More in ‘New York City’

• Direct talks! Washington, D.C.! Early September! Victory for President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton! [NYT]
• The United States has convinced Israel that it will take Iran longer—a year, minimum—before its nuclear weapons are operational, somewhat forestalling the possibility of Israeli military action in the near- to mid-future. [NYT]
• President Ahmadinejad reportedly said he ...

Helen Berkovitz lives alone in an austere Borough Park apartment, on a sleepy street about 10 blocks south of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. She’s blind and diabetic, but the 81-year-old Holocaust survivor is surprisingly spry. Her fourth-floor apartment has all the hallmarks of an elderly woman’s abode: An array of tchotchkes sits on a glass ...

In the era of swift downloads, even “indie” musicians work tirelessly to be seen. They tour, collaborate, and reunite; they pitch songs for commercials and hit the festival circuit. But not David Berman. The former frontman for legendary, and genuinely indie, outfit Silver Jews is notoriously reclusive, so much that his reading last night at ...

If you’re looking to be involved in the more benign aspects of local government, a seat on the Landmarks Preservation Commission is generally a safe bet. But for two hours yesterday, 11 members of the New York City Commission sat in front of more than 100 people, silent and exhausted, and listened to heavy pleas ...

Jewish drug peddlers are having their moment. In Holy Rollers, Jesse Eisenberg portrays a young Hasidic ecstasy smuggler who transitions, a little awkwardly, from hapless amateur to seasoned pro. Jonathan Braun, it seems, was a natural pusher. The New York resident was recently arrested by federal authorities for heading a major marijuana trafficking operation. His ...

Last night’s weekly Monday night chevruta learners at the Aish center in New York City were greeted with new paintings adorning the walls of the lobby and lecture room. Elke Reva Sudin’s colorful series “Hipsters and Hassids” illustrates the parallels lives of the two overlapping Williamsburg, Brooklyn communities; the 22 paintings will be on display ...

In the early morning hours of a winter day in 1877, the blackest sheep of my family arrived at a police station on Manhattan’s West 30th Street to file a complaint. My cousin, a belligerently drunk 29-year-old named Washington Nathan, had just been kicked out of a bar on Sixth Avenue. Washington wore an elegant ...

You’re darn right latkes deserve their own year-end list. This writer has partaken of four of the five selections, and can seriously recommend the Ukrainian East Village mainstay Veselka (their cheese blintz complements their latke nicely), as well as the Park Avenue Winter selection (a bit precious, but the size and density are appealing). Experience ...

This week, New York City’s Department of Transportation abruptly removed a 14-block stretch of bike lane that ran along Brooklyn’s Bedford Ave., a major thoroughfare that at this particular stretch goes through an ultra-Orthodox enclave. The lane had been hotly contested between the well-organized cyclist community and the Williamsburg neighborhood’s Satmar Hasidim, who complained about ...

“New York bagels versus Montreal bagels” is one of those Beatles-vs.-Stones-type questions for which the answer “either one” is simply unacceptable. The New York Times’s City Room blog delves in to the debate, exposing what makes these two delicacies so different, and trying to settle, once and for all, which is better. For the tragically ...