INTERVIEWS

As a celebrity journalist, I have walked down many streets in Manhattan with famous faces, but the experience is never more hilarious and entertaining than doing it with comedian Jackie Mason. Sometimes it can take 45 minutes to travel down one short block. Every passing stranger, with uncommon familiarity, stops to say hello and get his autograph. “Aren't you Jackie Mason,” one fan asks. Mason quickly replies, “I sure hope so because I've been cashing his check every week.”

Whoever attempts to stigmatize Jackie Mason as a borscht-belt comedian probably harbors the "too Jewish" complex and prefers sushi to gefilte fish. However, with a Tony Award and six Broadway hits under his own belt, he has undoubtedly achieved international acclaim which extends far beyond the Catskill Mountains. From Starbuck's to Israeli politicians, Mason exposes faults and foibles, hypocrisies and hilarities, few escape his agile tongue. Even God Himself is comedic material for this former Rabbi. “If a manager would run a company the way G-d runs the world, he’d be fired in a second."

With surgical precision and military genius, an elite Israeli commando force rescued 100 hostages at Entebbe airport on July 3, 1976. With great national pride and relief, Jews around the world exulted. A whole nation rejoiced, a whole nation cried, but only one family mourned—the family of Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, the sole military casualty. One young handsome Israeli leader and hero had died, and in the midst of grief, the seeds of a future prime minister were born, Benjamin Netanyahu.

As Leonid Nevzlin walks into the Lifestyles photo studio, his impenetrable, steely eyes scrutinize the surroundings. With keen awareness, he scans the faces of the people he is meeting for the first time as he shakes their hands. I, the interviewer, get the sense of being interviewed myself. But, knowing his background, his manner becomes understandable. Born in Moscow and as a man hunted by Russian spies and targeted by Russian president Vladimir Putin, Nevzlin’s observation skills are a necessary requisite for survival.

In times where being a household-name is a huge plus in politics, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver enters New Jersey’s senatorial primary race with a disadvantage. She is running against two well-known congressmen, Rush Holt and Frank Pallone, as well as Cory Booker the popular mayor from Newark, NJ, who has almost a million and half Twitter followers. That’s hard to tweet and Oliver has certainly entered a foray where not everybody knows her name; but she’s still very glad she came..

Congressman Frank Pallone’s official bio says he started in public service in 1982, serving in Congress since 1988, but the truth is he started in politics when he was in the fourth grade and ran for public council. Serving people, helping people and making this world a better place is what he has always been about

In a war where sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can really hurt you, Ambassador Alon Pinkas’ agile tongue cuts through Palestinian rhetoric and articulates Israel’s position with the clarity of a bell. Since the intifada began 19 months ago, the Jewish State has found itself fighting two fierce battles: one on the ground for “homeland security,” the other on the air waves for public opinion. This eloquent 41-year-old Consul General of Israel, who appears nearly nightly on the major networks and cable news shows, has stood at the forefront of the PR battle with an apparent endless repertoire of sound bytes which “bite” right back at Israel’s detractors.

Oudi Recanati is a scion of one of the most well-known families of the Israeli business world.

Vive la France is not a choice chant for most Jews who have sadly witnessed that country’s recurrent and blatant antisemitism. Still, it is hard not to love the seductive France that intoxicates the heart and mind with fantasies of romance—it is harder yet if you’re a woman with an affinity for men who hold the door open, who rise when you excuse yourself from the table, who make you feel like you’re the most beautiful woman in the room, and who, in an age of feminism, still appreciate the feminine. Pierre Rehov is one such Frenchman.

When it comes to Jack Rosen’s table, the question “Guess who’s coming to dinner?” rarely produces a common answer. Around his elegant table, in his seven-story home off Fifth Avenue, Rosen and his family have hosted presidents, senators, prime ministers, and other major players in world politics, including the Clintons and Ariel Sharon. But for Rosen and his gorgeous wife, Phyllis, it’s not simply about breaking bread with notables, it’s about breaking barriers and opening minds.

As pretty young girls sample endless colors of makeup at Sephora, at Whole Food Markets deliberate shoppers fill their carriages with rice cakes and organic delights. Fashionable females slide into fabulous shoes at Stuart Weitzman, while just a few floors above friends and colleagues meet for drinks and laughs.

Daryl Roth (born December 21, 1944) is a Tony Award-winning theatre producer who has produced over 90 productions on and off Broadway.