Fear not! The Big Apple is still sweet for us

When it comes to travel, headlines now make us uneasy to leave home. Destinations that were once a must have become a maybe – but New York? Never. That was until the pulse-raising mayoral election. With the arrival of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, anxious commentary has followed his redefining of antisemitism, his wife’s widely-criticised response to October 7 and viral clips of calls to prayer through Times Square.

For many Jews watching from afar, there’s a burning question – is the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel changing beyond recognition?

Too often, social media takes you further than you want to go without a ticket. So I bought one to find out if NYC really is unredeemable. Thankfully I can confirm all is well. Currently. On arrival, the signs were immediately good.

Presenters still sprinkling Yiddish on NBC’s Today show in Rockefeller Plaza and in Times Square there were no calls to prayer but you can buy a Broadway sign menorah. Unlike in London’s Trafalgar Square. I was aware of the tongue-in-cheek JewBelong taxi campaign because I saw a cab with the sign saying ‘Totally willing to hide my Jewish star for a free bus ride’. But it would seem that the ironic dig at Mayor Mamdani’s free bus policy that doubled as awareness of antisemitism has since been stopped.

“It was created to start a conversation about the compromises many Jews feel pressured to make about visibility and identity,” said JewBelong co-founder Archie Gottesman.“Pulling it sends a troubling message about when speaking out against hate becomes uncomfortable.”

Unaware of this issue while in Manhattan, I simply enjoyed the fact that bagels with a schmear are still unapologetically oversized and there are even more places to buy them. Like PopUp Bagels in Midtown, where the original concept ditches singular bagels for batches served hot with dipping pots of flavoured cream cheeses. Obviously I tried them, but the pretence for visiting the Big Apple was about more than big bagels and checking for change. As script writer of the film Midas Man – a biopic about Beatles manager Brian Epstein – I was there for its opening at the New Plaza cinema on West 67th.

Brian loved New York and often stayed at the Waldorf Astoria, from where I uncovered a note he wrote on the hotel’s headed paper.  But as a man with excellent taste – in music and hotels – Brian would have appreciated the very rock ’n’ roll vibes of The Moxy hotels by Marriott.

Created for those hipper than me, I still got to stay at three as I moved about the city. They all have a similar formula: stylish, clever design, buzzy public spaces and affordable rates, but each has an individual personality reflecting the neighbourhood. So the Moxy NYC Times Square, being so close to the Theatre District, has some of the most handsome out-of-work actors serving bar and grill classics at the Legasea restaurant. Let’s just say that ‘hot’ in this eatery definitely has two meanings.

Rooms are compact but cleverly designed by renowned Canadian architects Yabu Pushelberg, with flexible furniture, hooks instead of wardrobes and oversized walk-in showers. The lobby hums with constant check-ins – theatre kids, finance types and tourists (me) who head for the rooftop – Magic Hour – the largest all-season hotel rooftop bar and the most popular, judging from the ‘lines’(don’t say queues) on the street and demand for a Some Like It Hot (tequila and spicy mango) and a bird’s eye view of the Broadway lights.

Yes, Broadway – with its Jewish heritage cemented in the foundations of the buildings between 41st and 54th streets and 6th to 9th Avenues. The Museum of Broadway should give gift passes to Mr and Mrs Mamdani as a reminder of the Jewish talent that built the district and still produces the shows.

A must for musical theatre fans, an introductory film tells you about the Nederlander and Shubert organisations, which still have theatres where musicals and plays bear the stamp of Jewish creators. So much of that work is celebrated in the series of rooms – Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s Showboat, Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story and Stephen Sondheim’s Company. There’s a corner devoted to Fiddler on the Roof and a case of Avenue Q puppets and the show written by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx is now on at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre and it is a must see even if you’ve seen it before.

Back at the Museum in a room of mirrors, Chorus Line devotees can spin like Cassie to Marvin Hamlisch’s score and cry if, like me, you’re thinking of your late sensational mother. Carole would have loved sleeping at Moxy Times Square because it feels like staying inside a chapter of that great American musical story – but it was time to move to across the river, to the Moxy Williamsburg in Brooklyn, which has a different energy.

Warmer tones, softer lighting, wallpaper dotted with frogs drinking vodka – this is a special residence, as proved by a Russian Jewish wedding held there on Sunday. Mesiba, the on-site Levantine-inspired restaurant was opened by Israeli chef Eli Buliskeria, but the menu is now Middle Eastern/Mediterranean-themed. The Moxy staff at all branches are very personable and I love to chat, but as Williamsburg remains resolutely Jewish, there were kosher bakeries beckoning and Frumah Sarah’s husband to visit!

Yes, for a view of Manhattan, Israeli grill plates and lots of noise, Laser Wolf (as in the butcher) is the place to go for Sunday brunch. I would be a regular if I lived at the Moxy, as you can walk there – and anywhere in Williamsburg. Living there would also make the hotel’s LilliStar bar on the 11th floor my local. A girl can dream…

Moving back to Manhattan made sense as there were shows to see– Chess with Lea Michele and Aaron Tveit,  Brit star Sam Tutty in Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) which was as sublime as it was in London (and with the added boost of being seated beside Brooke Shields and Patti Lupone). Managing to fit in a snappy revival of Little Shop of Horrors was a nice touch and far more enjoyable than the much hailed but very disappointing Death Becomes Her. Trust me it really doesn’t.

Ending the trip at Moxy NYC Lower East Side felt so right, because the area carries Jewish immigration in its bones. The hotel’s moodier colour palette suits the neighbourhood’s layered past, but the Lower East Side is also the epitome of downtown cool and the hotel, with its five drinking and dining establishments, is its own nightlife scene under one roof. There’s the Japanese restaurant Sake No Hana, piano lounge Silver Lining, subterranean nightclub Loosie’s and rooftop bar The Highlight Room. 

You gotta love a rooftop bar in NYC – and I did, in a coat and with a blanket (it was minus 10°C), but outside at street level, something Jewish was calling. Katz’s Delicatessen. They are still slicing pastrami thick enough for sandwiches to be doorstops, but the place feels like it’s nursing a broken heart.

Knowing that director Rob Reiner, who was murdered with his wife, Michele, last December, will never again stand by the When Harry met Sally table is felt by everyone who works at Katz’s and met him. Reiner visited a lot, said Katz’s owner Jake Dell (his grandfather and uncle purchased the deli in 1988 from the Katz family).“He forever changed Katz’s history with that simple line: ‘I’ll have what she’s having!’” And that wasn’t lost on those dining the same day and scanning the hundreds of photos on the walls to spot Rob Reiner’s smiling face.

Back in the lobby of Moxy Lower East Side, new Big Apple adventure seekers were arriving. I was jealous of the experiences that lay ahead of them in a city where nothing felt diminished. Times Square, Williamsburg, the memory-soaked Lower East Side were still the same to me. Better possibly, because on Union Square, young boys were offering to put on tefillin and on Times Square, a memorial for October 7 victims rolls continuously on a giant screen. For now, and for me, New York is still what it has always been: big, ambitious, theatrical and gloriously Jewish. Pray that it stays that way!

Book at https://moxytimessquare.com (from $139 per night), https://moxywilliamsburg.com, https://moxylowereastside.com (from $179 per night), https://marriott.com The Broadway menorah (£42) can be bought via https://www.broadwayupclose.com