of 21 artists from around the world selected by an independent jury to showcase their work on the stage where some of the greatest luminaries in dance first presented their own …
We sat down with New Yorker writer and National Book Award-winning biographer Judith Thurman ahead of her Roundtable seminar on Colette’s Chéri and The End of Chéri to discuss the enigmatic, mordantly funny, taboo-flouting French writer — her inherent contradictions and dark humor, what Americans often miss when they read her, and why she still has the power to surprise us …
Liza Donnelly, the New Yorker staff cartoonist and author of eighteen books, is a regular participant at 92NY events — whether that’s appearing on our stage, or joining us as a member of the audience. And when she does, she often shares a cartoon of the action onstage …
There is a powerful story told of the great Hassidic Rabbi Zusya of Hanipoli. When Rabbi Zusya was about to die, his students gathered around him. They saw Rabbi Zusya’s eyes break out into tears. “Our master,” they said, with deep concern, “Why are you crying? You have lived a good, pious life, and left many students and disciples. Soon you are going on to the next world. Why cry?” …
We often think of the High Holidays as a celebration of family bonds — and at 92NY it’s also a celebration of creativity and play. As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we sat down with the Bronfman Center’s Director of Jewish Family Engagement Rebecca Schoffer and our new Vice President of Jewish Education Rachel Arcus-Goldberg to talk about the communal, creative joy at the heart of our High Holiday Youth Experience and Family Services …
We talked this week with Julia Zeuner, Director of 92NY's 60+ Programs, and Elizabeth Tarr, Clinical Director of 92NY's 60+ Programs, about 92NY's new Program for Cognitive Strength and Ability (PCSA) …
Among the skills that can be learned/interests nourished/passions fueled at 92NY is a relatively new one – the irresistible game with the goofy name, and the fastest growing sport in the country – pickleball! 92NY’s Director of Sports & Leagues Aaron Feuerstein says, “We started offering pickleball five years ago with just one or two weekly classes – we’re now up to 18 classes a week! When our fall sessions went on sale in July, every one of them sold out in under an hour! And people are clamoring for more …
Superstar violinist Joshua Bell, internationally acclaimed soprano Larisa Martinez, and renowned multi-genre pianist Peter Dugan open our Tisch Music 2022/23 season on Thu, Oct 20 with a sparkling program of arias, solos, and duets – specially arranged for these extraordinary artists – and including a brilliant West Side Story medley …
Share Our America, a new initiative of 92NY’s Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact, is combating polarization in America by creating community bonds in unexpected places. We sat down with Belfer Center Senior Vice President Rebekah Shrestha and Senior Director Shelley Hoy to talk about what they learned from the initiative’s first program — a trip to rural Chadron, Nebraska …
Amy Lam joined The 92nd Street Y, New York in November, 2021 as Vice President of Tisch Music, coming to us following more than two decades as Artistic Director of the renowned Celebrity Series of Boston. 92NY just announced the first concert season under Amy’s helm – a season so distinctive and exciting, it prompted Crain’s New York Business to name her one of their “5 New Yorkers to Know” in last week’s issue. We sat down with her to talk about the new season …
Ahead of her eagerly anticipated Roundtable course on T.H. White’s The Once and Future King — the definitive 20th century retelling …
Jazz in July 2022 kicks off in just three weeks with superstar Joshua Redman joining the Bill Charlap Trio as the first in an amazing lineup of some of the greatest and most influential artists in jazz …
Skewers of charred, smoky beef and lamb, fragrant with smoked paprika and fresh mint … a summer bread pudding with fresh raspberries … the dumplings and noodles of Chinatown. Hungry yet? We are! And we’ve got cooking classes and food talks with some of the world’s most renowned chefs and culinary experts to satisfy your appetite for all things food all summer long …
Sara Becker’s Sounds of NYC project captures quintessential New York stories — and 100% of its profits go directly to The 92nd Street Y, New York. She talked to us about her inspiration for the project, the power of audio storytelling, why she wanted to support 92NY, and more …
Rabbi Joui Hessel, Interim Director at 92NY’s Bronfman Center for Jewish Life, writes: Shavuot, meaning “weeks,” refers to the seven weeks since the second day of Passover and is the second of the three Pilgrim Festivals of the Jewish religious calendar. It was originally an agricultural festival, marking the beginning of the wheat harvest …
In the last two years, the Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact has helped to launch 92NY Confronts Hate, the LessLonely Project, the Newmark Civic Life Series, Share Our America, the Home Project, the State of Democracy Summit, and the Campaign for 100% — all addressing, as Managing Director Rebekah Shrestha calls it, a “crisis of community” in American life …
