New Women New Yorkers

Author: ariellekandel

Portraits & interviews

Zahra Noorbakhsh defies Muslim women’s stereotypes one comedy show at a time

Written by Jahaida Hernández Jesurum   It’s challenging to talk about Zahra Noorbakhsh without bringing up religion. So much of the California-born Iranian-American’s work focuses on the fact that she is Muslim — but perhaps not in the way you might expect: through comedy. Noorbakhsh, a comedian, full-time actress, writer, and host of the podcast #GoodMuslimBadMuslim, loves making people laugh in unexpected ways. In her second one-woman comedy show, Hijab and Hammerpants, which debuted in 2015, Noorbakhsh explored the conflicting...

Features & analyses

Deutschland in the US, Part IV: New York Germans today

Written by Sabrina Axster This is the fourth and final installment of our History of German Immigrants series. Read the first, second and third installments.  Today, there are only 18,657 German-born residents in NYC, according to a 2013 report on foreign-born populations in NYC published by the Department of City Planning. The report tracks the number of foreign-born residents in NYC since the 1970s. These numbers are remarkably low in comparison to previous numbers and given that the overall population of...

Portraits & interviews

December 2015 immigration news at a glance

Written by Ludmila Leiva   The past year was one of heightened attention to various immigration issues. As 2015 came to a close, several of these topics again found their place in national news headlines. In this month’s news digest, we take a look at where the presidential candidates left off on some of this year’s major immigration debates and briefly discuss the Obama administration’s latest immigration policies, before turning to what’s going on in New York.   Conversations on immigration:...

Features & analyses

Deutschland in the US, Part III: The migration of Jewish Germans

Written by Sabrina Axster This is the third installment of our History of German Immigrants series. Read the first and second installments.   One essential element of German migration to the US — and to NYC in particular — is that of Jewish Germans. Jewish immigration to America is traditionally divided into three categories: Sephardic, German, and Eastern European. But this doesn’t mean that there were no German Jews coming to the US during the periods of Sephardic or Eastern...