Woody Allen (Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images) HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (6NoBacon) — You can call Woody Allen a self-hating Jew all you want, but don’t make the mistake of thinking he’s not sensitive when others hate on his people. In an interview Monday in France by Israel’s Channel 2 to promote the European release of “Blue… Read more »
Ljuba Davis presides over an ensemble of diverse musicians performing music in Ladino. NEW YORK (JTA) — Avraham Pengas, a veteran bouzouki player, says few Ashkenazic musicians can make Sephardic music come alive. Ljuba Davis, he says, is “absolutely” one of them. Davis (her first name is pronounced LYOO-bah) is the lead singer of the Ljuba Davis Ladino Ensemble, a group that… Read more »
The title aside, Esther the purple gorilla and friends celebrate the holiday in "Esther's Hanukkah Disaster." (Kar-Ben Publishing) BOSTON (JTA) –A gift-giving, angst-ridden purple gorilla is among the characters who help enliven the Hanukkah celebrations in eight new holiday books for children, families and young adults. One, “With a Mighty Hand,” is not about Hanukkah but will be a treasured gift to add to a family’s bookshelves.… Read more »
Neshama Carlebach As the August premiere of the Broadway musical “Soul Doctor” drew to a close, the daughter of the show’s subject, the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, took to the stage. Neshama Carlebach invited the cast and audience to join her in singing her father’s legendary hit, “Am Yisrael Chai,” which… Read more »
The Jerusalem Quartet The Arizona Friends of Chamber Music will open its 66th season with the Jerusalem Quartet in two performances. The quartet will perform an all-Shostakovich concert on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. and a matinee on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 3 p.m. in the Leo Rich Theater at the… Read more »
DETROIT (JTA) — Take heart, America. Together we can save Detroit while earning some fabulous prizes. For a mere $500, you can have an abandoned home. Pony up $25,000 and get your name name engraved on City Hall. A cool $50 million will earn you the deed to the… Read more »
The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA) – Teenagers Mark Matsuki and Leon Feldman came to study in the Boston area this summer as strangers and left as friends, unintentionally regrafting family-like branches of a tree that first took root four generations… Read more »
BALTIMORE (JTA) – Needing a gift for retiring New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera, the Baltimore Orioles pitched their idea for a sculpture to the Israel-born artist Omri Amrany. No surprise there, even though Amrany knows nothing about baseball. The 59-year-old Amrany, now living in the Chicago area, has… Read more »
Idan Raichel (Yeara Livny) On Oct. 9, the Idan Raichel Project, Israeli world music pioneers, will kick off their U.S. tour with a live concert at the Fox Tucson Theatre. Voted “Musical Group of the Decade” in an Israeli national media poll, the Project blends a range of cultures, languages and musical influences… Read more »
The University of Arizona School of Music will present “A Barber/Britten Music + Festival: Symposium, Concerts and Film,” directed by professor and composer Daniel Asia, on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 12-13. American composer Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” is a classical music standard that can be heard in several… Read more »
"The Goldbergs" premiered Sept. 24 on ABC. (ABC/Bob D'Amico) HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA) — Some were psyched for the nostalgia of “The Goldbergs,” a new ABC sitcom about a boisterous, outspoken American family set in the 1980s. But Wednesday’s premiere was a little too loaded with references to that neon-colored, big-haired decade — think REO Speedwagon, Sam Goody, hair… Read more »
Mayim Bialik NEW YORK (6NoBacon) — Sarah Silverman revealed in a recent appearance on W. Kamau Bell’s show “Totally Biased” that she was hurt by the jokes made about her age at the Comedy Central roast of James Franco. It was somewhat surprising — not because the jokes weren’t offensive, but… Read more »
Former Baptist Sunday school teacher designing for the frum fashionista. (JTA) — Just before Maria Patricia de Sousa set out for a yearlong stint at a seminary in Jerusalem seven years ago, she stopped by the house of an Orthodox Jewish woman in her home city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She wanted to find out about life in Jerusalem… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The reader opened with a recitation of Psalm 48 followed by a contemporary poem before yielding the floor to five male dancers, all wearing the standard haredi Orthodox uniform of black pants and white button-down shirt. One had bushy earlocks but no yarmulke. So began the… Read more »
Devorah Blachor wondered whether staying home after the birth of her daughter Mari was just a convenient way of surrendering to her fears and not facing the world. JERUSALEM (JTA) — At a recent kids-included party in Jerusalem, I spent much of the time either on the floor with my daughter Mari or trailing her around to make sure she didn’t eat anything toxic. A successful American journalist living here chatted with me for a few minutes,… Read more »
NEW YORK (6NoBacon Staff) — From Shanah Tovah shoutouts to on-set shofar blowing, here’s how some of the more famous and attractive among us recognized the new year. 1. What to do when filming your Kickstarter-funded project gets in the way of Rosh Hashanah? Celebrate at work, of course!… Read more »
NEW YORK (Forward) — Does Jewish culture need a central address in order to thrive? Not according to the people who work there. The Foundation for Jewish Culture, a New York-based organization that has given more than $50 million to Jewish scholars and artists since 1960, will cease its… Read more »
"Awaken the Spirit Within," by Rebecca Rosen. (Harmony) (JTA) — Many Jews feel a connection with their ancestors, but how many have regular conversations with them? Rebecca Rosen, a 36-year-old mother of two, is one who does. Rosen lists her profession as “psychic medium,” and her specialty is communing with the dead, acting as “the bridge between… Read more »
On her 96th birthday, Betty Rosenberg Perlov became a published children’s author, fulfilling a decades-long goal. The Sept. 1 release of “Rifka Takes a Bow” capped a lifetime of creative endeavors for the nonagenarian great-grandmother . “I am so happy about the book, so happy,” Rosenberg Perlov told JTA… Read more »
Alexander Tentser and Anna Gendler Classical pianist Alexander Tentser and his wife, Anna Gendler, a violinist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, will perform classical and romantic works by Mozart, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Chopin in a concert to benefit Interfaith Community Services. The duo will perform on Saurday, Sept. 21 at 3 p.m. at Rincon… Read more »
