BOSTON (JTA) — Back in 1984, when Eric Kimmel was an up-and-coming children‘sbook author, he tried his hand at a Hanukkah story, one featuring goblins. Overly cautious Jewish editors rejected the manuscript, not knowing what to make of it, Kimmel recalled.“It was strange. It didn’t look like any other… Read more »
Vadim Gluzman (Marco Borggreve) When they first handed Soviet-born Israeli musician Vadim Gluzman the violin he plays today, he had the “distinct feeling” he was being watched. This is no ordinary violin, mind you, so it’s practical to think that a number of people were looking on. But this feeling was different, supernatural… Read more »
Hélène Berr In commemoration of Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass), which for many marks the beginning of the Holocaust in 1938, the Jewish History Museum will host an opening reception of an exhibit entitled “Hélène Berr, A Stolen Life” on Sunday, Nov. 9 from 3 to 5… Read more »
Anna Gendler with a student at The Symphony Women’s Association For Alexander Tentser, music was as much a right of passage as his Bar Mitzvah. His father was a klezmer musician and entertainer with a conservatory education in Kiev, Ukraine, and since Tentser had been playing piano since the age of four, it was only natural that he began… Read more »
Garden of Eden bowl - cut paper collage by Carolee Asia Tucsonan Carolee Asia will be the featured artist at the Tohono Chul Park Welcome Gallery Nov. 14 through Feb. 15. In her colorful cut paper collages, “I enjoy the play of images on all kinds of structures such as cubes and vases, platters and gourds,” Asia says in her… Read more »
Lois Lederman and Noga Panai rehearse ‘Handle With Care’ at Invisible Theatre. (Tim Fuller) Tucson’s Invisible Theater will celebrate its 44th anniversary season with the Southwestern premiere of Jason Odell Williams’ comedy, “Handle With Care.” Described as the “Jewish ‘Christmas Carol’ play for all audiences” by the playwright, “Handle With Care” is the story of a young Israeli woman, with little command of… Read more »
Promoting global awareness — as well as culinary coexistence — played a part in the choice of Cholla High Magnet School’s 2014 fall presentation of “The Arab-Israeli Cookbook” by Robin Soans, directed by Julian Martinez, the play is produced in partnership with the Qatar Foundation International. Assembled from first-person… Read more »
Maria Jutasi Coleman began sculpting five years ago. Her work is “made of the dust of the earth, as my beloveds have since become,” she says. (Pat Wick, Sierra Vista Herald) Psychologist Maria Jutasi Coleman didn’t mean to revive her Holocaust images from childhood. When she and her partner moved from Phoenix to retire in Bisbee five years ago, she began taking ceramics classes at Cochise College. Creating sculptures depicting the Holocaust “just happened,” Coleman told the AJP. “I was… Read more »
Emily Kessler strums the mandolin in her Upper West side apartment. (Raffi Wineburg/JTA) For Emily Kessler, a Holocaust survivor, the prospect of performing at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall is less worrying than figuring out what to wear for the occasion. “I came to the conclusion,” she said, in an interview at her apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, “that what is… Read more »
Protesters demonstrating against "The Death of Klinghoffer" outside the Metropolitan Opera House in New York city, Oct. 20, 2014. (Raffi Wineburg) NEW YORK (JTA) — “See it. You Decide,” the Metropolitan Opera of New York exhorts in a promotional push capitalizing on the controversy over its new production of “The Death of Klinghoffer.” Well, I saw it. And I’m not sure which was more of a letdown, the hubbub over… Read more »
David Broza Israeli folk star David Broza returns to Tucson on Oct. 30 for a solo performance — with a few special guests — at the Fox Tucson Theatre. With a career spanning almost four decades, Broza’s eclectic musicianship ranges from flamenco rhythms to lightning fast guitar picking to his own… Read more »
Demonstrators in new York protesting the Metropolitan Opera's decision to produce "The Death of Klinghoffer," Sept. 22, 2014. (Raffi Wineburg) NEW YORK (JTA) — On Oct. 8, 1985, our 69-year-old wheelchair-bound father, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot in the head by Palestinian hijackers on the Achille Lauro cruise ship. The terrorists brutally and unceremoniously threw his body and wheelchair overboard into the Mediterranean. His body washed up on the Syrian… Read more »
Stanley Lehman will celebrate his 85th birthday on Oct. 13, 2014. His children, Andrew (Juanita) Lehman, Richard Lehman and Nancy (Mark) Bishop, and his grandson, Ryan Bishop, wish him nachas and a happy and healthy birthday on this special occasion.… Read more »
“Zero Motivation,” a new film by Israeli filmmaker Talya Lavie, will have its Southwest premiere at the Loft Cinema on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 2:15 p.m. The film is described as a “zany, dark comedic portrait of everyday life for a unit of young, female Israeli soldiers” who work… Read more »
Auguste Rodin's "Adam" The Tucson Museum of Art will host one of its most prestigious exhibitions, “The Figure Examined: Masterworks from the Kasser Mochary Art Foundation,” Oct. 18 through Feb. 22, 2015. The exhibit will include some 120 works of art by more than 70 noted artists from the 19th and 20th… Read more »
"Tel Aviv Noir" exposes through short fiction the seamier sides of the Israeli city known as "the bubble." (Courtesy of Akashic Books) (JTA) — Asked by a literary magazine to name an Israeli author deserving of English translation, Etgar Keret — the Tel Aviv-based writer whose short stories have been published to worldwide acclaim — named novelist Gadi Taub. A year later, Keret has been instrumental in bringing Taub’s prose to… Read more »
The Civic Orchestra of Tucson, the oldest community orchestra in the region, will begin its 2014-2015 season with a free concert at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The concert, on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m., also marks the orchestra’s participation in Daniel Pearl World Music Days to honor… Read more »
Yoram Bauman Yoram Bauman, Ph.D., “the world’s first and only stand-up economist,” will present “Comedy, Economics and Climate Change” at the University of Arizona on Monday, Sept. 29 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Berger auditorium, 1130 E. Helen St. “It turns out that comedy actually pays better than teaching,”… Read more »
Paul Reiser The Hearth Foundation will present its 2nd Annual “Comedy for a Cause” starring Paul Reiser on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Fox Tucson Theatre. A seasoned actor, writer, producer and stand-up comedian, Reiser co-created and starred in the critically acclaimed NBC series “Mad About You,” which… Read more »
Adam's Sandler's Hanukkah song, which debuted on "Saturday Night Live" in 1994, became a popular hymn of Jewish pride. (Diane Freed/Getty Images) HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA) — This week marks the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live,” which is entering its 40th season. Happy birthday guys! To mark the occasion, we’ve assembled a list of our 10 all-time favorite Jewish moments on SNL (they’re like butter, so good Coffee Talk and Hanukkah… Read more »