Welcome to Roundtable: the next big thing in online learning! Learning as enjoyment. Moving from passively watching educational videos to engaging with a live group in real time. Mapping the world in our own ways by exploring the things that interest us most. Finding an unexpected connection to a fellow student who lives halfway across the world …
Ahead of his upcoming class on Boccaccio’s Decameron for The 92nd Street Y, we sat down with critic, author, and Bard College professor of comparative literature Joseph Luzzi to talk about art’s relationship with historical disaster, the line between high culture and pop culture, why fiction can be just as useful as journalism, and more …
Sam Cooke possessed one of the most soulful, golden, angelic voices popular music has known. And in a too-brief period between 1957 and 1964, he used it to write, perform and record songs that would ease themselves into the soundtracks of our lives. Along the way, he helped change the course of music …
From Auden to Akbar, National Poetry Month at the Unterberg Poetry Center is a celebration of a living, breathing literary tradition that never ceases to astonish …
Our Bronfman Center for Jewish Life extends a warm welcome to all to join us in celebrating Passover this spring. Rabbi Joui Hessel, Vice President of Jewish Life, Bronfman Center for Jewish Life, 92Y, writes …
On April 6, in one of the most anticipated events of the New York City dance season, the Paul Taylor Dance Company brings choreographer Kurt Jooss’ 1932 antiwar masterpiece The Green Table to the stage where modern dance was born – ours …
As our 92Y Camps team puts the finishing touches on plans for this summer’s camps programs, we spoke with Lauren Wexler, Director, Children’s Enrichment & Engagement, about what they have in store for kids and families this year …
On Saturday March 19, as the musicians sound the first notes of a jaunty overture and a cast of Broadway’s brightest talent hurries to their places on the stage of Kaufmann Concert Hall, an exuberant celebration of the American Songbook will begin – just as it has for much of 50 years …
Ahead of her conversation with actors André Holland, Chukwudi Iwuji and John Douglas Thompson on the challenges of playing Othello in the 21st century — co-moderated with James Shapiro — renowned Shakespeare scholar Ayanna Thompson sat down with us to talk about the nuances of the role, the shifting politics of race in its performances, how Shakespeare and the very idea of race “grew up as contemporaries,” and more …
The wait is finally over! Seven years since the bestselling Fashion Icons 1: Fashion Lives with Fern Mallis book premiered in 2015, The 92nd Street Y’s resident fashion industry insider Fern Mallis is releasing its long-awaited sequel this May: Fashion Icons 2
On Thursday, Feb 24 at 8 pm, our Harkness Artists in Residence, Baye & Asa and Passion Fruit Dance Company, will present their dynamic choreographic work, showcasing a variety of hip-hop, African, and street dance styles onstage in Kaufmann Concert Hall
The fashion industry is a quirky and unusual world, filled with great talents, huge egos, and bigger personalities. It is a fragile ecosystem that creates personas and cults that are sometimes larger than life. There are a handful of players often called crazy or obsessed, mentors or muses, gurus or guardians. I was so thrilled to host one of these very special individuals at Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis in 2013: André Leon Talley …
Give a young student the chance to study with a globally recognized expert, and possibilities are unlocked. In a new collaboration with Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music — one of the most eminent music conservatories in the world and the launching ground of many of classical music’s most prominent artists — luminaries from its faculty bring their teaching and artistry to 92Y’s School of Music …
Reading and sharing ideas about books has become a crucial source of connection for the 92Y community during the pandemic. The Poetry Center’s Ricardo Maldonado and Sophie Herron, who are heavily involved in programming and moderating many of our literary programs at 92U, got together with Editorial Manager Daniel Poppick to talk about the books they loved most in 2021, how the pandemic has changed their reading habits, the poetry and 92U literary seminars they’re most looking forward to in 2022, and more …
Ahead of his highly anticipated first major New York City recital, we sat down with Randall Goosby, one of the most acclaimed classical artists of his generation. The 25-year-old Sphinx Competition winner, Itzhak Perlman protégé, and violin sensation shared thoughts on the music he champions, the greatest lesson he learned from “Mr. P,” and his passion for making classical music representative and accessible …
Rabbi Joui Hessel, VP of Jewish Life at 92Y’s Bronfman Center for Jewish Life, writes: It is the time when we begin to feel the colder air outside and experience a sunset that occurs earlier each day. We take out our puffy coats, scarves, gloves, and hats and prepare for darker and colder days as winter arrives
