Arts and Culture

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 »

George Hanson

The Tucson Symphony Orchestra opens its 85th season on Oct. 4 with music director and conductor George Hanson on the podium. Maestro Hanson, now in his 18th year leading the TSO, is opening the season with an all-Russian program, “Victorious Shostakovich!” He will give a talk on the program… Read more »

Tucson author Jillian Cantor’s spare, elegant new novel, “Margot,” begins with a startling premise: What if Anne Frank’s sister had survived the Holocaust and was living under an assumed name in Philadelphia? Cantor, 35, says the first time she read “The Diary of a Young Girl” at age 13,… Read more »

David Harris-Gershon in his forthcoming memoir "What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?" shares his psychological journey following the 2002 Jerusalem terrorist attack that severely injured his wife. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

NEW YORK (JTA) — David Harris-Gershon, author of the forthcoming memoir “What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?,” is frank about the contradictions in his personality. An admitted “natural introvert,” Harris-Gershon describes himself as “surprisingly good” at public speaking. In 2013,… Read more »

"Today Show" host Kathie Lee Gifford, shown at an event in 2009, expressed her desire to become a rabbi. (Shutterstock)

NEW YORK (6NoBacon Staff) — President Obama closed out his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard with what was likely a very funny round of golf. According to CNN, the president teed off on Saturday at Farm Neck Golf Club with Larry David, co-creator of “Seinfeld” and creator of “Curb Your… Read more »

Eric Anderson as Shlomo Carlebach in the Broadway production "Soul Doctor." (Carol Rosegg)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Few figures in the last hundred years — if any — have had as broad an impact on Jewish life as Shlomo Carlebach. Despite the controversies that dogged Carlebach in his lifetime, today there is nary a quarter of the Jewish world where his melodies… Read more »

Dr. Mehmet Oz, right, and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Aug. 2, 2013. (The Jewish Values Network)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Dr. Mehmet Oz sat down to talk with JTA on the Tel Aviv coast last week, but what he really wanted to do was go to the beach. Oz, the surgeon and well-known TV personality, was in Israel for the first time and had a… Read more »

The Idan Raichel Project, known for its fusion of diverse musical styles and ethnicities, will perform at the Fox Tucson Theater on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 7:30 p.m., in a concert cosponsored by the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. The group, which rocketed to fame in Israel with its… Read more »

Michael Lavigne

Michael Lavigne, winner of the 2007 Sami Rohr Choice Award for emerging Jewish writers for his first novel, “Not Me,” will speak about his new novel, “The Wanting,” on Sunday, May 5, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. The free event is cosponsored by… Read more »

Chadwick Boseman playing Jackie Robinson getting ready to take the field in the new film "42." (Legendary Pictures)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Moviegoers who head this weekend to the AMC Magic Johnson Harlem 9 for the opening of “42” will see the story of how Jackie Robinson displayed legendary courage, class and talent in the face of immense pressure and racial hatred as he broke down baseball’s color barrier.… Read more »

David Zinke as Otto Frank and Gabriella De Brequet as Anne Frank in Pima Community College Theatre Arts’ production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” (Carol Carder)

Pima Community College Theatre Arts will stage “The Diary of Anne Frank” by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, April 11-21. In 1943 Holland, 13-year-old Anne Frank and her family were forced into hiding to escape deportation to concentration camps by the Nazis. During two years in hiding in a… Read more »

Yafit Josephson in 'New Eyes'

Back by popular demand, the critically acclaimed one-woman show “New Eyes” will return to Tucson for a single performance on Monday, April 22. “New Eyes” tells the story of Yafit Josephson, a young woman living in Israel who joins the army as part of her mandatory service to her… Read more »

Left to right, Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane von Furstenberg and Andy Cohen at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's event in New York, Feb. 26, 2013. (Neilson Barnard)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Diane von Furstenberg takes a seat at her long, farm table-inspired desk inside her office on the fifth floor in this city’s Meatpacking District. The studio is so vividly colored, so overly patterned and so decked out in exotic tchotchkes, von Furstenberg is one of… Read more »

In the documentary, "The Mereh Affair -- The Itinerary of a Killer," Mohammed Mereh is shown skiing four weeks prior to his killing spree in Toulouse in March 2011. (France 3/You Tube)

(JTA) — Four weeks before he murdered seven people in Toulouse, a cheerful Mohammed Merah was filmed laughing and showing off his skiing skills to friends at a popular Alpine resort. The footage, televised on March 6, formed the opening sequence in a controversial documentary about the 23-year-old, French-born… Read more »

Ben Feldman as Michael Ginsberg, the Jewish copywriter in AMC's "Mad Men" (Courtesy AMC)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Advertising, it’s fair to say, is in Ben Feldman’s blood. Yes, he technically plays a fictional advertiser, the Jewish copywriter in AMC’s award-winning drama “Mad Men.” But Feldman says it was his excellent marketing skills that landed him the role. “The casting loved that I… Read more »

(L-R) Liesel (Nele Trebs), Lore (Saskia Rosendahl), Jürgen (Mika Seidel) and Günther (André Frid) in Lore. (Music Box Films)

Set during the fall of Germany in April 1945, Cate Shortland’s “Lore” evokes and filters the moral weight of history through a single adolescent girl. Experiential rather than informational, subjective without being reductive, the German-language film is a parable of the end of innocence —the naive innocence of girlhood… Read more »

Jewish artist Siona Benjamin paints portraits of women in the Bible, using her Jewish and Inidan background as influences. (Siona Benjamin)

MONTCLAIR, N.J. (JTA) — In the space of a single painting, Siona Benjamin juxtaposes feminism, Indian mythology and Jewish imagery. On a three-foot canvas, she’ll paint a portrait of a blue-skinned figure, usually a character from the Bible, with nods to Persian miniatures, Talmudic fables and Vishnu gods. Often… Read more »