A few days ago, the United Nations released a grim report concerning the escalating sectarian violence in Iraq, an oil-rich Arab state that has know little peace and quiet since the U.S. invasion 11 years ago this month. By its count, 703 Iraqis — 564 civilians and 139 members of the security forces — were […]
Films infused with the joys of gastronomy have, alas, come in dribs and drabs. Think of Babette’s Feast (1987), Like Water for Chocolate (1992), Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) and Big Night (1996). Tapping into our fascination with food, much less haute cuisine, the Toronto International Film Festival launched the subscription series, Food on Film, three years […]
Later this year, Europe will mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, a cataclysmic conflict that shattered a century of near peace, claimed the lives of 8.5 million soldiers, altered national borders, broke up several empires, spurred the rise of the Bolsheviks in Russia and the Nazis in Germany and sped up the […]
Three hundred thousand ultra-Orthodox Jews converged on Jerusalem on March 2 in a massive and arrogant show of force to protest a proposed Israeli government military draft bill that will require more haredim to serve in the armed forces. The legislation, modest in scope, is expected to be passed by the Knesset later this month. […]
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Like Father, Like Son, poses an excruciatingly difficult question, one that would surely crush any doting mother or father: How do you react to the news that your adorable six-year-old son was switched at birth and that he has to be returned to his biological parents? That’s the appalling predicament a young, upwardly […]
Pardon the expression, but filmmaker Greg Whiteley is like a fly on the wall. He`s been given full and unfettered access to Mitt Romney, the Republican party presidential hopeful, and he makes the best of the opportunity. Over a six-year period, Whiteley follows Romney virtually everywhere and shares private moments with him. He’s the consummate […]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s two-day visit to Israel this week was intended to demonstrate unwavering friendship with Israel in spite of sharp disagreements over two critical issues — Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Iran’s nuclear program. Upon her arrival in Israel with 15 members of her cabinet in tow, Merkel, eager to defuse tensions […]
On June 14, 1940, on the very day German troops marched triumphantly into Paris, a freelance journalist named Rosie Goldschmidt Waldeck checked into the swankiest hotel in Bucharest, the Athene Palace. She remained there for the next six months, watching events unfold in Rumania, a neutral and deeply divided Balkan country whose natural resources were […]
A place of stark and grandeur beauty, the Sinai Peninsula is one of Egypt`s great travel destinations, as I can personally attest. On my first visit in 1967, shortly after Israel’s conquest of Sinai in the Six Day War, I camped out under a brilliant starry sky illuminated by the Milky Way. On my last visit, […]
Havana, Cuba’s capital, has seen better days. A gleaming, modern, hip city more than 60 years ago, Havana fell on hard times following the 1959 revolution, when the new left-wing government, headed by Fidel Castro, deposed the corrupt pro-American Batista regime. Subjected to a U.S. economic embargo after the Cuban government nationalized private property, Cuba […]