Celebrated TV producer Elad Kuperman finds a new reality in the Biala court
Photos: Elchanan Kotler
For Israeli television viewers, Elad Kuperman is synonymous with some of the most creative programming over the last three decades. As a producer, he’s the behind-the-scenes guy who makes things happen yet over the last few years, the Great Producer started pulling on his soul strings. And that’s why Elad often finds himself in the inner sanctum of the Biala-Beit Shemesh Rebbe. “Here,” he says, “is where I make my most important life decisions”
The last place you’d expect to run into award-winning veteran Israeli television producer Elad Kuperman is in Ramat Beit Shemesh, on the outskirts of the kanoi neighborhood of Kiryat Ramah, with its “Don’t pass through our neighborhood in immodest clothing,” and “Zionists out” graffiti. But Kuperman isn’t fazed he’s got a large black kippah on his head, and he’s here on one of his regular visits to his
Judith Gerzi’s soul music blends her Sephardic roots with chassidic notes
Early Ache
Growing up frum in a very musical family in Edgware, London, before it was the religious hub it is today, I was the quiet one, the one who was too shy to sing loudly. My mother sang opera, my grandfather and brother are chazzanim, but though I loved music, I had no confidence. As a teen, I finally started to come out of my shell, only to realize that there were absolutely no venues for a frum woman to sing.
When I married my husband, who plays too many musical instruments to count, I loved that our home was full of music, but it was intensely painful for me that I couldn’t find an avenue to share the music within me.
My son isn t Jewish but I send him my love from afar
As told to Musia Slavin by Yehoshua Goldberg
How will I do this again? I asked myself when I woke up one Monday morning, soon after I turned 23. I didn’t know if I could keep going through the motions. Make money. Buy expensive things. Make more money. Buy more things. Make even more money. Buy even more things.
I already had the flashiest car on the market and was getting expensive haircuts every three weeks just because I could. I was already going on wild shopping sprees and spending a fortune in high-end stores without checking my bank balance.
Royal Repast By C.S. Teitelbaum | December 16, 2020
He’s catered for the Queen and brought kosher to Dubai, but Arieh Wagner’s greatest pride is serving Torah nobility
Photos: Maxim Denisenko, Personal Archives
The call couldn’t have come at a better time. With COVID-19 scaling down weddings significantly and erasing social events from the calendar, hotelier and caterer Arieh Wagner of Golders Green, London, found himself without a single job since Purim. Then came the groundbreaking peace deal between the United Arab Emirates and Israel in August, followed by the treaty between Bahrain and Israel a month later.
As soon as the Bahrain deal was announced, Wagner received a call from a former Sheraton Hotel colleague of 20 years ago. “Do you remember me?” the fellow asked, explaining that he is now the manager of the Ritz-Carlton in the Arabic country of Bahrain.