Israeli film director Eran Riklis can thank Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for his unintended publicity on behalf of his latest movie, Dancing Arabs, which opens in Toronto on May 15. During the recent election campaign, Netanyahu resorted to anti-Arab scare-mongering tactics in a desperate bid to whip up votes for his right-wing Likud party, […]
The American Ballet Theatre, one of the world’s most renowned dance companies, is synonymous with excellence in the arts. On the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the PBS network is presenting Ric Burns’ newest documentary, American Ballet Theatre: A History, on Friday, May 15 at 9 p.m. (check local listings) as part of its American […]
Christian Petzold’s German movie, Phoenix, unfolds in postwar Germany as a German Jewish survivor of the Holocaust scours Berlin for her missing husband. By chance or design, the film opens in Canada on May 8, just a day after the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Nelly (Nina Hoss), the survivor, […]
Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies 70 years ago on May 7, ending World War II in Europe. Germany’s abject defeat could be ascribed, in part, to the ferocious Allied bombing campaign of its homeland and industrial heartland. Britain and the United States bombed German cities mercilessly, working on the assumption that the air raids […]
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, who died last week at the age of 93, was a Polish hero in the mould of the late Jan Karski. A witness to the Nazi Holocaust in Poland, he risked his life to help Polish Jews when such assistance carried an automatic death penalty. And during the postwar period, when antisemitism was […]
The Jews of Italy have survived four major plagues through the centuries — religious persecution, ghettoization, fascism and the Holocaust — and have endured. Sara Reguer, the chair of the Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College, relates their 2,000-year history in a cogent and deeply-researched book, The Most Tenacious Of Minorities, published by Academic […]
Holland was liberated by the Canadian army 70 years ago next month after five years of Nazi occupation. The official date of the liberation was May 5, 1945, two days before Germany’s official surrender to Allied forces. The people of Holland paid dearly for German aggression. By one estimate, 150,000 Dutch civilians perished during this […]
The United States and Iran are enemies yet partners in the fast-changing political landscape of the Middle East. As the old saying goes, politics makes for strange bedfellows. Once Iran’s close ally, Washington severed diplomatic relations with Tehran in 1979 after its embassy in Iran was seized by an Iranian mob. Since that momentous moment, […]
Californians Jeff and Jodie Morgan offer a contemporary approach to eating and drinking in the Jewish tradition. The Covenant Kitchen: Food and Wine for the New Jewish Table (Random House) is billed as the first kosher cookbook that pairs food with wine. It’s a fresh approach that will surely please gourmets and wine aficionados alike. […]
Nestled in a serene and picturesque valley 5,000 feet above sea level and framed by three heavily wooded volcanoes, Lake Atitlan is one of Guatemala’s most majestic tourist destinations, often compared to Lake Como in Italy. Sparkling blue on a sunny day and brooding on a cloudy one, it’s Guatemala’s deepest body of water. Ringed […]