Ahead of her 92U course on Swann’s Way, the first volume in Marcel Proust’s monumental In Search of Lost Time, we sat down with award-winning literary critic and novelist Lila Azam Zanganeh to discuss her love of fairy tales, the connection between the essence of existence and cookies, her favorite contemporary writers, and much more …
This fall, the Bronfman Center for Jewish Life launches The Home Project — a new series of programs that aim to foster stronger community at 92Y for Jews of color, LGBTQ+ Jewish families, first generation Jews, and others who are too often left without a sense of spiritual belonging in New York and American Jewish life at large …
Justin Davidson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York magazine architecture critic, spoke to us at the start of his new four-part 92U course, New York City Form & Function: Skyline, Street, Apartment, Office, in which he brings insights into our iconic city from four distinct perspectives …
Expert political analyst Ralph Buultjens has been unpacking world events for the edification of 92Y audiences since 1997. When COVID-19 shuttered our hall last year (it’s now fully open again for talks and events), he brought his lectures online to our newly established 92U platform, thanks to a generous gift from Wendy Fisher and the Kirsh Foundation. Now, he’s experiencing a surge of popularity, and his classes are among 92Y’s most eagerly received programs of all kinds …
Ahead of his upcoming 92U course Jews and Modern Art — a fresh look at the Jewish origins of modern art at the turn of the 20th century — we talked to award-winning art historian and author Charles Dellheim about why Jews noticed avant-garde artistic talent ahead of the curve, Dellheim’s deeply personal commitment to uncovering Jewish culture lost during the Nazi era, the interconnection of art history and politics, and much more …
Can you really learn anything meaningful in a 6-hour online class? At 92U, the answer is a definitive yes. 92U is our new online hub for learning, launched during the pandemic when our classrooms were shuttered, and very quickly blossoming into a virtual school of learning attracting students from all over the world. And as our in-person programs return, 92U’s online course are proving as popular as ever …
Our adult dance offerings just got an extra jolt of joy with new Lindy Hop classes led by three of the dance style’s most brilliant practitioners. Bessie Award-winning dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher and swing dance masters Nathan Bugh and Gaby Cook have been leading New York City’s hottest and most in-demand Lindy Hop classes in pop-ups around the city. Now Harkness School of Dance Director Alison Manning has provided a home for them …
We’ve been chatting with each of the four 2021 Discovery Poetry Contest winners ahead of their reading on October 22. This week, Ina Cariño tells us about the feeling of dislocation in writing poetry between the US and the Philippines, grappling with blank spots in their ancestry in their poem “Ancestors for Sale,” the power of live poetry readings, and more …
We’ve been chatting with each of the four 2021 Discovery Poetry Contest winners ahead of their reading on October 22. This week, in the last conversation in our series, Kenzie Allen tells us about finding poetry in community, looking for joy in Indigenous ancestry in her poem “Quiet as Thunderbolts,” and more …
Marking the 10th anniversary of her namesake series, Fern Mallis invites some of the buzziest new voices in the business to our stage — the next-gen designers who are changing the face of fashion …
“The pioneers of modern dance were creating their work and taking risks on the stage of Kaufmann Concert Hall before anyone had even heard their names,” says Harkness Dance Center Director Taryn Kaschock Russell. “I thought, ‘There are amazing artists who are pushing the art form forward now. They need to be on this stage …
Elie Wiesel was a guiding beacon at 92Y for more than half a century. His pursuit of justice and his unwavering belief in the power of humanity embodied our most deeply held values. Over nearly half a century, on 180 occasions, Elie Wiesel graced the stage at 92Y with his wonder and wisdom … …
As 5781 draws to an end, and as we look forward to the dawning of the New Year, 5782, the Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that “For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heavens.” These words may never have seemed so pervasively poignant as they do these High Holidays …
For over six decades, 92Y’s Discovery Poetry Contest has introduced exceptionally gifted young poets to a large audience early in their careers — including John Ashbery, Lucille Clifton, Mark Strand, Larry Levis, and Solmaz Sharif, to name but a few …
… And this is the season for introspection, reflection, and renewal. There is something profoundly moving about gathering as a community to pause and reflect, individually and together, as we put the past behind us, and start the new year afresh … …
Fern Mallis writes: At one hundred years old, the self-proclaimed “world’s oldest teenager” and “geriatric starlet” is busier than anyone in New York City. She makes the Kardashians look like they are asleep. Tickets to our evening at the 92Y sold out in record time, twice! (thanks to an unplanned rain delay) … …
