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A Night Out With Old Jewish Men

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A Night Out With Old Jewish Men

David Roffe, 70, swirled pink wisps of sugar floss onto sticks, thrusting pink clouds of cotton sweet into the arms of younger, trendy partygoers.

By day, Mr. Roffe, a stout, 5-foot-2-inch retiree, lives within the Rockaways. However final Thursday evening, on the first Previous Jewish Males Fall Ball, an intergenerational mixer held at Congregation Beth Elohim within the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, he was the expertise.

Mr. Roffe is without doubt one of the faces of Previous Jewish Males of New York, a life-style model that embraces Jewish cultural stereotypes and means no disrespect. The occasion launched Mr. Roffe, a model ambassador, to followers who acknowledged him from skits — together with a TikTok video during which he protested rising pastrami prices at Katz’s Deli.

A crowd of young and old loved Mr. Roffe’s cotton sweet, alongside bagels and lox, within the dim gentle of the temple’s art-deco ballroom — simply because the get together’s host, Noah Rinsky, had deliberate.

“It’s a bunch of previous guys, a bunch of hipsters, they usually’re each stunned to see one another there,” mentioned Mr. Rinsky, who wore a beige swimsuit and wire-framed spectacles. “To date, the collision has appeared pretty pure.”

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Mr. Rinsky, a 33-year-old Park Slope resident, is the creator of @oldjewishmen, a well-liked Instagram account documenting people from its namesake demographic. It builds on the custom of self-referential humor that has been embodied by personalities like Jackie Mason, Rodney Dangerfield, Larry David and Mr. Rinsky’s personal father. With memes and movies, the account hopes to honor personalities Mr. Rinsky discovered round New York — and in his family.

The eccentric antics of Mr. Rinsky’s father, Jeff, impressed the account, initially referred to as @dadaroundthehouse, which began in 2015. After the elder Mr. Rinsky moved to Tel Aviv, his son regarded nearer to house for examples of quirky humor much like his father’s.

“I wanted extra previous Jewish males as a result of my dad wasn’t round,” Mr. Rinsky mentioned.

On the time, Mr. Rinsky lived under a Hasidic prayer heart on Manhattan’s Decrease East Aspect. Males would ceaselessly knock on Mr. Rinsky’s door to request his assist in assembly the 10-person quorum required for conducting Jewish prayer. He started taking candid pictures of the lads and together with irreverent captions.

“I’d spend a whole lot of time round there simply taking photos of those guys,” Mr. Rinsky mentioned. “At that time, the account was a bit bit extra concerning the struggling of getting old.”

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Mr. Rinsky is conscious that the model’s humor typically hinges on tropes — regarding each Jews and older folks — that may be reductive.

“My dad isn’t loopy about among the stereotypes. I believe that he thinks it’s humorous, however needs at occasions there was a deeper extra non secular method,” he mentioned.

I believe O.J.M. is humorous,” he added. “I don’t assume all Jewish males are sitting round consuming pastrami and sitting in saunas all day. However clearly, it’s a multifaceted group.”

However Mr. Rinsky quickly discovered there was a marketplace for area of interest content material about New York’s irreverent Jewish elders. He introduced in Bryan Seversky, a inventive director from Los Angeles. Constructing on the recognition of the Instagram account, the 2 males began a clothes line, a podcast and a TikTok account, which options scripted skits and pearls of recommendation from resident O.J.M.s like Mr. Roffe. A guide, “The Previous Jewish Males’s Information to Consuming, Sleeping, and Futzing Round,” can be printed by Workman Publishing in 2023.

Now, O.J.M. has began internet hosting stay, intergenerational mixers modeled after old-school socials that join the model’s fan base with actual elders behind its aesthetic inspirations. (O.J.M.’s model, Mr. Rinsky and Mr. Seversky mentioned, is “geri-core” — or “geriatric-core.”)

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“It’s pure enjoyable,” Mr. Rinsky mentioned. “The meals isn’t kosher, and never everybody’s Jewish, however they share the identical want to fulfill like-minded individuals who could be drawn to this similar out-of-era occasion.”

The occasions at Congregation Beth Elohim grew out of an opportunity encounter with the synagogue’s assistant rabbi, Matt Inexperienced, 32. He first met Mr. Rinsky at a espresso store close to the temple in Park Slope when he noticed Mr. Rinsky in an O.J.M.-branded kipa.

