NYC Sentinel

Anna Catherine Strasser (1918-2009)

A tribute to the life of the recently departed Anna Catherine Strasser. Narrated by Steve Strasser. — Marlow Stern and Paulina Villegas

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Runners cross globe to race on city’s streets

Runners from 105 countries comprise nearly half of the 42,000 entrants in this year’s marathon, the largest pool in the race’s 40-year history. The world’s largest marathon will be broadcast in 125 countries, reaching all corners of the globe. — Amy Brittain and Marlow Stern

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Kaparot: chicken-swinging for the soul

By Marlow Stern The ritual of kaparot occurs when Orthodox Jews take live chickens, swing them over their heads as a means of transferring their sins onto the chickens, and then have them slaughtered on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. Today, kaparot is performed in only Haredi – or Ultra-Orthodox – Jewish communities. In New York City, the largest kaparot ceremony occurs along Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

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The Coens get personal

By Marlow Stern Following the critical and commercial disappointment of 2004’s “The Ladykillers,” filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen took some time off to think. Out of this brainstorming session came the concepts for future films: “No Country For Old Men" and “Burn After Reading” – and now, “A Serious Man," starring Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik, a Jewish academic undergoing a spiritual and existential crisis.

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‘Inglourious Basterds’ hands Jews the smoking gun (or bloody Louisville Slugger)

By Marlow Stern For movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, it’s a bold move to pre-screen Quentin Tarantino’s brutal epic, “Inglourious Basterds,” at a museum that bills itself as “a living memorial to those who perished during the Holocaust.” But how are influential NYC Jewry – rabbis, film critics, Jewish historians and viewers – reacting to a film described by influential Jewish publication Tablet Magazine as “a failure of Jewish morality”?

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P.S. 7: A Bronx school bounces back

By 7:40 a.m., the streets of Kingsbridge, the Bronx, were invaded by a swarm of diminutive disciples in navy blue and white uniforms, armed with Transformer and Barbie backpacks, multicolored lunchboxes and youthful exuberance. It’s the first day of school at P.S. 7, the Kingsbridge School – a public elementary school with nearly 1,000 students. P.S. [...]

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