Van Wallach, at The Blogs

Nov 22, 2024, 8:14 AM

Backfilling and Front-filling My Jewish History

I’ve spent the last 50 years building a Jewish identity since I slowly reverted from a Southern Baptist adolescence in Mission, Texas, back to my ancestral Judaism. I’ve studied Yiddish and Hebrew, visited Israel twice, and have a happy...

Sep 20, 2024, 6:39 PM

Parsha Shoftim, Larry David and the World to Come

It happened again, that Jewish synchronicity convergence that follows me around. First I wandered around a Jewish cemetery, only to watch an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Larry David wandered around a Jewish cemetery. The past week, similar...

Sep 8, 2024, 9:45 AM

The Minor Prophecy for Eliyahu Reuven

The kippah that passed from one Reuven to another Reuven.

A decade after my serving as the religious officiant at a major life event, I led my second. This time around, I had the honor of researching, writing and leading a Jewish baby-naming ceremony. This modest career arc began on...

Aug 19, 2024, 7:32 PM

Synchronicity: When Life Imitates Larry David

If you watch any TV series long enough, you may encounter synchronicity. That’s when the program has a situation that uncannily speaks to you, maybe even when you are having the very same experience. That happened to me last Sunday...

Aug 7, 2024, 3:55 AM

My Long 5th of July Jewish Cultural Crawl in NYC

Here I am with Rabbi Schwarz, what a surprising encounter.

I planned to make my Friday, Fifth of July a Jewish Culture Crawl Day in New York, but I didn’t imagine all the unexpected directions it would take. I’ve enjoyed other Jewish Cultural Crawls on vacation days, when I dash...

Jul 7, 2024, 7:25 AM

Austria 1945: Interrogating the Composer

The investigator on the rough roads of Austria.

In Eric Leiseroff’s last years, I worked with the White Plains, NY, resident on his memoirs. Titled “This Country Gave Me Life!” this historic document covers his early years in Dresden, leaving Germany in June 1941 with his mother...

May 21, 2024, 12:24 AM

Tracking My Photo Rebbe, Budapest’s Robert Capa

The trail of legendary photographer Robert Capa begins in Budapest, Hungary, which I visited last month with my partner Naomi. As a devoted fan of Capa’s work, I was eager to explore the city where he was born in...

Jan 8, 2024, 3:39 AM

Teshuva-Seeking Kanye West Channels the Rambam

The apology literary genre began in the week after the October 7 Pogrom, as poster defilers lost their jobs and tried to staunch the public shaming. The growing canon of apologies mutated in an exciting new direction in late...

Nov 20, 2023, 4:57 AM

When Van Heard Van at the March for Israel

The November 14 March for Israel delivered everything I could desire in an urgent Jewish event: More than 100,000 people showed up to voice their support to free the hostages, support Israel and fight antisemitism. Attendance far exceeded my...

Oct 18, 2023, 8:23 PM

The Urgency of the Jüdisches Krankenhaus Kippah

Over the decades I’ve collected a handful of kippot. Which to wear to a service or event is typically a casual decision. However, for the October 14 service at Chabad of Bedford, NY, the first after the Simchat Torah...

About Me

Van "Ze'ev" Wallach is a writer in Westchester County, NY. A native of Mission, Texas, he holds an economics degree from Princeton University. His work as a journalist appeared in Advertising Age, the New York Post, Venture, The Journal of Commerce, Newsday, Video Store, the Hollywood Reporter, and the Jewish Daily Forward. A language buff, Van has studied Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew, although he can’t speak any of them. He is the author of "A Kosher Dating Odyssey." He is a budding performer at open-mic events.

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