“I requested him the place he obtained it, and it turned out he was the genius behind the Instagram account,” Rabbi Inexperienced mentioned. “I launched myself as a rabbi, and we obtained to speaking.”

Rabbi Inexperienced was an prompt fan. He felt O.J.M.’s id was each cool and confidently Jewish, a mixture he strives towards in his personal cultural programming. Along with his rabbinical duties, a lot of Rabbi Inexperienced’s work at Congregation Beth Elohim has concerned getting inventive about find out how to make Jewish life related to a youthful, more and more secular era.

“Many in Jewish institutions are involved about youthful Jews not believing in issues or caring about issues that older generations cared about,” he mentioned.

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In Mr. Rinsky and Mr. Seversky’s undertaking, Rabbi Inexperienced noticed a flipped script. Beneath the facade of its typically sarcastic humor, O.J.M. — as Rabbi Inexperienced sees it — expresses an actual want to attach with and archive elements of American Jewish tradition which can be disappearing with time and assimilation.

“He’s preserving these voices and this aesthetic and this perspective towards life that received’t be right here endlessly,” Rabbi Inexperienced mentioned.

He added, “He’s additionally, I believe, inviting us into it to determine what of this will we wish to tackle past our era.”

When Mr. Rinsky talked about he was excited about providing in-person social occasions for O.J.M.’s followers and followers, Rabbi Inexperienced recommended Congregation Beth Elohim because the venue.

“I assumed it was an ideal shidduch, which is to say an ideal match between what he was doing and the truth that I’ve an intergenerational neighborhood, but additionally a neighborhood that features many individuals of their 20s and 30s,” Rabbi Inexperienced mentioned.

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In July, Rabbi Inexperienced and Mr. Rinsky hosted O.J.M.’s inaugural occasion on the synagogue, a “Pace-Schmoozing” evening, whose M.C. was Willie Zabar, a comic and a fourth-generation member of the Zabar household. The occasion was profitable sufficient that Rabbi Inexperienced and Mr. Rinsky determined to host the O.J.M. Fall Ball.

Attendees loved the crooning musical comedy of Dani Luv, who had carried out at Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse on the Decrease East Aspect, which is now closed. There was meals from Greenberg’s Bagels in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Edith’s in Williamsburg, two millennial-run Jewish sandwich outlets. O.J.M. attire — parody Mets merchandise emblazoned as an alternative with the phrase “MEATS” — was accessible for buy.

“I’m stunned that it’s virtually precisely what it was billed as,” mentioned Lucy Dolan-Zalaznik, 25, who works on the socials and visuals crew at Vogue.

For Mr. Roffe (who hit the dance flooring after his shift on the cotton sweet machine), the autumn ball was a possibility to get out throughout a time of life when social alternatives have grown extra sparse. However by way of experiences with O.J.M., Mr. Roffe has discovered new buddies and new Hora companions.

“It’s important to stay life like a child,” he mentioned. “You solely come round as soon as!”

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And not using a brick-and-mortar retailer to name house base, O.J.M. plans to proceed internet hosting pop-ups and socials at Congregation Beth Elohim and elsewhere (the model’s subsequent occasion, a comedy brunch present referred to as Deli Laughs, introduced at Stand Up NY, will happen on Dec. 11.) Mr. Rinsky additionally recommended there may very well be one other ball this spring on the synagogue.

And the older friends? Many sat in folding chairs on the precise facet of the ballroom, nursing drinks and questioning aloud concerning the youthful crowd.

“Why aren’t they going to Justin Bieber concert events?” mentioned Aliza Hyman, 58, from Brooklyn, who had stopped by for some cookies and scotch on the invitation of her good friend Aaron Cohen, a 70-year-old paid actor who seems in O.J.M.’s skits.

“After I was that age, we might by no means come to a mixer that wasn’t hip,” Ms. Hyman mentioned. She turned to her good friend. “However possibly that is hip,” she mentioned. “Possibly that is what’s taking place.”

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How this Girl Scout troop offers community to migrant children : Consider This from NPR

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How this Girl Scout troop offers community to migrant children : Consider This from NPR

The girls excitedly raise their hands during an activity at Girl Scout Troop 6000’s weekly meeting at the Row Hotel on Wednesday evening.

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The girls excitedly raise their hands during an activity at Girl Scout Troop 6000’s weekly meeting at the Row Hotel on Wednesday evening.

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Run in partnership with New York City Health and Hospitals, Girl Scout Troop 6000 serves families living in temporary housing in the city’s shelter system.

