Arts and Culture

(JTA) — Summer is upon us. And that means swimsuits, summer camps, sticky temperatures — and food trucks. True, many of these trendy restaurants-on-wheels are known to ply their wares in the depths of winter. But as the weather warms, everyone from office workers to tourists find themselves beckoned… Read more »

Congressman Anthony Weiner, for those who don’t remember or have a talent for tuning out the wavelength or bandwidth by which scandals are disseminated, represented Brooklyn and Queens for seven terms before resigning in 2011 following revelations of sexting. Two years later, the liberal Democrat announced that he was… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — I’m a cheese and dairy fanatic. So for obvious reasons my favorite holiday is Shavuot. This is when spring has sprung and my family makes a whole spread of cheese and dairy-filled foods and desserts. There is always a ton of different cheeses, spreads, breads,… Read more »

(JTA) — Sara Wolf was running around a water park in an oversized T-shirt when she became acutely aware of the need for a “less frumpy” yet covered-up swimwear option. So she and Daniella Teutsch, a former fashion industry colleague, launched HydroChic, a swimwear company for women who want… Read more »

PARIS (JTA) — When the French-Jewish film director Yvan Attal titled his much-hyped comedy about anti-Semitism “They Are Everywhere,” he did so in reference to how some anti-Semites feel about Jews and vice versa. But the French-language title applies in another way, too: Though the film has yet to… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — “There’s no such thing as a bad date — there’s just a funny story,” says Jessica Schechter, a 28-year-old modern Orthodox woman who teaches acting in New York City and lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. There’s the guy who took her to the action… Read more »

In June 2014, 89-year-old Johann Breyer appeared before a Philadelphia federal judge charged with complicity in the gassing of 216,000 Jews at Auschwitz. American and German investigators presented the court with documents that proved that Breyer, a dedicated SS officer, was a willing participant in the Nazi death camp’s… Read more »

(JTA) — Spring — when nature itself seems to reawaken — is a time for renewal. So it’s probably a good idea to spruce up your bookshelf (or e-reader or audiobook app), no? Here are nine Jewishy suggestions to rejuvenate your reading. Alligator Candy (Simon & Schuster) By David… Read more »

(JTA) — The Eurovision Song Contest — the world’s most popular televised singing competition, which pits singers from 43 countries against one another in the battle for the year’s best pop song — is being held this week. France’s representative is a 31-year-old Israeli singer, Amir Haddad, who goes by the… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Kathryn Hahn’s no rabbi, but this nice Catholic girl from Cleveland plays one on TV. As Rabbi Raquel Fein on “Transparent,” the groundbreaking Amazon series about a dysfunctional Jewish family with a transgender parent (Jeffrey Tambor), Hahn has spent a lot of time thinking about… Read more »

(JTA) — “Rabin in his Own Words,” which opens in Friday in New York, Los Angeles and South Florida, is more than a tribute to the two-time Israeli prime minister tragically gunned down in 1995. The aptly named cinematic autobiography, which uses archival footage going back to the statesman’s childhood, is entirely narrated… Read more »

Arizona Onstage Productions will present “Bad Jews,” a dark comedy by Joshua Harmon, at the Temple of Music and Art Cabaret Space for three weekends beginning Friday, May 6. “Bad Jews” pits Daphna Feygenbaum, a “real Jew” with an Israeli boyfriend, against her cousin Liam after the death of… Read more »

The Tucson International Jewish Film Festival and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona will present a free screening of “Walking with the Enemy” on Thursday, May 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Tucsonan I. Michael Kasser will introduce the film, which is set in Hungary… Read more »

In June of 1944, an anonymous diarist in the Lodz Ghetto wrote, “The human language is too poor to describe the suffering of Jews in the ghettos of 1944.  Where would the expressions come from, the descriptions, adjectives, that could only superficially describe our pain?” This diarist kept his… Read more »

(JTA) — Ezra Furman is an acclaimed indie rocker who, while hanging on his tour bus, has been known to lay tefillin. Striking, too, is Furman’s typical getup: The singer and guitarist often eschews the standard millennial indie rocker uniform — skinny jeans, tight T-shirt — in favor of… Read more »

The Arizona International Film Festival, running now through May 1, is celebrating its 25th year with films from 25 countries. Revolving around the theme “Bridging Cultures,” 30 full length features and 58 shorts in a variety of categories are scheduled at nine downtown venues. Among the films is “Blind… Read more »

Hollywood scriptwriter Herb Tucker (David Alexander Johnston) explains to his girlfriend Steffy (Susan Kovitz) why he doesn’t want to get married again. (Tim Fuller)

Invisible Theatre will stage Neil Simon’s comedy, “I Ought to Be in Pictures,” April 19-May 1. Ticket information is available at 882-9721 or invisibletheatre.com.… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — With Passover comes lots of cleaning, matzah eating, and potato peeling. I know, I know — potatoes get a bad rap during Passover because they’re one of the seemingly few things we can eat (and therefore are made very frequently during these eight days). But I say… Read more »

The Edwards Twins, identical twin celebrity impressionists, will return to Tucson, their childhood home, for a charity performance at the Fox Tucson Theatre on Sunday, April 10 at 6:30 p.m. Anthony and Eddie Edwards, who are Jewish, are alumni of Rincon High School. They have toured the globe for… Read more »

“In the Shadows of the Dreamers,” a dance commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, will be part of a University of Arizona School of Dance concert later this month to benefit the Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum. The concert and reception will be… Read more »