Day: September 10, 2025

Hidary, a Brooklyn-born composer, pianist and founder of MindTravel, has spent the last 11 years creating what he calls “silent piano concerts.” Through specialized headphones, audiences hear his improvised compositions in real-time, broadcast from his electric grand piano directly into their ears. From the outside, the event is almost noiseless, save for the lapping waves and footsteps in the sand.

“It’s silent from the outside, but deeply immersive on the inside,” Hidary said. “The moment you put the headphones on, you’re transported into another world. The music becomes a soundtrack to everything you’re seeing in front of you — the water, the sky, the people around you.”

A new kind of concert

The idea was born in Santa Monica in 2013, when Hidary first brought his piano to the beach. He wanted to pair his music with nature but faced a practical challenge: how would an audience hear the subtle tones of a piano in the open air?

The solution was technology. Hidary connected his electric grand to a transmitter, creating what he describes as a pop-up radio station on the beach. Audience members wear custom headphones that pick up the broadcast, whether they are seated on the sand or strolling half a mile away.

“Some people even keep listening while they walk to the restroom,” Hidary said with a laugh. “The sound is perfect everywhere.”

MindTravel provides the headphones at check-in. Attendees often bring blankets, beach chairs or picnics, forming a wide circle around the piano. Others wander toward the surf, walk hand-in-hand or watch their children play in the sand — all while hearing the same notes in sync.

The result, Hidary said, is both personal and communal.

“Everyone has an individual experience with the music, but they’re sharing that collectively,” he said. “You look around and you see everyone moved in different ways — couples embracing, kids playing, people reflecting. It’s very moving.”

Improvised in the moment

Every MindTravel concert is improvised. Hidary draws inspiration from the weather, the crowd and the environment around him.

“I want to feel the wind, the people, the place,” he said. “Each one is unique. It’s never the same concert twice.”

The headphones also solve another technical issue: keeping the piano in tune and maintaining a clean sound outdoors. “If you put a traditional piano on the beach, it would go out of tune in minutes,” Hidary said. “This way, people get a high-fidelity, immersive sound experience.”

From Brooklyn to Jones Beach

For Hidary, the Sept. 14 performance is a homecoming. He grew up near Coney Island, studied classical composition at New York University and still has family in the same Brooklyn home where he first learned piano at age 6.

“I’ve known Jones Beach my whole life, but this is our first time performing there,” he said. “It feels special to bring this to my own backyard.”

Organizers expect between 800 and 900 attendees — one of the largest MindTravel audiences to date. Over the years, Hidary has steadily expanded his headphone inventory to keep up with demand.

“We just kept buying more headphones,” he said. “Now we finally have enough for everyone.”

A mission of connection

MindTravel has grown from small beach gatherings into a global project. Hidary has staged concerts in more than 100 cities, from Miami Beach to the deserts of the Middle East and even Antarctica. Indoors, he sometimes alternates between acoustic and electric piano to highlight different textures. Outdoors, though, the silent format has become his signature.

At its core, Hidary said, MindTravel is about more than music.

“Our mission is to move people to greater purpose in their lives through music,” he said. “It’s about creating space to reflect, to feel and to connect — with yourself, with others, with nature.”

Hidary’s approach blends classical training, improvisation, meditation and philosophy. He credits early exposure to Eastern thought — particularly Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha — with shaping his perspective on music as a meditative practice.

“Music was always devotional for me,” he said. “It was never just about performance. It was about connecting with something deeper.”

A silent symphony by the sea

While the headphones create an internalized experience, Hidary said the concerts paradoxically foster togetherness.

“At first you’d think headphones would isolate people, but it’s the opposite,” he said. “Because everyone is hearing the same thing, you feel connected without needing to say a word.”

That connection is what draws families, couples and individuals back to his concerts year after year.

“People tell me it becomes the soundtrack of their lives,” Hidary said. “That’s what keeps me inspired.”

When the first notes sound on Sept. 14, the beach will remain quiet to passersby. But for the hundreds in headphones, Jones Beach will transform into a concert hall under the open sky.

“It’s a transporting experience filled with wonder,” Hidary said. “And it all clicks the moment you put the headphones on.”

The concert will be held at Jones Beach on Sunday, Sept. 14. Headphones pick-up begins at 4:30 p.m. The concert begins at 5 p.m. Bring your own chair or beach seating. Headphones are an essential part of this experience and will be available for walk-up ticket sales while supplies last. Visit www.eventbrite.com to purchase tickets in advance.

Mayor Eric Adams declared last Friday that he is staying in the New York City mayor’s race because he is the only candidate who can defeat Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.

“I am running, and I’m going to beat Mamdani, and I’m going to continue the success that the city has witnessed,” Adams said during the news conference at Gracie Mansion — the mayoral residence — amid reports that he had been moving closer to scoring a plum post in President Trump’s administration.