One of the chapters is made up entirely of children who recently arrived in the U.S. All are from Latin America, ages kindergarten through 12, and their families are seeking asylum.

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Many of the scouts in this chapter just made the dangerous journey to the U.S., with some fleeing violence in their home countries.

Juliana Alvarez, is one of the volunteers leading the group. “If it’s difficult for adults,” she said, “imagine how hard it is for a child to understand why they’re here.”

Alvarez knows exactly how these kids feel – she and her two daughters lived in the same shelter for about a year. She left her native Colombia when a local gang threatened her family. “I was scared,” she said. “I heard that on the journey to the U.S. you get raped or killed.”

NPR’s Jasmine Garsd visited the shelter, where she met 10-year-old Tahanne from Ecuador. When asked what she wants to do when she grows up, Tahanne responded: “Do you know what the sternocleidomastoid is?” (Tahanne dreams of becoming a doctor.)

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Support and community

At the chapter’s regular meetings, the classic Girl Scouts activities are repurposed to provide the girls tools to navigate the U.S., and New York City.

Selling cookies, for example, becomes an exercise in math and learning American currency. They earn badges, go on field trips and learn to traverse the subway system.

Shereen Zaid, senior director of logistics for New York City Health and Hospitals, said the meetings offer the consistency needed to positively impact the lives of the scouts.

“If we could have some of the girls meet twice or three times a week and just color together, or sing together or talk about community development together, that is such a win,” Zaid said. “They come here with a suitcase or one backpack, and so we are trying to help them live an actual fulfilling life.”

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The group also has two master of social work candidates who attend every meeting to monitor the children for signs of anxiety and depression.

“Outside of these doors, it is trauma,” said Meredith Mascara, CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater New York.

A moment of normalcy

Troop 6000 expanded its program as the city saw an influx in immigrant families. Now, the program is a refuge for asylum seekers.

“This is probably the only sense of stability they have right now,” said Giselle Burgess, founder and senior director of Troop 6000. Burgess got the idea for the troop over a decade ago, when she and her daughters were living in a shelter in Queens.

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The city has implemented a 60-day rule for migrant families’ shelter stays. When NPR visited the group, Tahanne, the hopeful doctor, had run out of time. She was scheduled to leave the shelter the next day. According to Documented, at least 40 families have been evicted from the shelter since January.

When scouts leave the shelter, they have the option to continue participating remotely via Zoom. But at the time, Tahanne frowned at the prospect.

“We share everything here,” she said. “We come here to be friends. These are my sisters now.”

Visit the shelter and hear the scout’s stories by tapping the play button at the top of the page.

This episode was reported by Jasmine Garsd, and produced by Kathryn Fink and Mia Venkat. It was edited by Alfredo Carbajal, Jeanette Woods and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Rebar caltrops found on I-20 in East Texas again

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Rebar caltrops found on I-20 in East Texas again
VAN ZANDT COUNTY, Texas (KETK) – TxDOT is warning drivers of puncturing spikes found on I-20 again. Rebar caltrops have been found on I-20 since last year, with the most recent discovery on May 6 in Van Zandt County. They are usually four-pronged, heavy gauge steel puncturing spikes that can be thrown or linked together […]
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Fallout continues from the Miss USA resignations as a runner-up declines the crown

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Fallout continues from the Miss USA resignations as a runner-up declines the crown

Noelia Voigt (L) and UmaSofia Srivastava (R) attend a charity event in New York City on May 8, the week that they stepped down as Miss USA and Miss Teen USA.

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Noelia Voigt (L) and UmaSofia Srivastava (R) attend a charity event in New York City on May 8, the week that they stepped down as Miss USA and Miss Teen USA.

Rob Kim/Getty Images for Smile Train

Days after a pair of resignations rocked the pageant world, organizers have found a successor for Miss USA but appear to be struggling to do the same for Miss Teen USA.

Miss USA Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava, who were both crowned in 2023, announced their early departures two days apart last week.

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Srivastava said her “personal values no longer fully align with the direction of the organization,” while Voigt cited mental health reasons in a statement whose first letters of every sentence spelled “I AM SILENCED.”

A longer resignation letter from Voigt, obtained by the New York Times and NBC News, accuses the Miss USA Organization of “a toxic work environment … that, at best, is poor management and, at worst, is bullying and harassment.”

Social media director Claudia Michelle also resigned right before the two, disavowing “workplace toxicity and bullying” in a public statement of her own, in which she noted she was not bound by an non-disclosure agreement.

