In a letter to the CUNY board, Tony Kushner wrote, "I believe I am owed an apology for the careless way in which my name and reputation were handled at your meeting." (Jay Thompson) WASHINGTON (JTA) — It was the latest dustup over what constitutes acceptable discourse in the American Jewish community when it comes to Israel. Except this time the battle wasn’t contained within the community, but began at a university board meeting and spilled over onto the front page of The… Read more »
Kurt Gerron saw a chance to resume his career when he signed on as director of "The Fuehrer Gives the Jews a City." LOS ANGELES (JTA) — “The Fuehrer Gives the Jews a City” may rank as the oddest film fragment in cinematic history. The 23 minutes of raw, unedited footage is all that has been found of a Nazi propaganda project to prove that the “model” Theresienstadt camp was a veritable paradise… Read more »
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — For Ira Feinberg, what he calls the “pinnacle of my life’s experiences” took place 63 years ago. Feinberg was a 17-year-old New Yorker when he joined the elite troops of the Palmach force fighting in Israel’s War of Independence. “No other experience in my life… Read more »
History is not static. As years pass new information becomes available, new archives are opened and new interpretive lenses reshape our understanding of what once was. In 2008, Mariette Job’s decades-long drive to share her aunt Hélène Berr’s journal reached the English speaking world, and we were given a… Read more »
BEERSHEBA, Israel (JTA) — Or a lunatic, extremist or just someone whose opinion you would dismiss were you really to know him. Like the famous 1993 New Yorker cartoon, where one dog explains to the other that “On the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog,” we are inundated… Read more »
TEL AVIV (JTA) — When a rare volume of a 1914 cookbook written in Yiddish for American Jewish housewives came into the hands of Bracha Weingrod, the once popular but forgotten book began its long journey from dusty oblivion to celebrated translation. The thick, worn copy of “Dos Familien… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — With the greatest Jewish rock and roller of all time, Bob “You can call me Zimmy” Dylan, making his return to Israel after nearly two decades, the question arises: Will the crowd be bored? Dylan, whose lyrics have been soaked in biblical and religious imagery for decades,… Read more »
NEW YORK (Forward) — On a Tuesday night in April, millions of people will gather together for the tale of four Jewish children, each of whom embodies contemporary Jewish consciousness in a different way. The evening is filled with song, multiple narratives and insights into Jewish identity. I’m talking,… Read more »
(L-R) Josh Silvain (David), Bill Epstein (Murph), Tenoch Gomez (Pete) and Dan Colecchia (Mitch) in “Fronting the Order” “Fronting the Order,” a new play by Warren G. Bodow, opens today at the Beowulf Alley Theatre, with 11 performances running through April 23. Set in a diner in a small upstate New York town on a summer evening in 1959, “Fronting the Order” follows the fortunes of four… Read more »
Painter and printmaker Sylvia Garland and photographer Edlynne Sillman will exhibit their work at the Tucson Jewish Community Center from April 14 to May 19. Garland’s exhibit, “Abstract Botanical Expressions,” features oil paintings and one of a kind prints on paper. Sillman is dedicating her “America the Beautiful” exhibition… Read more »
Sasha Farber When Sasha Farber’s family emigrated from Belarus to Australia in 1991, becoming a dancer was probably the last thing on the 7-year-old’s mind. “We left because of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster,” Farber told the AJP, and also because “we had to keep it quiet that we were Jewish.” Farber,… Read more »
The 150th anniversary of the Civil War is upon us. April 12 is the anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter, the war’s opening shot. From then, through the sesquicentennial anniversary on April 9, 2015 of Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House and five days later of… Read more »
Joel Chasnoff, author of "The 188th Crybaby Brigade" Unlike aspiring doctors or lawyers, would-be artists have no set career path, says author and stand-up comedian Joel Chasnoff. But even by the free-wheeling standards of the arts, the former Ivy Leaguer’s path took an unusual detour — right through the Israel Defense Forces, an experience he chronicles in… Read more »
Moosewood Cookbook author Mollie Katzen Lisa Keating) BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA) – Cookbook maven Mollie Katzen is in her Berkeley kitchen whipping up a little dinner for her daughter, who is home visiting from college. “Steamed artichoke and mashed parsnips,” Katzen says, describing the contents of the two pots on the stove. “Last night was eggplant in… Read more »
“A Small Act,” an award-winning documentary about a Holocaust survivor’s $15 a month contribution to educate a child in Kenya, will be screened Sunday, April 10 at 2 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. In the 1930s, Hilde Back’s parents sent her from Germany to Sweden to escape… Read more »
The Jewish History Museum will exhibit “Discrimination Yesterday & Today: A Look at the Cause of the Holocaust,” April 3 through May 14. The exhibit will feature the FBI’s “Enduring Eyes” Holocaust posters and anti-Semitic literature and artifacts from the JHM permanent collection, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the… Read more »
Chaim Potok’s widow, Adena Potok, center, advised the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company production of ‘My Name is Asher Lev.’ From left: Andrea Dovner, Layne Racowsky (director), Michael Kary, Ben Tyler (Mark Gluckman) The Arizona Jewish Theatre Company in Phoenix will present the Arizona premiere of “My Name is Asher Lev,” written by Aaron Posner, and based on the novel by Chaim Potok, March 24-April 3. “My Name is Asher Lev” had its world premiere in Philadelphia in January 2009. Set in… Read more »
Klezmer Company Orchestra The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Tucson Jewish Community Center will present a benefit concert, “Beyond the Tribes: A Latin Jazz and Klezmer Extravaganza,” featuring the Miami-based Klezmer Company Orchestra on Tuesday, March 29 at the JCC. The evening will start at 6:45 p.m. with Latin dance… Read more »
Joan Rivers wouldn’t mind meeting a nice Jewish man who is affluent, healthy and can drive — that is, if she can find the time. “It would be nice, but at my age? My god, the curtain is down, the hotel is closed,” jokes Rivers from her home in… Read more »
Biblical scholar James Kugel speaking about his new book, "In the Valley of the Shadow," in Pasedena, Calif., Feb. 3, 2011. (Sue Fishkoff) PASADENA, Calif. (JTA) — When Jewish biblical scholar James Kugel was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of cancer in 2000, he didn’t find religion. The world-renowned academic and author of numerous books, including the acclaimed “How to Read the Bible,” already was a practicing Orthodox Jew. Instead, Kugel… Read more »