When the Himan Brown 60+ Program opened its physical doors again on June 15, eager members returned with gusto. Program director Julia Zeuner says, “they were overjoyed simply to be in the same room with each other again.” Among the first in-person offerings were the Open Lounge for socializing, Game Play, and what turned out to be a greatly popular series of cocktail parties on our rooftop, with up to 75 members in attendance. “People are so excited to be back and to reconnect with friends and the things they love,” says Zeuner …
For over six decades, 92Y’s Discovery Poetry Contest has introduced exceptionally gifted young poets to a large audience early in their careers — including John Ashbery, Lucille Clifton, Mark Strand, Larry Levis, and Solmaz Sharif, to name but a few. This year, final contest judges Rick Barot, Mónica de la Torre, and Patricia Spears Jones selected four winning poets — Alexandra Zukerman, Kenzie Allen, Ina Cariño, and Mag Gabbert. Each receives a reading at 92Y, publication in The Paris Review Daily, a stay at the Ace Hotel in Manhattan and $500 …
Theater for Young Audiences was established at 92Y to create professional productions geared toward children — to introduce families to the joy of musical theater and inspire the next generation of dancers, singers, and theater-loving dreamers in an intimate setting. Theater for Young Audiences gives families up-close access to the magic of the art form that can be lost in the large-scale spectacle of a Broadway musical …
On Tuesday, July 20, Jazz in July returned to 92Y’s historic Kaufmann Concert Hall with a show of standards by two-time Grammy winner Kurt Elling — to the delighted our full-capacity audience …
Before the start of her new 92U course, Art and Culture of Renaissance Venice, Mount Holyoke Art History professor and recent NEH fellowship recipient Dr. Jessica Maier talked with us about her passion for art and for spreading that passion through her popular 92U classes, her latest book, The Eternal City: A History of Rome in Maps, and the surprise reveal of where she lives …
Director of Musical Theater Megan Doyle recently talked to us about why she thinks teaching children to work together is more important than teaching them to dance and sing, bringing Peter Pan to life during the pandemic, and what's in store for musical theater at 92Y in the coming months …
The electricity of live jazz has been filling Kaufmann Concert Hall for over 60 years, with legends and luminaries including John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Sarah Vaughan, Jim Hall, Wynton Marsalis, Cécile McLorin Salvant and scores of others lighting up our stage and dazzling audiences with their artistry …
Celebrating the Fourth of July with barbecue is a tradition that goes back generations. With a little help from 92U’s new Culinary Arts program, we’re thrilled to heap some deliciousness onto your summer grill with these two marvelous recipes from the chefs and experts leading 92U remote courses, created with the help of our friends at the destination bookstore Kitchen Arts & Letters …
“For more than a year, it’s felt as though we had no choice in how we lived our lives. Now, as we exit the pandemic, there’s a new feeling of agency – that we can be active participants in making our own future. What is the future we want to see?” …
For more than 60 years, 92Y’s summer camps have given generations of kids unforgettable summers of magic and adventure. After last year’s virtual experiences, our families are more excited than ever to return to in-person, outdoor fun. On the eve of our first week of in-person camp in more than a year, we talked with Lauren Wexler, Director, 92Y Camp Programs, about what does into creating Camp Yomi’s unique “best summer ever” experience — and why this year, getting back to our beautiful Rockland County campgrounds feels sweeter than ever
The Harkness Dance Center at the 92Y has certainly been a catalyst for generations of artists and educators in the dance field …
Fern Mallis, the fashion industry doyenne most recognized as the founder of New York Fashion Week, is making previously unreleased content on her digital platform Fashion Icons: The Archive, a playlist available on our 92Y YouTube. The Archive is the exclusive digital destination for Mallis’ popular — and often sold-out — conversation series, Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis …
“For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heavens.” This verse and the ones that follow from the third chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes are hugely relevant throughout our lives. But they may never have been so pervasively poignant than during this last year. …
May 21 marks 50 years since the release of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, universally regarded as one of the most iconic, enduring and resonant albums in all of music. A concept album centered on Gaye’s protest against racial and social injustices and a call for compassion, few could have imagined how relevant and urgent its messages would remain half a century later …