Miss Colorado Arianna Lemus resigned in solidarity on Friday, writing that Voigt and Srivastava’s “voices have been stifled by the constraints of a contract that undermines their rights and dignity,” and calling for urgent reform within Miss USA.

The slew of departures and criticisms have refocused a spotlight on the organization, raising questions about its treatment of its two biggest titleholders and practices in general.

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The organization wished Voigt and Srivastava well in public Instagram posts, but has not responded to NPR’s requests for comment even as the fallout from their resignations has continued.

In the latest twist, the runner-up from last year’s Miss Teen USA competition says she has turned down the offer to succeed Srivastava.

Miss New York Teen USA Stephanie Skinner, a student at UPenn, wrote on Instagram this week that she had already committed to living in Thailand this summer for a “global research career opportunity.”

The 19-year-old acknowledged that declining the national title was a tough decision, especially since she’d been working towards it since the age of 12. But she also said she believes it is the right move, alluding to the circumstances that led to it.

“Although I do not know exactly what Noelia and Uma went through to led [sic] them to resign, I am sending them immense love and support,” she wrote. “What I do know is that my core values are integrity, honor, kindness, and most importantly I will always stand for female empowerment. I believe we all deserve the power to use our voices.”

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Skinner, whose tenure ends in late June, doubled down in an interview with People on Tuesday: “I believe one thing I will never give up is my character.”

The new Miss USA will be crowned on Wednesday

Meanwhile, organizers are preparing to inaugurate the new Miss USA 2023, Miss Hawaii Savannah Gankiewicz.

They announced on Friday that Gankiewicz, last year’s runner-up, will be crowned in a ceremony in her home state on Wednesday.

“Her dedication to empowering women through self-love and confidence is inspiring, and we look forward to her impactful reign as Miss USA,” Laylah Rose, Miss USA Organization CEO and president, said in a statement.

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Gankiewicz — who is of Filipina, Polish and Vietnamese descent — is a model, entrepreneur and program director for What Makes You Feel Beautiful, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women and girls based in Maui, where she was born and raised.

In an Instagram post responding to the news, Gankiewicz said she hopes to use her short time as Miss USA to “bring attention and focus onto the rebuilding of Lahaina on my island of Maui,” which was devastated by a series of wildfires last August.

She said her decision to accept the crown was not made lightly.

“I stand with Noelia and admire her strength to step down and prioritize her mental health,” she wrote. “Noelia, it was the honor of a lifetime to share the stage with you during your crowning moment and I wish you all the best in your next chapter.”

Questions remain about the August pageant

Many Miss USA 2023 state titleholders, including the now-former Miss Colorado, have expressed public support for Voigt by sharing an Instagram statement that asks the organization to release her from the confidentiality clause of her contract “so that she is free to speak on her experiences and time as Miss USA.”

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The statement, which says it has the support of the majority of members of the 2023 class, also asks for “full transparency for contestants in the class of 2024 and beyond.”

Gankiewicz — who did not share that statement on her Instagram page — addressed her “fellow Miss USA sisters” in a separate statement, writing, “I believe it’s crucial for us to stand united for the future of the organization and the incoming class of 2024 and beyond.”

States have already begun crowning their respective 2024 titleholders, a process that is slated to continue through early July.

The winners from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., will compete at the Miss USA pageant in Los Angeles from July 27 through August 4. The Miss Teen USA pageant will be held on August 1.

The Miss USA competition is slated to be broadcast live on the CW Network, which announced in late April that it had entered into an “exclusive multi-year broadcast partnership” with both the adult and teen versions of the pageant for the next three years.

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It also said the 2023 Miss USA broadcast was the network’s #1 new special of the year, with more than 1.1 million total viewers to see Voigt win the crown.

But the future of the partnership, touted by executives just weeks ago, is suddenly unclear.

“In light of the events of last week, The CW Network is evaluating its relationship with both pageants,” the network told USA Today in a statement on Monday. NPR has reached out to the CW for more information.

Miss USA did nod to the controversy in its statement announcing Gankiewicz last week, as backlash within and beyond the organization continued to grow.

It said “it’s important to remember that every individual connected to such high-profile events is navigating their own personal journey.”

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“We are committed to fostering a healthy, communicative and supportive environment for all contestants, state titleholders, national titleholders and staff involved with the Miss USA organization, it’s our mission,” it continued. “We ask for community, empathy and kindness to be restored.”

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