Esther Breger

Alexis Neiers’s Pretty Wild Road to Recovery

vice.com — In a hundred years, when historians are looking back at reality TV shows to understand what the fuck was going on in American culture during the nation's decline, there are going to be dozens, if not hundreds, of dissertations written on a short-lived series on the E! network called Pretty Wild.

Dear Jewish Media: Please Stop Making Lists of Jews

bloomberg.com — The Jerusalem Post has just published its annual ranking of the world's 50 most influential Jews, and I'm sorry but also somewhat relieved to report that I don't appear on it this year. I'm sorry because one of my goals in life is to inhabit the fever dreams of neo-Nazis, and nothing gets a neo-Nazi going more than the specter of supernaturally powerful Jews.

Lipa "Hang Up The Phone" (Official Music Video)

youtube.com — In a futuristic take on his hit song Hang Up The Phone from his blockbuster album Leap of Faith, superstar Lipa Schmeltzer teams up with producer and director Danny Finkelman to tackle our generation's ever growing infatuation with gadgets head on, in a music video that is equal parts science fiction and practical advice for today's technologically obsessed society.

A brief history of Jennifer Weiner’s literary fights

salon.com — Jennifer Weiner, the best-selling author, wrote an essay for Slate this week raking Claire Messud over the coals for recent statements Messud made in an interview with Publishers Weekly, pegged to her new book "The Woman Upstairs."

Saving Summer’s Trashiest Cocktail: Make Way For The $21 Long Island Ice Tea

theawl.com — 11 Madison is either a very good restaurant or the absolute best restaurant in New York City. It depends on whom you ask. But don't ask me: I've only had a drink at 11 Madison, and that drink was a Long Island Iced Tea.

‘Fill the Void,’ Directed by Rama Burshtein

movies.nytimes.com — Karin Bar/Sony Pictures Classics The story told by Rama Burshtein in "Fill the Void," her remarkable debut feature, has an almost classical simplicity. Shira (Hadas Yaron), a young woman living in an ultra-Orthodox enclave in Tel Aviv, faces a choice not unlike those faced by the heroines of Jane Austen novels and Hollywood romantic comedies.

Meet the Maharats: Questions for Rachel Kohl Finegold

momentmag.com — Yesterday, Moment published an interview with Ruth Balinsky Friedman, who will graduate next month from the first school to train Orthodox female clergy. Today, Moment speaks with fellow classmate Rachel Kohl Finegold. Finegold is a graduate of the Drisha Scholars Circle and currently serves in a pastoral capacity as the Education & Ritual Director at Anshe Sholom B'nei Israel Congregation in Chicago.

Denise Scott Brown Deserves a Pritzker Prize

newrepublic.com — In 1991, when Robert Venturi was awarded the Pritzker Prize in architecture for a " lifetime achievement " of work he mostly completed in collaboration with Denise Scott Brown, I remember people in architecture circles publicly expressing their fury at the profession's sexist culture-while whispering behind cupped hands an abashed satisfaction that Denise had been dissed.

Denise Scott Brown Deserves a Pritzker Prize

newrepublic.com — In 1991, when Robert Venturi was awarded the Pritzker Prize in architecture for a " lifetime achievement " of work he mostly completed in collaboration with Denise Scott Brown, I remember people in architecture circles publicly expressing their fury at the profession's sexist culture-while whispering behind cupped hands an abashed satisfaction that Denise had been dissed.

Before Midnight: How Richard Linklater's Trilogy Defined My Generation

newrepublic.com — In the mid-nineties, I was a college student who wore steel-toed boots and flannel shirts that swallowed my frame, and I spent my days in courtyards and coffee shops talking about boys, and philosophy, and the philosophy of boys.