Rabbi Jill

The start of the Jewish New Year holiday of Rosh Hashanah was marked by the cast of Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s musical Harmony at the Barrymore Theatre on West 47th Street. Check out photos and video!

Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s musical Harmony will welcome one and all to their new home, the Barrymore Theatre to ring in the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Learn more about the event here!

What better place to celebrate the career of Broadway legend Jerome Robbins than at the Actors Temple, a National Landmark, steps from Broadway and the spiritual home to so many legendary Broadway performers since 1925.

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Broadway Blessing. September 19, 7 p.m. St. Malachy's/The Actors' Chapel, 239 W. 49th St.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Shellen Lubin and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been championing women in the professional theatre for over three decades, is mourning the loss of eight league members who passed away in 2019.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president, his popularity with American Jews inspired this Yiddish joke from a Jewish Republican judge: The Jews now had three velten (worlds), the judge quipped. Di velt (this world), yene velt (the world to come), and Roosevelt. Although the Democratic party has won the majority of American-Jewish votes since the 1920's, the critical issues that motivate Jewish voters, like all voters, also reflect the political climate and a range of priorities. Today, as the country grows increasingly polarized, are Jewish voters becoming more starkly divided as well?  Are ideological schisms, gender differences, and generational divisions shaking up the Jewish political landscape too? What can we glean from historical voting trends? And with Jews making up only 2% of the population, why so much interest in the Jewish vote anyway?

Congregation Rodeph Shalom presents four-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh starring in a one-night only play reading of DANCING WITH GIANTS on Wednesday, November 14 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, 615 N. Broad Street in Philadelphia. The play was written and will be directed by Tovah's brother, David Feldshuh, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for MISS EVERS' BOYS. The performance is one of the centerpiece events of the synagogue's year-long 90th Anniversary celebration of its sanctuary and is supported by First Trust Bank.

The Actors' Chapel will present the 21st Anniversary Celebration of BROADWAY BLESSING on Monday, September 17, 2018 @ 7pm at St. Malachy's Church - The Actors' Chapel located on 49th Street Between 8th Avenue & Broadway.

Tony Babino, performer Carol Ostrow and the Actors' Temple Board of Directors are celebrating their 101st year honoring the historic entertainers who have passed through their doors, with their annual gala YOU AIN'T HEARD NOTHIN' YET. Entertainers past and present will commemorate this mecca of modern Jewish culture, including Tony Babino, George Bettinger, Sir Frank London and Friends and special guest Star of the Yiddish Theatre, Joanne Borts. The gala takes place on Monday, March 19, 2018 at 6:30 pm in the Barbra Streisand and Milton Berle rooms of another hub of entertainment greats, the Friar's Club (57 East 55 Street, NYC). Tickets vary in prices and are available at www.theactorstemple.org/events.

Congregation Rodeph Shalom, in association with Burke Cohen Entertainment, presents seven time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner and two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award nominee Johanna Day in a one-night only performance of Jeff Cohen's powerful play The Soap Myth on Wednesday, January 31st at 7 pm at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, (615 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia). The play, directed by Pam Berlin, is part of a tribute to the United Nation's International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

A toy factory on the industrial edge of the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Two survivors ( a Holocaust survivor and a young Mexican illegal immigrant) meet in a world filled with fears of deportation, low wages, poor working conditions, and a struggle for the vanishing American dream.

A toy factory on the industrial edge of the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Two survivors (a Holocaust survivor and a young Mexican illegal immigrant) meet in a world filled with fears of deportation, low wages, poor working conditions, and a struggle for the vanishing American dream.

Theater District institution the Actors' Temple celebrates its centennial with an entertainment-packed dinner and show at the Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street, on Monday, March 13, at 6pm.

On the evening of March 21, veteran vocalist and stage actress Anna Bergman presented a program called Falling In Love With Love, featuring the romantic songs of Richard Rodgers to support the Actors' Temple (339 West 47th Street) at its 3rd Annual Fundraising Gala, one year shy of Congregation Ezrath Israel's centennial (that's the official name of the synagogue). Prior to Bergman's show (produced by recently elected Temple Board President Carol Ostrow), Rabbi Jill Hausman and outgoing Temple Board President Robert Reicher, both of whom received awards, gave warm and funny speeches, making eminently clear why the Actors' Temple is known as “the Cool Shul.”

Oprah Winfrey hosted over 100 faith and spiritual leaders for a special advance screening of the upcoming landmark television series 'Belief,' which explores faith and spirituality around the world

In celebrating the New Year 5776, The Actors' Temple, founded in 1917 and located in a landmark building in the heart of the theater district since 1923, introduces a new initiative ARTS @ AT, to reinforce their historic commitment to serving Jewish theater artists and maintaining a relationship with the surrounding NYC arts community. Sophie Tucker, Red Buttons, Jack Benny and the Three Stooges are among the scores of well-known entertainers who frequented its striking halls. The Actors' Temple is located at 339 West 47th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenue.

Cabaret had it's beginnings in Germany, so I guess it was "Bashert" (yiddish - meant to be) that the German and Romanian Ambassadors were among those that filled the Actors Temple last night to hear acclaimed European Cabaret Star Adrienne Haan perform. As Rabbi Jill Hausman pointed out in her opening remarks, "actors have always used their talents to raise money for the historic shul".

Where else to present a concert version of a new, original Broadway musical titled 'Song Of Solomon' than at the Actors' Temple? BroadwayWorld attended the performance earlier in November and brings you footage of the concert, as well as interviews with the creative team, below!

Where else to present a concert version of a new, original Broadway musical titled "Song Of Solomon than at the Actors' Temple. The historic building, constructed in 1923, has been designated a national landmark and the synagogue has been home to many of the greats in show business. Some of it's members and congregants were Al Jolson, Edward G. Robinson, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Eddie Cantor and countless other lesser-known actors, comedians, singers, playwrights, composers, musicians, writers, dancers and theatrical agents. Academy Award winner Shelley Winters kept the High Holy Days in the Actors Temple. as well as The Three Stooges, and Harpo Marx who attended services. Ed Sullivan, whose wife Sylvia Weinstein was Jewish, was also a member.

A star-studded musical celebration, the 4th Annual Best of Broadway & Cabaret to benefit the Actors' Temple [339 West 47th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenue], the historic theater district landmark that has been a welcoming home to show business Jews, their family, and friends, took place on November 18. BroadwayWorld has photos from the event below!