Shortly after recording his reading of William Maxwell’s classic novel So Long, See You Tomorrow for 92Y, award-winning actor John Lithgow sat down with us to discuss his personal relationship with the book, his reading habits, the perils and pleasures of voice acting, being moved to tears in the recording booth, and more. The conversation has been edited and condensed …
Ahead of her 92U class, Black Mothers and the Civil Rights Movement — and just in time for Mother’s Day — sociologist and author Anna Malaika Tubbs talked to us about the erasure of Black women from the history books, shedding a light on the mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin, and her new book, The Three Mothers …
Before the start of his 92U course Art and Thought in the Cold War, Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Louis Menand talked to us about the protean politics around the concept of freedom in America, the value of the humanities in higher education, and his new book, The Free World …
Ahead of André Holland’s live dramatic reading of her dramatic monologue “The End of White Supremacy: An American Romance” on April 29, award-winning critic and writer Saidiya Hartman talked to us about W.E.B. Du Bois, the connection between scholarship and speculative fiction, Holland’s brilliant performance, and more …
A spotlight on the passions of world-renowned clarinetist Anthony McGill before his May 11 concert on our stage and “Inside the Concert” talk with former WQXR host Naomi Lewin April 29 …
Before her conversation with Ezra Klein on Wednesday, April 21 for 92Y, writer and actress Mira Sethi talked to us about breaking out of binary systems of thought, the challenges of writing about Pakistan for a Western readership, and her acclaimed debut story collection Are You Enjoying? …
The metaphor of the flight from slavery to freedom and darkness to light chronicled in the Bible as the Exodus from Egypt, has never felt more apposite than it does this year. From last Passover to this Passover and from last Easter to this Easter, the incremental changes over the year are obvious …
1980s darling Justine Bateman shot to fame alongside Michael J. Fox on the smash hit sit-com Family Ties. Last year, her book Fame: The Hijacking of Reality gave us a remarkable insight into what it’s like to experience extraordinary fame, what fame does to a person, and what happens when fame starts to fade. Her new book tackles the topic of beauty. Face: One Square Foot of Skin takes a radical look at why – even after decades feminism, the body positivity movement, a shift in civic values — society deems that natural beauty, unenhanced by surgery or dermatological procedures, is not possible for women after age 50. In advance of her April 1 conversation with actress Carrie-Anne Moss, she answered some of our questions about her ideas on the subject of beauty
Frank Lloyd Wright called New York an “unlivable prison,” “a crime of crimes” and more, but the city gave him refuge from crippling personal and professional troubles and revitalized both his life and career. We talked with Anthony Alofsin, world-renowned authority on Wright, prizewinning author and Roland Roessner Centennial Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin about Wright’s complex relationship with New York – the subject of his acclaimed latest book, and his 92U online class this week …
Hilary Holladay, author of the acclaimed new biography The Power of Adrienne Rich – a New York Times Top Book of 2020 – talks to us about why the iconic American poet was ahead of her time, the story behind the National Book Award-winning breakthrough Diving Into the Wreck, and her upcoming class Reading Adrienne Rich at 92U – 92Y’s new destination for online learning …
Dancer, choreographer and performance artist Shamel Pitts and his Brooklyn-based arts collective TRIBE is a 92Y Harkness Dance Center Artist in Residence for 2020/21. We talked with him about his new digital art experience Black Hole 360°, how a dynamic, movement-based global artist has dealt with the stillness of quarantine, and how that’s making its way into his art …
Golden Globe nominations are out … who’d get your vote? We were honored to host many of the nominees on our stage. For today’s sweet treat, we’re sharing some of the most fun and inspiring moments from our star-studded archives …
92Y School of Music Director Yana Stotland talks about the extraordinary benefits children gain in learning to play an instrument …
92U and the Unterberg Poetry Center present an immersive series of lectures on all of the Nobel laureate’s novels, led by some of the nation’s most celebrated Black literary scholars …
TV cooking shows – from PBS classics to Food Network and the like – have played an important role in the evolution of American cuisine for a whole generation. But away from the glossy sets and professional equipment, what’s it like to cook alongside a top chef in their own home kitchen? …
During this time of enormous worry and fear — and all the contradictory advice that comes with it — Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, the founding president of the Child Mind Institute and one of America’s most highly regarded psychiatrists, is a trusted guide for parents …
