Andrew Silow-Carroll

Apply for a Blog

Dec 29, 2024, 3:38 PM

What David Brooks and Bob Dylan teach Jews about heresy

(JTA Illustration. Svenska Dagbladet via IMS Vintage Photos/Wikipedia; Jay Godwin/Wikipedia; Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest)

High-profile religious journeys between 'Christian-ish' and 'Jew-ish' are stirring a public debate over the limits of Jewish identity

Dec 4, 2024, 2:55 PM

Those days when American Jews all read the same books

The mid-20th century cultural tastes of American Jews are explored in three new books: 'Postwar Stories by Rachel Gordan, 'Write Like a Man' by Ronnie Grinberg and 'Carrying a Big Schtick' by Miriam Eve Mora. (Oxford University Press; Princeton University Press; Wayne State University Press)

On three new books about the books that helped define the mid-20th century American Jewish community, and why there's no such canon today

Jun 5, 2024, 1:36 PM

Dreading wedding season? Shut up and dance with me

Guests dancing at a wedding reception. (iStock/JodiJacobson)

For years, I treated celebrations as chores – but it's more fun to take myself and my three moves to the dance floor

Feb 13, 2023, 7:25 PM

The reluctant dissenters of Diaspora Jewry

Israelis march during a rally against government plans to give lawmakers more control of the judicial system, Tel Aviv, Feb. 4, 2023. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

Alarm over the fate of Israeli democracy has normally restrained voices speaking out – here's what they are saying

Jan 7, 2023, 12:56 AM

Picking a new rabbi? A new novel about a church shows how

Michelle Huneven’s novel 'Search' is about a liberal church’s search for a new minister. (Courtney Gregg)

When I was on a search committee, I saw the sausage-making of synagogue life and how hard compromise is, but when done right, it can get you a pretty great choice

Oct 24, 2022, 9:25 AM

Does Trump hate Jews, or just ‘bad Jews’?

US President Donald Trump addresses the Israeli American Council National Summit 2019 at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida on December 7, 2019. (Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP)

It may be presumptuous for a gentile politician to explain how 'good Jews' vote, but Jewish individuals and organizations have been doing it for years

Oct 17, 2022, 9:43 AM

The missed opportunities of Tom Stoppard’s ‘Leopoldstadt’

Brandon Uranowitz, left, as Nathan, and Arty Froushan as Leo. The latter character is a stand-in for Stoppard. (Joan Marcus)

A different play could have helped all of us, especially the children and grandchildren of American Jews who lived through the Holocaust

Sep 18, 2022, 4:41 PM

Queen Elizabeth mattered. Civil religion explains why.

Queen Elizabeth II meets Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at a reception at St. James’s Palace in London to mark the 350th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Jewish community in Britain, Nov. 28, 2006. (Andrew Parsons/PA Images via Getty Images)

It's possible to think of the late monarch as a sort of intermediary between profane humans and divine aspirations, as a symbol of order and justice

Aug 26, 2022, 6:51 PM

The Catskills meet Mount Sinai at a night of Jewish comedy

A crowd of about 4,000 crammed the Coney Island Amphitheater for the Chosen Comedy Festival, August 16, 2022. (Mike Monti, via JTA)

When American Jewish comedians got together to entertain the people whose world they know best, not only did they bridge Jewish worlds, they were also funny

Aug 14, 2022, 2:42 PM

The particular Jewish meaning of my hamsa collection

An assortment of hamsas. (via The New York Jewish Week)

'Cool' Jews like me don’t display tchotchkes decorated with Jewish stars or bearded dancing Hasids. My souvenirs connect me to the modern multicultural Israel

Load more

About Me

Andrew Silow-Carroll (@SilowCarroll) is the editor in chief of The New York Jewish Week and senior editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.