Four days later, a poll released by Siena College and The New York Times found that just 9% of surveyed voters supported the incumbent mayor. The poll seemed to line up with many other recent polls, with Adams running third or fourth and/or with single-digit support.

As it stands right now — and as the Siena/New York Times poll showed — Mamdani leads the four-person field with a plurality, and the candidates opposing him must consolidate behind the strongest polling amongst them, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to have a chance at defeating him.

If the surveys are right, Adams appears to have little to no chance of winning re-election in the crowded contest against Mamdani, Cuomo, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. That begs the question: Why is Hizzoner staying in a race in which, in all likelihood, he will lose?

One theory: Leverage for Adams

Veteran political consultant Ken Frydman said Adams has yet to exit the race because he is leveraging his position as the incumbent mayor to secure the best landing spot possible once his term concludes at the end of the year. 

“Understandably, he is trying to maximize the power of incumbency until his term ends at midnight on Dec. 31,” Frydman told amNewYork. “He’s trying to maintain his position in these apparent negotiations with the Trump administration about his next job.”

Adams met with top Trump adviser Steve Witkoff in Florida last week, his spokesperson Todd Shapiro confirmed on Friday, to discuss job opportunities within the Trump administration, according to several published reports. He was even offered an unspecified post at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Politico reported last week, and is being considered to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia, The New York Times reported.

The mayor was also reportedly set to travel to Washington, D.C., at some point this week to meet with Trump’s advisers again.

There’s also the possibility that Adams could accept a job offer in the private sector, according to the Daily News, as a reward for suspending his campaign and putting rival Cuomo in a better position to defeat Mamdani.

All of that came before Adams hastily convened the Friday press conference to tell reporters that he is not going anywhere. He spent much of that address blasting both Mamdani and Cuomo as “spoiled brats” — referencing their privileged backgrounds.

Another theory: Spite

One Democratic strategist, who was granted anonymity to discuss the matter freely, said spite for Cuomo might be a “significant motivator” for Adams’s remaining in the race.

“He sees Andrew Cuomo as someone who has wronged him, and he doesn’t view being a spoiler for Cuomo as a bug, but a feature of his campaign,” the strategist said of Adams. “He will prevent Andrew Cuomo, who he thinks boxed him out of the primary and a chance to win reelection, from being elected mayor.”

Adams called Cuomo “a snake and a liar” during his Friday remarks and asserted he is the latest victim in the former governor’s pattern of undermining Black rivals’ political campaigns.

Cuomo on Tuesday told reporters that it “isn’t accurate or true” that he spoiled the chances of Black pols, including former Gov. David Paterson and former state Comptroller Carl McCall, for his own political gain.

The mayor has also slammed Cuomo for running against him in the general election after privately saying he would not compete in a field that includes him.

Still another theory: Controlling the narrative

Basil Smikle, a Columbia University professor and former state Democratic Party chair, said that while Adams may still be exploring job prospects, he had to say he was staying in the race last week in order to get control over the reported rumors about it.

“He needed to say something because the reports were too frequent and becoming too detailed about what deal was being offered,” Smikle said. “It was important for him to come out and say something, just to keep the conversation from escalating.”

Smikle said it is also “conceivable” that even if Adams is entertaining offers, he is staying in the race because he wants to go down fighting. Furthermore, the mayor may be concerned about the optics of taking a job with Trump, who is quite unpopular in the five boroughs.

“That actually tracks with where most elected officials are,” Smikle said. “Particularly if they’ve been in office for a long time, if they’re going to lose, they want to lose it on a field of battle. They don’t want to step aside unless it’s for something extraordinary. At the end of the day, the story will not be that he stepped aside for the good of the city, the story will be he stepped aside to join the Trump administration. And that’s something that he’s going to have to reconcile within his own career.”

Despite the theories and speculation, Shapiro, speaking on behalf of the Adams campaign, said the mayor isn’t budging from the race at all.

“The mayor had a press saying he’s conference staying in the race,” Shapiro told amNewYork in a Tuesday interview. “You can’t believe political experts because during the primary Mamdani wouldn’t have won. Don’t count out Eric Adams; he’s in it to win it.”

What started as a meme page has since grown into a full-fledged cannabis brand connected to Judaism.

Tokin’ Jew was created by Brooklyn residents Will Cohen and Ben Kraim in 2020, with the duo using the Tokin’ Jew name for a meme account on Instagram. What he didn’t expect was how the page would grow into a full cannabis community.

“There was no kind of intention behind creating this kind of cannabis brand or this intersection of cannabis and Judaism. It was a way of connecting to my Judaism in a little bit of a different way,” said Cohen. “Judaism gets thrown upon you when you’re young, as does all religion, and people want to find their own identity within the religion as they grow up and different life experiences mold them. What we’ve tapped into with Tokin’ Jew is like being able to really find your way in the religion through a different lens, which is through comedy and through culture, and then, obviously, with cannabis as well.”