“If you can walk, you can dance Salsa!” Marlon Mills, one of the best-known faces in NYC’s Salsa dance community, is talking about how easy it is to get up off the couch and take part in one of his online dance classes …
There is a cruel irony that as we approach the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, our nation has been injured by the violation of our nation's Capitol by an uncontrollable horde cobbled together from venomous hateful militias, the Proud Boys, QAnon followers, other fanatic right-wing extremists and white supremacist groups, and thousands of citizens unwilling to accept the result of a presidential election proven to be untarnished by fraud …
Some of the most inspiring work being done in the 92Y community these last months has been the result of the generosity of spirit of a trio of amazing women in our Himan Brown 60+ program. Eleanor (Ellie) Roth (76), Joanne Bernstein (77) and Sara Westhoff (76) have demonstrated that while physical doors may close, open hearts and minds make remarkable things possible. Meet them! …
On Friday, December 4, dancers came back to Buttenwieser Hall to perform for the first time since the pandemic closed our doors on March 16 …
“You have this outward spotlight on everything around you, and because you’re confined to your home for the most part, you’re hyper aware – not only of what’s happening in the news, but also of what’s happening around you.” …
Wennie Huang is a visual artist and has been teaching watercolor painting, pastel and drawing at the 92Y Gilda and Henry Block School of the Arts since 2005. She developed the sewing and design courses for youth, and art exploration classes for teens. A devoted teacher, Wennie has built up a strong following among her students, many of whom have been taking classes with her for several years …
In anticipation of his new two-part class at 92Y in December, we talked with him about his new book, What It’s Like to Be a Bird, the importance of community to birding, some of his most fascinating discoveries of why birds behave they do, and what humans have to learn from birds …
“When Billie Holiday sings, we hear a song but we feel the truth,” says Yana Stotland, director of 92Y’s School of Music, and the force behind 92Y’s new series of events, Billie Holiday: Reaching for the Moon. “Among those truths was an early cry against racism. At this watershed moment in our society in 2020, I thought it time we take a closer look at one of the most iconic figures in music.” …
The new online art space at 92Y’s Gilda and Henry Block School of the Arts …
The Unterberg Poetry Center’s Sophie Herron talks to us about the genesis of Read By, our literary podcast, and creating intimacy between readers and the greatest writers in the world during the pandemic …
A note on the performance by Paul Masse, Artistic Director …
As the world-renowned violinist prepares to return to our stage for a livestreamed concert on November 9, we caught up with her to talk about teaching and performing in a pandemic …
Ethan Hawke was the first performer to step onto our stage since the pandemic forced us to go dark in March. He was here to read an abridgement of Marilynne Robinson’s seminal novel, Gilead. Here’s what he told us about that experience. …
A young rabbi’s approach to helping children find their way into Jewish life …
Ahead of his highly anticipated class on the surprising cultural afterlife of the German composer, New Yorker music critic and author of the acclaimed new book Wagnerism talked to us about why Wagner is worth our attention, his own complicated feelings about Wagner’s music, and the music he’s missed most during the pandemic …
Award-winning director and writer Miranda July (Kajillionaire, Me and You and Everyone We Know) gives us a sneak peek at her upcoming master class on filmmaking with Oscar-winning director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Favourite), sharing four elements that are critical to her creative process …
Sarah M. Broom talks to us about breaking through the limits of historical record, the city of New Orleans, what she learned while enrolled in memoir writing workshops at 92Y, and her 92Y event with Saidiya Hartman on Wednesday, October 28. …
Elissa Bassist, who leads a humor-writing workshop at the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center, describes her ideal student. …
For bestselling cookbook author and beloved blogger David Lebovitz, there’s nowhere on earth like the cafés of France. But you can recreate the feeling and flavors of a French café at home, with one of his favorite recipes: L’Embrassadeur …
During this season of the celebration of the Jewish New Year, we Jews are called to attention by the sounds of the Shofar blasts and compelled to recalibrate our values, commitments and visions. This year, I believe it is more important than ever that we do so …
How a brush with Bill Cunningham led to one of Fern Mallis’s most memorable interviews …
Unterberg Poetry Center Managing Director Ricardo Maldonado talks to us about 92Y’s upcoming literature and writing classes, finding inspiration in literary community during the pandemic, his debut poetry collection, and more …
