Mired in an existential crisis, the newspaper industry in Canada and the United States is desperately trying to adapt to changing times. Circulation has tumbled, ad revenue has fallen, newspapers have grown thinner and massive staff reductions have exacted a fearsome toll, as I know from first-hand experience. The ink-stained wretches — the old-school journalists […]
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is the man of the hour in international relations today. Under his stewardship, Russia has begun to reassert itself after a period of decline following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Last year, Russia occupied and annexed the Crimea and sent “volunteers” and military equipment to Russian separatists in eastern […]
Shortly after Islamic State terrorists finished their deadly rampage in Paris on November 13, a black Friday in the annals of the City of Light, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a message to France. “The terrorists who attack us have the same murderous intent as those in Paris,” he said, adding that Israel stands […]
The obnoxious French “comedian” Dieudonne M’bala M’bala has been given a resounding kick in the rear he so richly deserves. On November 10, three days before Islamic State terrorists killed 130 people in a ruthless rampage in Paris, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, delivered a verdict that may, hopefully, give antisemites and […]
Joseph Mallard William Turner (1775-1851), the illustrious painter, is the subject of an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario which runs until January 31, 2016. J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free, an illuminating tribute to a British master, is comprised of more than 50 paintings on loan from Tate Britain. Nearly all of them were produced […]
Friday, November 13 was a black day for France as nine Arab terrorists ruthlessly killed 129 people in Paris in the deadliest attacks in the French capital since World War II. But is there a silver lining in this tragedy? The bloodshed may well spell the beginning of the end of Islamic State. Perhaps a […]
Michael Stroh, a retired Reform rabbi, was speaking about an Israeli trend that unsettles and upsets progressive Zionists like himself. “There’s a right-wing secular and religious militancy in Israel that’s very scary, and we have to confront it,” he said without mincing his words. Stroh unburdened himself of this concern on November 15 at a […]
Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979), the scion of a fabulously wealthy American Jewish family, was one of the pillars of the modern art movement. Bohemian, rebel, iconoclast and hedonist, she was an astute judge of talent, having recognized the potential of painters like Jean Miro, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollack long before they were famous and having bought […]
There are films that soar majestically above the rest, and Brooklyn, directed by John Crowley, is one of those rare ones. Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and scheduled to open in Toronto theaters on November 20, it conjures up a self-contained universe that is both culturally distinct and brimming with fully formed characters. Set in […]
Is Poland’s new defence minister, Antoni Macierewicz, fit to hold public office? That’s a legitimate question following the disclosure that he flirted with the possibility that The Protocols of the Elders Of Zion, a notorious antisemitic tract, may be an authentic historical document, and that he supports its twisted thesis. In an interview in 2002 […]