A deadly exchange of fire between U.S. forces and Iranian-backed militias in Syria last week underscored the reality that the United States and Iran are virtually at war today in that bloodied nation. Toward the end of March, a self-destructing drone struck an American military base in the northeastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour, killing […]
Israel and the United States are the best of friends and allies. Indeed, Israel is probably the United States’ closest, most reliable ally in the Middle East. Periodically, however, differences arise and sparks fly, creating something of a crisis atmosphere. And then the tempest subsides, as if nothing had happened. This is precisely what occurred […]
Marvin Samel’s feel-good movie, iMordecai, traces the steps of a Polish Holocaust survivor who finds new meaning in life after his son buys him a cell phone. Based on a true story, it will be available on VOD platforms starting on April 4. Partly animated, iMordecai is set in Miami Beach, a mecca of Jewish […]
Israel’s constitutional crisis intensified on March 26 after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who had called for a halt to his government’s draconian plan to overhaul the judiciary. He was the first minister in Netanyahu’s cabinet to propose such a plan, and he paid a heavy price for his forthright opinion. […]
Moshe Alpert’s spare and poetic documentary, Kinneret: Sea of Life, presents the Sea of Galilee, the world’s lowest freshwater lake, in a completely new and lyrical light. It is now available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform. Facing Israel’s old border with Syria, and lying in the shadow of the Golan Heights, this oval-shaped body of water […]
A useful skill could be the difference between life and death for a Jewish person during the Holocaust. This was certainly true for the Polish brothers Khil (Harry), Mailekh and Moishe Lenga, who owe their survival to an ability to repair watches, a talent they inherited from their father. The Lengas, hailing from a Chassidic […]
Otto Preminger, a Jewish import from Austria who made an enviable roster of movies, directed one of the first Hollywood film noirs. Laura, a moody and evocative picture screened recently on the Turner Classic Movies channel, stars a foursome of notable actors — Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb and Vincent Price. Based on a […]
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, is an embarrassment to himself and the nation he serves. He is, unfortunately, one of the new faces of Israel. Only two weeks after wantonly advocating the destruction of the Palestinian West Bank town of Huwara, where Jewish settlers ran amok late last month after the murder of two Israeli […]
Since the end of communism in Poland about three decades ago, thousands of Polish Catholics have discovered their Jewish roots. Ronit Kertsner’s documentary, H.I. Jew Positive, explores this phenomenon through the lives of four Polish citizens. Now available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform, it unfolds over a 15-year period from 1998 to 2013. Kertsner’s interviewees are […]
Yair Netanyahu, the eldest son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vents his spleen occasionally. When he does so, he reinforces the widespread belief in Israel and abroad that his opinions are not only grotesque, noxious and incendiary, but mired in the swamp of ignorance and malice. Apparently unemployed, he has all the time in […]