39 Steps

Arts and Culture

Producer to attend NW screening on Jews of India

A free screening of the documentary “This Song Is Old,” about the B’nei Menashe Jews of India, will take place Thursday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Sun City Social Hall, 1495 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd. in Oro Valley. The B’nei Menashe, who live in the northeastern Indian province of Manipur, have been recognized [...]

Read More »
Susan Kovitz (left) and Susan Claassen rehearse ‘Look Ma, We’re Dancing,’ premiering at The Invisible Theatre. (Tim Fuller)
Susan Kovitz (left) and Susan Claassen rehearse ‘Look Ma, We’re Dancing,’ premiering at The Invisible Theatre. (Tim Fuller)

Tucson to debut ‘Look Ma, We’re Dancing’

The Invisible Theatre will stage the world premiere of Janet Neipris’ “Look Ma, We’re Dancing,” a lighthearted comedy about two grown sisters who are still competing for the approval and attention of their long dead mother. The show will run Feb. 8-26, with a preview performance Feb. 7. “Janet is a playwright that we have [...]

Read More »
Vered Otmy
Vered Otmy

TIPS partnership to bring Israeli artists to Tucson

Four Israeli artists will spend almost two weeks in Tucson next month, giving workshops and talking about their experiences as artists living in Israel. “This amazing ‘partnership 2gether’ project, sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel, Jewish Federations of North America and our local TIPS (Tucson, Israel, Phoenix, Seattle) committee, helps bring people from Israel [...]

Read More »

Israel again going to Oscars gate with a Joseph Cedar entry

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Joseph Cedar is on a pretty good run: The Israeli director has made four movies in his 11-year career, and the first three have represented his country at the Academy Awards for best foreign-language film. One made the cut of five finalists, but a Cedar film has yet to capture a [...]

Read More »

Israel’s ‘Footnote,’ Allen and Spielberg get Oscar nods

(JTA) — The Israeli film “Footnote” and veteran Jewish filmmakers Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg are up for Academy Awards. Oscar nominations were released Tuesday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Israel’s hope for its first Oscar was kept alive with Joseph Cedar’s “Footnote,” listed among the five finalists in the foreign-language [...]

Read More »

The unhappy medium

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Some days, I think back 25 years to my high-school French course, where I first encountered the concept of the juste milieu — the happy medium — and the difficulty of achieving it. Why is it so elusive? Why do I often feel caught betwixt and between or, even among my [...]

Read More »

Mystery swirls around Judaic manuscripts discovered in Afghanistan

NEW YORK (JTA) — It was said to be a finding of groundbreaking scholarly and historic significance, comparable in importance to the 19th-century discovery of the Cairo Geniza and rivaling the Dead Sea Scrolls for sheer drama. That, at any rate, was the buzz in scholarly circles when reports began surfacing last month that an [...]

Read More »

With new restaurant at Canyons, kosher food debuts at U.S. ski resort

PARK CITY, Utah (JTA) – Kosher food isn’t something one generally associates with ski resorts, and Utah isn’t a place known for its Jewish population. But after Canyons, the state’s largest ski resort, opened the nation’s first ski-area, glatt kosher restaurant this season, the Jews came. And ate. And they were satisfied. “Response has been [...]

Read More »

Park City shul is popular venue for Sundance films — and ski-in Shabbat services

PARK CITY, Utah (JTA) – Call it the Sundance Synaplex. This week, crowds of people will be flocking several times a day to Temple Har Shalom in this picturesque ski town, but they won’t be coming for Shacharit, Mincha or Maariv services. Instead, for 10 days the synagogue is serving as one of the venues [...]

Read More »
Alex Dunai, second from right, has become a leading purveyor of Jewish heritage tourism in Ukraine. (Alex Weisler)
Alex Dunai, second from right, has become a leading purveyor of Jewish heritage tourism in Ukraine. (Alex Weisler)

Ukrainian historian makes career in Jewish heritage travel

LVIV, Ukraine (JTA) – Alex Dunai is not Jewish. But over 15 years of leading Jewish tourists searching for their roots in Ukraine, he’s built up a serviceable knowledge of Yiddish — though sometimes he has to make things up. “I make up sayings — you have highway roads, we have ‘oy vey’ roads,” Dunai said. [...]

Read More »