So fierce and unrelenting is the civil war in Syria that 11 million Syrian nationals have been displaced from their homes in the past four years. Of these, four million have left the country altogether. Staggering statistics. Many of the bedraggled emigrants, having landed in makeshift camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, have begun streaming […]
Tommy Thompson Park, a narrow peninsula jutting five kilometres into the chilly waters of Lake Ontario, lies within plain view of the gleaming skyscrapers of Toronto. But once you’ve set foot on it, you’re transported to a soothing world of sylvan splendour far from the noise and grit of the city. Visible from certain vantage […]
He amassed the greatest known personal collection of Hollywood celebrity prints and negatives. From the 193os to the 1950s, Russian Jewish immigrant Jack (Yasha) Pashkovsky photographed movie stars like Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Peter Lorre, Judy Garland, Shirley Temple, Merle Oberon and Gloria Swanson. And he stored these photographs under his bed. Pashkovsky, who died […]
At the age of 30, Walt Disney (1901-1966) was an international celebrity, hailed as a brilliant cartoonist by his peers. Walt Disney on the ascent Disney’s rise from obscurity to fame is chronicled in a two-part PBS television biopic, American Experience: Walt Disney, which will be broadcast on September 14 at 9 p.m. Sarah Colt’s […]
The refugee crisis presently convulsing Europe owes its origins, in part, to the ongoing civil war in Syria, which has claimed the lives of some 250,000 Syrians since 2011 and may go on for years. The war itself is the fault of the dictatorial Syrian regime, which opened fire on peaceful demonstrators demanding long overdue […]
American white supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. was recently convicted of capital murder, reinforcing the thesis that the overwhelming majority of extremist-related murders in the United States in the last decade have been committed by racists of his ilk. Miller, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, attacked two Jewish institutions in Kansas on April 13, […]
Terrorist or child soldier? That’s the question Patrick Reed and Michelle Shepard implicitly pose with respect to Omar Khadr in their 80-minute documentary, Guantanamo’s Child, which will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival later this month. Khadr, the first juvenile ever tried for war crimes, is an Arab Canadian of Egyptian […]
In the early 1980s, Israel lodged vigorous protests with West Germany over its plan to sell state-of-the-art Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia, claiming the sale would threaten its security. But in 2011, when unified Germany announced its intention to sell the Saudis 200 Leopards in a deal worth $2.5 billion, Israel did not object, calling […]
Joseph Goebbels, the minister of enlightenment and propaganda during the 12-year Nazi era, was probably Adolf Hitler’s most loyal deputy. Completely dedicated to him and his vision of a fascist, antisemitic order in Germany, Goebbels looked upon Hitler as his idol. According to Goebbel’s latest biographer, Peter Longerich, a professor of modern German history at the […]
Althea Gibson, one of America’s legendary tennis players, broke racial barriers in an era when racism was rampant and African Americans were second-class citizens. Gibson’s rise to stardom, and her abject tumble into penury, are charted in Althea, an illuminating documentary scheduled to be broadcast by PBS’ American Masters series on September 4 at 9 p.m. […]