Award-winning tap dance company Dorrance Dance, and choreographer/dancer/ performance artist Shamel Pitts and his Brooklyn-based arts collective TRIBE, are the 92Y Harkness Dance Center’s Artists in Residence for the 2020-2021 season. Center Director Taryn Kaschock Russell explains why their work is so meaningful at this moment …
As Kamala Harris makes history as the first Black woman to be nominated to a major-party national ticket, we take a look back to the evening of January 11, 2019, when she spent more than an hour in conversation on our stage …
Nine rabbis reflect on celebrating the High Holidays in a tumultuous year …
For 70 years, our doors on 92nd & Lex have opened every morning to welcome some of the most zealous and dedicated members of our community. When the pandemic closed those doors in March, our first concern was this program's members. As our most vulnerable community and one that includes many who live alone, they were at risk of losing more than most — the connection essential to their thriving …
The legendary journalist Pete Hamill, who passed away on August 5th at the age of 85, embodied the scrappy beauty of New York City like no other writer of his generation. “Whenever Pete came to speak at the Y, it was clear that he related to everyone in the building with deep humility — the maintenance staff, the audience, his fellow panelists on the stage,” recalls Director of 92Y Talks Susan Engel …
We celebrate the centennial of a jazz icon with his music and that spirit — 24 hours of events across 92Y’s programming centers — no boundary lines …
Annette Insdorf, the legendary critic and scholar, was a film professor at Yale where she counted the likes of Jodie Foster, Edward Norton and Angela Bassett among her students. Now a professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, she has also been the curator and host of 92Y’s celebrated Reel Pieces series for more than three decades …
We connected with the author of the acclaimed new book History Teaches Us to Resist ahead of her Great Thinkers master class at 92Y, The History of American Protest, for a dose of practical wisdom about how to get involved in a protest right now, intergenerational activism, climate change, and why you should never give up on progressive action …
The architect Charles Renfro — a partner at the visionary firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro — talked to us about making cities more humane, combatting systemic racism through design, rediscovering Central Park during the pandemic, and his upcoming master class on The Future of Cities as part of our Great Thinkers series. …
We talk with Ava Lehrer, Director of 92Y’s Center for Arts Learning & Leadership about how a global crisis sparked a national education initiative — and why top artists and thought leaders want to be part of it …
The 2020 Emmy Award nominees were announced this week. Whether or not you agree with who got the nod, the celebration of TV brilliance offers a welcome respite and distraction from the current news cycle. “We were honored to host a significant number of these talented people on our stage,” said 92Y Talks’ Taj Greenlee, who arranged many of the events …
Adam Gopnik talks to us about the invention of poetic journalism, lunch with Joseph Mitchell at the Grand Central Oyster Bar, life in New York during the pandemic, and his popular online course, Adam Gopnik: Reading The New Yorker, which is part our new 92U: The Great Thinkers series of master classes …
Thanks to the generous support of our donors, we’ve been able to increase the number of art exhibitions in 92Y’s Weill Art Gallery, moving beyond our popular faculty and student shows to present artists of global stature including Colin Davidson and Shantell Martin. Art Center Director Allison Valchuis, who arranges most of the exhibitions, outlines her curatorial philosophy …
Reflections on Isaac Stern's performances on our stage, scoring a seat in our hall, and one very memorable concert review …
For the past five summers, 92Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center has brought high school students from all over the country together in New York City for three weeks to flex their creativity in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. Through small groups with expert teachers and celebrated guest authors, the workshops have effectively helped a new generation find their collective voice and articulate truths that will carry them into adulthood …
On January 27, 1938, renowned Jewish physicist Professor Albert Einstein paid a visit to The 92nd Street Y during the annual board of directors meeting. Scarcely documented, the enigmatic genius’ trip to 92NY would remain the stuff of hearsay and local lore for decades …
Colin and Eric Jacobsen, artistic directors of The Knights, talk with us from the home they share in Brooklyn about music as a connector, their 2021/22 92Y residency, and what we can expect to hear in their July 30 livestream …
Finding ways to keep the kids happy and occupied through this socially distanced summer is more than somewhat challenging. That’s why Lauren Wexler, 92Y’s Director of Camps, has been exploring some interesting ways to fill our campers’ days with fun and variety …
