Arts and Culture

Brandeis Book & Author event spans locales, genres

Naomi Benaron

An acclaimed first-time novelist, an award-winning mystery writer, an internationally best-selling author and the reporter who wrote “A Safeway in Arizona: What the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Tells Us About the Grand Canyon State” will highlight the Brandeis National Committee’s 17th Annual Book & Author Events. The committee’s Tucson chapter… Read more »

Coming to TSO, Bell honors violin’s Jewish past

Joshua Bell with the Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius (Photo: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco)

Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell will play with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. at the Tucson Music Hall. The program of romantic classics will include the overture to Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” Grieg’s “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen,” the “Wedding March” from Men­delssohn’s “A… Read more »

Brandeis University arts expert to present ‘Truth or Beauty’

Scott Edmiston

The Brandeis National Committee will host its annual University on Wheels event on Thursday, Feb. 7, at 9 a.m. at Skyline Country Club. Scott Edmiston, director of the Office of the Arts at Brandeis University, will speak on: “Truth or Beauty: The Need for Art in the 21st Century.”… Read more »

Matisyahu bringing acoustic tour to Rialto

Matisyahu

Matisyahu, the no-longer-Hasidic reggae superstar, will bring his first acoustic tour to Tucson on Wednesday, Jan. 30, performing at the Rialto Theatre. The concert will feature acoustic renditions of tracks from his latest album, “Spark Seeker,” in addition to some fan favorites. While in Santa Monica earlier this month… Read more »

TU B’SHEVAT FEATURE Tolkien b’Shevat: Looking to the Middle-earth folk to save our planet

In "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," a film with characters that bring to mind the themes of Tu b'Shvat, Bilbo Baggins discovers there is trouble brewing in the forests of Middle-earth. (Courtesy Warner Bros.)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — What lore does Bilbo Baggins have to share with us about Tu b’Shevat? While viewing “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and hearing the Middle-earth characters talking about threats to the forests, more than a seed or two of connection between the increasingly popular Jewish holiday… Read more »

Photo exhibit reveals Orthodox life in Israel

An Orthodox wedding in Israel (Gil Cohen-Magen)

The Weintraub Israel Center and the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies will present an exhibit and lecture by Israeli photojournalist Gil Cohen-Magen on Monday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Over the past decade, Cohen-Magen was given exclusive access to the ultra-Orthodox in Israel,… Read more »

Freud and C.S. Lewis wrangle in ATC drama

Benjamin Evett and J. Michael Flynn as C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud in “Freud’s Last Session” at Arizona Theatre Company

Arizona Theatre Company will stage “Freud’s Last Session” by Mark St. Germain, which played to record breaking off-Broadway crowds, Jan. 19 through Feb. 9 at the Temple of Music and Art. Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, two of the 20th century’s greatest intellects, come together in 1939 as England… Read more »

‘Hava Nagila’ film, coming to Tucson, chronicles song’s journey from shtetl to cliche

California filmmaker Roberta Grossman, who was inspired to make "Hava Nagila (The Movie)" by cherished memories of dancing to the tune at family affairs, spent three years researching the song's history. (Courtesy "Hava Nagila The Movie")

NEW YORK (JTA) — You’re at a wedding or Bar Mitzvah, mingling at the bar or catching up with a distant relative, when you hear it — the opening notes of a familiar tune that as if by some invisible force carries you and other guests to the dance… Read more »

A Jewish tone for “The Sound of Music”

Oscar Hammerstein II. (Library of Congress)

Oscar Hammerstein II was raised by Scottish Presbyterians, and the only time he ever entered a synagogue was to deliver eulogies at Temple Emanu-El on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. But according to his grandson Oscar Andrew (Andy) Hammerstein III, his Jewish heritage influenced Oscar II’s work—for which he won… Read more »

Wedding gown show to open Jewish History Museum exhibit

One of the oldest gowns in the Jewish History Museum exhibit was worn in 1702. The gown was shown in the museum’s first ketubah exhibit and was so fragile it was kept behind glass. It has since been restored at the Costume and Textile Study Center in Norfolk, England, and has been donated to the JHM permanent collection.

Three dark-colored wedding gowns will be spotlighted in the Jewish History Museum’s Fifth Annual Ketubah exhibit, which opens Jan. 1, including a Virginia widow’s gown of black satin with a collar trim of white lace. The bride who wore it, Elizabeth Rachel Richardson, was a wealthy confederate widow, says… Read more »

UA symposium, concert to explore works of Shostakovich and Asia

Dmitri Shostakovich

The University of Arizona’s Center for Judaic Studies, School of Music and Center for the Study of American Ideals and Culture will present a free symposium and concert, “The Jewish Experience in Classical Music: Shostakovich and Asia,” on Sunday, Jan. 13. The symposium will look at the influence of… Read more »

PBS documentary to examine Jewish impact on Broadway

Irving Berlin (Culver Pictures)

Why has the Broadway musical proven to be such fertile territory for Jewish artists? From Broadway’s golden age, names like Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, the Gershwins, Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim immediately come to mind. More recently, Broadway babies such as Stephen Schwartz, Marc Shaiman… Read more »

“The Chosen” at Live Theatre Workshop

Emilio Zweig and Noam Shahar in a scene from “The Chosen,” adapted by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok from Potok’s novel set in Brooklyn in the 1940s. “The Chosen” will be performed at Live Theatre Workshop from Jan. 3-Feb. 9. For more information visit www.livetheatreworkshop.org.

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The Peacemaker

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — About Menachem Begin the thing that I remember most was the way he talked. Begin wouldn’t say that he was born on the eve of the First World War; he’d say, as he did when a group of us from the Wall Street Journal interviewed him in 1981, that… Read more »

Elie Wiesel to speak with Oprah Winfrey on OWN network

Elie Wiesel and Oprah Winfrey (2012 Harpo Productions, Inc./George Burns)

Nobel Peace Prize winner and New York Times best-selling author Elie Wiesel will sit down with Oprah Winfrey Sunday, Dec. 9 on her series “Super Soul Sunday.” The episode, “Oprah and Nobel Prize Winner Elie Wiesel: Living with an Open Heart” premiers at 11 a.m. ET/PT (check local listings) on OWN:… Read more »

Israeli scientist brings wildlife illustration to forefront

Walter Ferguson’s childhood encounter with birds piqued a lifelong interest.

Road kill, for most people, is something you try not to look at too closely and leave behind. But for Walter Ferguson these misfortunate animals could be a prized treasure. Ferguson, one of the world’s preeminent wildlife artists, would never wish for a little creature to be maimed. However,… Read more »

Tucson composers’ works to debut in orchestra season

  The 2012-2013 Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra season will feature five local composers, including two world premieres by Tucson artists, “Running the Rim” by Jay Vosk, which opens the series in October, and “Landscapes” by Peter Fine, which will conclude the series in May. The Vosk premiere will be… Read more »

Soldier’s play asks audience to view Israel with ‘New Eyes’

Yafit Josephson as an Israeli army officer in "New Eyes" (Courtesy Invisible Theatre)

As a struggling young actress in Los Angeles, Yafit Josephson should have been glad to get parts — any parts. Yet Josephson, 30, who was born in L.A. but raised in Israel from age 2, who served proudly in the Israel Defense Forces before moving to California to study… Read more »