Marielle Heller’s coming-of-age film, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, focuses on the sexual awakening of a love-starved teenager on a voyage of self-discovery. Minnie Goetze (Bel Powley), the young woman in question, is 15 years old and anxious to lose her virginity. Thinking that she won’t look as good as Lori Buckby in the […]
Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, straddling the border of northeast Arizona and southeast Utah, conjures up an aura of deja vu in the best sense of the word. As soon as I arrived here on my first visit, I felt an immediate and personal connection. The iconic red sandstone mesas, buttes, pinnacles and spires held me […]
The Rototom Sunsplash Reggae Festival in Spain has apologized for having dropped the Jewish American singer Matisyahu from its program. Matisyahu had been scheduled to perform at the Valencia-based festival on August 22, but was disinvited when he declined to endorse Palestinian statehood. Pressure was brought to bear on the festival — an advocate of […]
Susan Rice, President Barack Obama’s national security advisor, put it bluntly. “We look to the next Israeli government, and the Palestinian Authority, to demonstrate — through policies and actions — a genuine commitment to a two-state solution,” she said in April, shortly after Benjamin Netanyahu won reelection as Israel’s prime minister. Wendy Sherman, the U.S. […]
Ingrid Bergman’s radiant beauty shines through her films, especially those made in the early phase of her lengthy, distinguished career. With her svelte figure, high cheek bones, wavy hair, full lips, bright toothy smile and slightly exotic Swedish accent, she’s a compelling cinematic figure. Wholesome yet alluring, Bergman rose to fame in Intermezzo, a sappy […]
Describing Islamic State as “nimble” and “opportunistic,” President Barack Obama recently warned that the struggle to defeat it will be lengthy and replete with setbacks. “This will not be quick,” he said. “This is a long-term campaign.” Obama, of course, is right. Islamic State, a Sunni jihadist organization intent on forming a caliphate, has cut a […]
The Holocaust was an event so diabolical and complex in conception and execution that it requires constant elaboration. How Was It Possible? A Holocaust Reader, a first-class anthology edited by Peter Hayes and published by the University of Nebraska Press, addresses key questions, among them being: Why were Jews objects of hatred? Why was a […]
Syria supposedly destroyed its stock of chemical weapons, all 1,300 tons of it, under an agreement reached by the United States and Russia two years ago. But there are strong indications that Syria, embroiled in a civil war that has claimed the lives of some 250,000 combatants and civilians since 2011, has not relinquished its […]
Proceeding on the assumption that the best defence is a good offence, President Barack Obama has launched an aggressive public relations campaign to sell the Iran nuclear agreement to the divided U.S. Congress. Congress has until September 17 to review the controversial accord and decide whether it should be approved or rejected. The Republican Party, […]
John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, had a clear message for Egypt, a key Arab ally, when he visited Cairo on August 1. Warning the authoritarian Egyptian government that it could lose its battle against domestic terrorism unless it shows far more respect for human rights, he said, “The success of our fight against […]