There is a photograph of John Lewis, taken in March, 1965, at the front of five hundred marchers coming over the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, head high, walking straight into what he knew was the eye of the storm. State troopers were prepared — and indeed ordered — to attack the marchers on that bloody Sunday … …
Maybe you remember him from The Dick Van Dyke Show, or as Mel Brooks’ sidekick in the 2,000 Year Old Man …
Leading up to his conversation with David Byrne for the Unterberg Poetry Center, the acclaimed author of Cloud Atlas, The Bone Clocks, and the new Utopia Avenue talks to us about the music that inspired his new novel, why Fear of Music is his favorite Talking Heads album, and much more. …
As my wife and I complete our fourth month of self-isolation and social distancing, we, along with all New Yorkers, look forward to an appropriate easing of the essential restrictions that were necessary to turn back the marauding devastation of the Covid-19 plague … …
Last week I wrote about prophets before their time, but there is more to be said about prophesy itself. Jewish history contains a tableau of both genuine and false prophets. Swept as he was into the vortex of political upheaval in the seventh century BCE, the great prophet Jeremiah vehemently railed against those he considered false prophets … …
These past weeks have been sad and hopeful, as well as difficult and inspiring. Against the backdrop of the killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and other black men and women, there has been a swelling wave of national self-appraisal and reflection, even attempts at reconciliation — all of which were a long time coming and all of which still have a long way to go … …
When Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was asked upon his return from the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights march with Dr. Martin Luther King, “Did you find time to pray?” he famously answered, “I prayed with my feet.” …
The Jewish Festival of Shavuot was celebrated this past Friday and Saturday. Shavuot traditionally commemorates Moses and the Israelites receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai …
Shavuot, which begins the evening of May 28, celebrates the giving of the Torah to Moses and the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. Fifty days after leaving the pain of slavery in Egypt, the Israelites stood shoulder to shoulder as a free people at the foot of the mountain … …
I hope that, along with all of you, I am an unabashed patriot believing in the resilience of this nation to mindfully meet the expectations the founders of this country set for it … …
In synagogues around the world, a section of the Torah was read last week which included instructions for the preparation of the oil which was to be used to light the candelabra that would burn continuously from morning to night … …
In his extraordinary, and now iconic, poem “Life is a Journey” Rabbi Alvin Fine (z”l) wrote:
Birth is a beginning And death a destination. And life is a journey…
I’ve been thinking about empathy a great deal these past months. Perhaps it’s an unexpected consequence of social distancing and self-isolation which provides greater opportunity for the extravagance of free-floating ideas and uncircumscribed introspection … …
This past Tuesday we observed Yom HaShoah (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day) during which we memorialized the victims of the Holocaust. We commemorated, as well, the abiding spirit of heroism and courage which infused many of those victims to the very last moment when, without forsaking the core of their humanity, they died in the gas chambers … …
Throughout our history Jews have recited special prayers “for the welfare of the government.” The biblical prophet Jeremiah wrote from Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE, “Seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Lord in its behalf … …
In his classic work When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote, “God does not cause our misfortunes. Some are caused by bad luck, some are caused by bad people, and some are simply an inevitable consequence of our being human and being mortal, living in a world of inflexible natural laws … …
This is a season of rebirth and messianic longing both for Christians and Jews.
We human beings sometimes yearn for unreasonable responses to our prayers. We ask for quick cures, a miraculous turn of improbable events, even world peace …
Note: Today’s Thought for the Day comes to us from Bronfman Center Director of Jewish Education Rabbi Samantha Frank.
Why Psalms? Why Now? Why Robert Alter’s translation?
I was recently reminded of the lesson a beloved and gentle professor of mine taught about the Biblical prophets. He said their message was “Despair is a sin and hope is a duty.” Now, millennia later, this prophetic teaching emerges as an extraordinary lesson for us all. Among COVID-19’s collateral damage, hope should not be a victim …
This is an unsettling time. Often, we’re exhausted by the end of the day, worn out by anxiety, hypersensitive to every cough we hear, and aware of every person on the street …
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