Diana Golbi performed in new york on behalf of ELEM, a nonprofit Israeli organization that helps "distressed youth" from whcih she herself benefited in her earlier teens. (Courtesy ELEM) NEW YORK (JTA) — For her first visit to New York and the United States, Diana Golbi adopted the unofficial uniform of most city dwellers — head-to-toe black. Black shirt, black top and tight black jeans. Her long brown hair was straight and hung past her shoulders. Pointing to… Read more »
Many Holocaust memoirs cross our desks at the Arizona Jewish Post. “Waltzing With the Enemy: A Mother and Daughter Confront the Aftermath of the Holocaust” (Penina Press) has an evocative title and an Arizona connection (Phoenix, not Tucson), but what intrigued me most are the many dualities in this… Read more »
Marine Corps Sgt. Stuart Schulberg, youngest member of the OSS Field Photo-War Crimes unit, later wrote and directed ‘Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today.’ (Courtesy Shulberg family archive Stuart Schulberg, a Jew working for the Hollywood director John Ford in the OSS film unit at the end of World War II, was given the mission of finding German-shot footage to be presented at the Nuremberg trial of the top surviving Nazi brass. Speed was essential, as Germans… Read more »
Diamonds are the Oltuski family’s best friends. Although 27-year-old Alicia Oltuski’s only foray into the business was to strap on a chest pack of gems for delivery to other jewelers on New York’s 47th Street, her first book is “Precious Objects: A Story of Diamonds, Family, and a Way… Read more »
It was a family rumor that set Brook Wilensky-Lanford, 33, on the path that has led to her critically acclaimed new book, “Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden” (Grove Press). As Wilensky-Lanford, the daughter of AJP Assistant Editor Sheila Wilensky, explains in her book’s prologue, in 2004… Read more »
The final illustration for "The Snowy Day," a 1962 book by Ezra Jack Keats, from the Ezra jack Keats Papers, de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, The University of Southern Mississippi. Copyright Ezra Jack Keats Foundation. (Courtesy The Jewish Museum, New York) NEW YORK (JTA) — Fifty years ago, during the height of the civil rights campaigns, the publication of a picture book changed American children’s literature. “The Snowy Day” was about the delight of a young African-American boy named Peter as he experienced the wonder of a freshly fallen snow… Read more »
(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Although the paint is still wet on Philadelphia’s National Museum of American Jewish History, an announcement has just been made of a planned National Museum of the Jewish People on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., steps from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and not… Read more »
Yael Naim in 2007 became the first Israeli soloist to have a Top 10 music hit in the United States, and four years later the star of the Paris-based musician continues to rise. (Zoriah) (Moment Magazine) — Yael Naim burst onto the international music scene when her 2007 single, “New Soul,” was handpicked by Apple for the MacBook Air’s debut commercial. The song, fresh off her first album, thrust the then-obscure 29-year-old artist into the limelight. When “New Soul” peaked at No. 7… Read more »
In her new show, "Monajat," Galeet Dardashti has taken the 13th-century Sufi poem of the same name and blended it into the traditional Persian songs and liturgy for Selichot. (Courtesy of Galeet Dardashti) NEW YORK (JTA) — Growing up, Galeet Dardashti toured and performed with her father, Farid, a renowned cantor, performing Middle Eastern and Persian music throughout the United States and Canada as part of The Dardashti Family. “We’ve been called the ‘Jewish Von Trapps,’ ” Dardashti says jokingly. Dardashti, a… Read more »
The cast of "Hitler's Belly" (Tablet Magazine) (Tablet Magazine) — A Chinese Hitler, dressed like a mall cop, mopes in an underground bunker in 1945 as his empire is collapsing around him. But it’s not all bad news. “My stomach hurts, and it’s bigger. I’m pregnant!” Hitler exclaims, stroking himself mindlessly. “Hitler’s Belly,” a hit play… Read more »
Gertrude Shankman, a Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging resident, and Adam DeLuca in front of the B’nai Tzedek triptych, currently on display at Handmaker. The painting includes a poem by DeLuca. (Bryan Davis) Eighteen-year-old Adam DeLuca has participated in the B’nai Tzedek Tucson teen philanthropy program since 2007. Now starting his freshman year at the University of Arizona, DeLuca has also embarked on a lifetime of giving. “Before I joined B’nai Tzedek I understood that charity was a good thing,” DeLuca… Read more »
Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren stars as retired secret agent Rachel Singer in John Madden’s espionage thriller "The Debt." Laurie Sparham/Focus Features) A taut, beautifully crafted thriller with an Israeli accent, “The Debt” is easily and best appreciated as edge-of-your-seat entertainment. At the same time, though, the English-language remake of the 2007 Israeli film “Ha-Hov” echoes a question raised far more egregiously by “Inglourious Basterds” but otherwise rarely… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — When Israeli music producer-to-the-stars Eitan Gafni put on a global song contest for Jews nearly 20 years ago, finding contestants was difficult. At the time, he called on Jewish Agency shlichim, or emissaries, residing in capitals around the world to find young Jews with musical talent… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — When I first heard that Lionsgate was remaking the classic ’80s movie “Dirty Dancing,” I had two questions: One, why won’t Hollywood leave my childhood alone? And two, will this update be as culturally Jewish as the original? While the first question is obviously rhetorical… Read more »
Frank (Waldemar Torenstra) and Esther (Anna Drijver) in ‘Bride Flight’ Half an hour into the richly layered Dutch saga “Bride Flight,” you’d never imagine that a menorah would become the film’s most affecting and enduring symbol. At that point, we’re scarcely aware that there’s a Jewish character in this first-rate romantic drama, which centers on a quartet of 20-something… Read more »
(L-R): David Updegraff, Bob Kovitz, Kathleen Cannon, Babe McGuire, Scott Berg and Robyn Austin in “Elevator” “Elevator,” a play about six people trapped inside a World Trade Center elevator on Sept. 11, 2001, debuted in Tucson at the Pima Community College Proscenium Theater, Sept. 1-4. Based on facts about the elevator system in the twin towers, the play begins a few minutes before the first… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Not all “Hava Nagila” routines are created equal. Here are five routines performed to different versions of the Jewish folk tune by notable gymnasts: Lilia Podkopayeva (Ukraine), 1994 World Championships in Brisbane, Australia http://youtu.be/-IVUIoLBMEg The future 1996 Olympic champion uses “Hava Nagila” in the all… Read more »
NEW YORK (Tablet) — Like so many other aspects of his life and work, Rembrandt’s connection to the Jews has been sentimentalized, overestimated, misappropriated, criticized, dissected — and debunked. In recent years, the image of the artist as a philo-Semite who painted and socialized with his Jewish neighbors has… Read more »
The worthy French film “Sarah’s Key” has two overriding aims, like the 2007 novel by Tatiana de Rosnay from which it’s adapted. The first is to expose a generally unknown — or willfully forgotten — chapter in France’s long, blemished relationship with its Jewish population. The other is to… Read more »
'Sunset II,' acrylic, by Diana Madaras An art exhibit by Diana Madaras is on display at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Fine Art Gallery through Aug. 11. Madaras, known for her bold, colorful paintings in watercolor and acrylic, owns two galleries in Tucson that feature her work exclusively. She is president of the nonprofit Art… Read more »