“I think a lot of this comes from a happy accident in the beginning and turned into, ‘Whoa, there’s actually something here.’ A lot of it came from the audience,” said Kraim. 

The brand started with one product that Cohen created: the J Menorah, which holds nine joints. 

“By no means do I recommend smoking all 9 joints at once, but it’s just a funny way to connect back to my Judaism,” said Cohen. “We rolled out the Instagram and started releasing this product and funny content.”

Tokin’ Jew has since grown into a full-scale cannabis brand, with products leaning into Jewish culture. Among their products, you can find a Menorah Bong, pipes shaped like pickles and dreidels, a joint scroller, and themed grinders. You can also find a selection of edibles called Tokin’ Chews.

As the Jewish community gears up for the high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Tokin’ Jew has launched new products to celebrate, including their “High Honey,” a THC-infused honey and a new Challah pipe. The crew is also gearing up for an infused Shabbat dinner ahead of Rosh Hashanah and more new products on the horizon.

“We also have some collaborations coming up on the product side as well, with our edibles, we’re gonna be partnering up with a couple of chefs and food icons to do some cool collabs,” said Cohen.

Finding common ground with ritualistic practices

Both Cohen and Kraim agree that the connection between cannabis and Judaism is deeper than expected, with both cultures being bridged through rituals. Much like Judaism, Cohen and Kraim noted that cannabis has rituals that they can poke fun at with their products.

“This is kind of all religions, but cannabis is so ritualistic. There’s so many rituals as part of it, right? You pass to the left, you can’t have a white lighter, you do it at a certain time, you love your certain bong,” said Kraim. “I think Judaism, at least the way I grew up, was very reform, very traditional, like that’s what was passed down. It wasn’t like deep historical texts that were like so important to me. It was having family dinner or your cousins go on a walk before family dinner and smoke a joint. It’s like these traditions get passed down, so there’s just like a deep association between those things.”

Many of Tokin’ Jew’s products poke fun at Jewish foods, something that they acknowledge has deep meaning for Jewish culture as well.

“Food is so deeply a part of Jewish culture, and it ain’t nothing that makes food better than a little cannabis. I think there’s this element too, from like a mental health perspective of just like generational trauma and cannabis is just known to kind of ease anxiety and just chill people out. I think that Jews definitely use it as a tool for that,” said Kraim.

Fighting antisemitism with comedy

From the beginning, comedy was at the forefront of Tokin’ Jew. 

“Jews have furiously used comedy to just deal with whatever. I think that cannabis and comedy and just laughter go hand in hand, it brings people together,” said Kraim.

For Cohen and Kraim, the comedy is important for building a community and combating antisemitism. 

“It’s interesting that the pushback comes. It can come from internal to the Jewish religion, or it can come from ultra orthodox people who see a shofar pipe and they’re like, ‘I can’t believe I see this on my screen’ to then people outside,” said Cohen. “There’s always people who hide behind a keyboard and spread hate and that’s what happens in our DMs, that’s what happens in our comment section.”

While speaking to amNewYork, Cohen noted that cannabis is already connected to Judaism and comedy, particularly through comedians like Seth Rogen and Chelsea Handler. Through Tokin’ Jew, Cohen and Kraim are trying to help shift the perspective by bringing some levity to Judaism.

“We’re trying to spread this message of being proud to be Jewish through a little bit of a different lens. When you’re scrolling on Instagram and you see a rabbi, and your stereotypes of a rabbi are like thinking all the bad things about Jews that the media has maybe taught you, and then you see them rip a bong,” said Cohen. “Now your perspective on Jews has just slightly shifted. We’re humanizing Jews by cutting it with weed.”

“We just want people to smile and just have a good time because life is hard. But in the world of like Jew hate, we’ve gotten a lot of comments where it’s just like, ‘Whoa, this has got me curious, I have questions about Judaism,’ and you could just see them opening up a little bit,” said Kraim. 

The community that Tokin’ Jew has built has also brought out people within the Jewish community who were looking to reconnect with their culture.

“We’ve gotten thousands of messages from Jews all over the world who [say], ‘I disconnected from my Judaism as soon as I moved out of my parents’ house where I was never connected to Judaism’ and ‘Current events have made me want to connect more with other Jews, and I didn’t really know where I belonged or fit in, and then I came across Tokin’ Jew, and it basically just innately screamed Jews who are chill and light and like me,’” said Kraim. That ultra orthodox rabbi who was mad at us about the shofar pipe would probably hear that and [say], ‘It’s a little unconventional, but you are achieving things that we would like to achieve, which is to bring Jews together.’”

For more information, visit tokinjew.com.

ON THIS DAY IN 1869, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said, “Between fifty and sixty candidates for the position of firemen were examined this morning at headquarters. They were a superior class of men.” *** ON THIS DAY IN 1915, the Eagle reported, “With no matches scheduled at the West Side Tennis Club, Forest Hills, L.I., […]

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