Sydney Taylor awards announced
Penny Schwartz, JTAFeb 02, 2023
An illustrated book about an inspiring Holocaust survivor and two works of fantasy featuring dybbuks and Jewish demons have won this year’s top prizes in Jewish...
In Boston, solidarity march for MLK Day
Penny Schwartz, JTAJan 19, 2023
On Jan. 13, Jewish Bostonians and allies walked in a procession to the park for the city’s dedication of a new monument of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife and...
Massachusetts bridge named for Jewish author
Penny Schwartz, JTAOct 20, 2022
A Massachusetts town at the center of a high school anti-Semitism scandal last year has just renamed a bridge in honor of a pioneering but little-known Jewish woman...
Jewish cellist reunites descendants of Holocaust survivors
Penny Schwartz, JTAAug 25, 2022
On Aug. 18, against the odds, some 20 descendants of Julius Blach and his brother Felix Blach gathered for four days in Stralsund, Germany, where the Blachs lived and...
After 40 years, his wrongful conviction was overturned
Penny Schwartz, JTAApr 21, 2022
BOSTON — Barry Jacobson spent 40 days in prison in 1983 after being convicted of setting a fire at his Massachusetts vacation home. He spent the next 40 years pressing...
American Yiddish scholar discovers unknown work by Sholom Aleichem
Penny Schwartz, JTAOct 14, 2021
BOSTON — Move over, Tevye the dairyman. Make room for Moshkele the thief, the rough and tumble rogue hero from the wrong side of the shtetl in a newly rediscovered...
Anti-Jewish violence shakes Boston
Penny Schwartz, JTAJul 08, 2021
BOSTON — Days after a series of violent acts stunned Greater Boston and threatened its Jewish community, residents are jolted but resolute, vowing to continue taking...
One of America’s longest COVID sufferers is starting to recover
Penny Schwartz, JTAAug 27, 2020
NEW YORK — At a moment when the world could use a dose of hope, along comes Rabbi Yehuda “Yudi” Dukes. In late March, Dukes was hospitalized in New York […]
The 17th-century plague
Penny Schwartz, JTAJul 30, 2020
BOSTON — More than 350 years ago, a plague took a deadly toll on Hamburg, Germany. As the High Holidays approached, fear and panic set in and many of the […]
Jewish Boston bookseller helps you spruce up your Zoom background
Penny Schwartz, JTAJun 25, 2020
BOSTON — In early April, just a few weeks after non-essential businesses in Massachusetts were shut down due to COVID-19, the staff at the Brattle Book Shop noticed...
