Ronda Spinak

Surprises have become unsurprising! Our tumultuous times disorient us and division has jaded us. But Jewish values have a special power to anchor, guide and uplift, as a new theatre production demonstrates in What a Surprise! This show will be performed in person in California and live on Zoom May 7-June 11. It is a creation of The Braid, the go-to Jewish story company.

Stories from the Violins of Hope is a new stage play which brings to life the powerful true stories of violins played during the Holocaust, in ghettos, forests and concentration camps. 

The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will partner with The Braid to present “Spring Theater with The Braid,” a series of three theatrical performances highlighting themes of food, remembrance, and queer identity in the Jewish community.

Being yourself can involve risking it all. The breathless drama and liberating joy of the Jewish Queer experience is captured in a new work of theatre by The Braid, the go-to Jewish story company.

All of us live in the shadow of the Holocaust. It forever shaped the generations that came after it, both within the Jewish world and throughout the whole of humanity. And no one knows what living in this shadow truly means better than the children and grandchildren of its survivors. Yet too rarely have their experiences been given a stage. Their lives, begun with the hope of rebuilding a shattered world, offer us the wisdom and the resilience that illuminate a path forward. 

On Wednesday, July 20, 2022 at 7:30 PM ET, the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust and The Braid will present 'I Want to Go Home: Stories from Writers in a Country at War,' a performance spotlighting ten new works by Ukrainian playwrights. Proceeds from the event will benefit HIAS's Ukraine crisis response efforts.

The LGBTQ+ community is and has always been beautiful, diverse, and vibrant. Celebrating Pride and uplifting the stories of LGBTQ+ people is always important — and feels especially urgent today, with debates over equal rights being such a part of the national conversation. And so The Braid, the go-to Jewish story company, has handpicked a collection of true stories about people who are both queer and Jewish.

Who are you beneath the surface? All of us have a part of ourselves we cover up — a part of our bodies, our personalities, or our very identity. But then there are times when the hidden part of ourselves is suddenly and dramatically revealed, sometimes by choice, sometimes by circumstances thrust upon us.

Sometimes an opportunity stares us in the face and we are too frightened to take it. Other times our head and heart are wide open and we grab hold for dear life. What happens when we seize the moment? Do we find a pleasant surprise? Or a less-than-perfect outcome? And what happens when we let the moment slip away?

What becomes of the Jewish soul caught between the American Dream and the Promised Land? America is a place of new opportunities, but for immigrants from Israel and their families, the story is more complicated … and a rich source of dramatic potential.

In conjunction with a month-long celebration of the Southern Jewish experience, The Braid, a Los Angeles-based theatre company, is collaborating with the Museum of the Jewish Experience (MSJE) in New Orleans to present Shalom Y'all: Exploring the Jewish South through Art and Artifact, an interactive presentation about the culture that defines the Jewish experience in the South.

Stories come alive at the crossroads of cultures in the new storytelling theater experience, Sweet Tea & the Southern Jew. As the go-to Jewish story company, The Braid is excited to present authentic true tales about the complex challenges Southern Jews face as they navigate a life filled with both Judaism and Dixie.

Caroline Aaron, actor, producer, writer, and Southern Jew will appear at The Braid on January 16.

Raised in Israel, Danielle Agami choreographs movements that seem, well, impossible. The founder and artistic director of the renowned Los Angeles–based Ate9 modern dance company, Agami will join moderator and award-winning author Lisa Rosenbaum for an intimate conversation about her vision on Sunday, December 12, 10:00am PT/1:00pm ET.

TikTok, the popular social media platform that usually showcases “young girls shaking their booties” and trendy makeup tips, has a new and very unlikely superstar: 82-year-old Seinfeld actress Annie Korzen. And on Sunday, November 14, she's coming to The Braid to share the unique voice and quirky observations that have made her an intergenerational online sensation.

The thrilling and tragic stories of Jewish artists and circus owners who captivated Europe with their amazing acts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are coming to The Braid for Circus Jews, an international Zoom event on Sunday, August 8.

Ellen Harper - folk singer–songwriter, mother to Grammy-winning musician Ben Harper, and owner of the historic Folk Music Center in Claremont, California, has been around folk music all her life.

Growing up, Iranian-Americans like Ora Yashar often saw themselves depicted only as the exotic Other: in her words, “either terrorists or Princess Jasmine.” But Yashar's generation was raised in the United States — Iranian in heritage living their own American stories. “Now we're bridging the gap between our old world and our new,” remarks another millennial Iranian-American, Asal Akhondzadeh.

Two famous genealogists will give you tips on tracing your Jewish roots across the diaspora at a new Sunday Morning with The Braid Zoom event on Sunday, June 13.

He gave Meghan Markle her first kiss, and now everyone wants to know him. She lost some of her hearing when she contracted COVID and worries she won't be able to keep singing lullabies to her four-year-old daughter. He had to tell parents that their sons had just died in Vietnam. She fell in love with a woman at a time when that kind of loving was unacceptable.