The past never dies, always ready to burst out of our subconscious with all its granular details. Summer Vacation, a short Israeli film by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon, expertly addresses this theme. Currently being presented online by the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation, it is set on a quiet beach on the Mediterranean Sea as […]
Walter Suskind was a heroic figure during an exceedingly dark time. Against all odds, he saved upwards of 1,000 Dutch Jewish children during the Holocaust. Rudolf van den Berg’s Dutch-language movie, Suskind, which is now available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform, charts the trajectory of his heroism. Suskind, a German Jew living in Holland, managed […]
Due to its position as a startup nation, Israel has often been compared to Silicon Valley in California. There is something to be said for that comparison. Investments in Israel’s high-tech industry are forecast to reach $7.5 billion this year. This is a substantial figure, but investors poured $15 billion and $25 billion into Israeli […]
With yesterday’s passage of the first part of the Israeli government’s divisive proposal to overhaul the judiciary, Israel’s domestic crisis has ominously deepened, throwing Israel into its worst domestic crisis in decades. Not since the 1993 Oslo peace process and Israel’s 2005 unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip has Israel been so internally splintered and […]
Anthony Bourdain, the bestselling author and successful television host, hanged himself in a rustic hotel in Kaysersberg, France, on June 8, 2018 at the height of his fame. He was 61. At his death, he was in the midst of filming the latest episode of his immensely popular food and travel show, Parts Unknown, which […]
The Israeli historical drama, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, is back for a second season on Netflix, and that’s good news. Based on a novel by Sarit Yishai-Levy, and unfolding in Hebrew, Ladino and English over 16 episodes, it is about the joys, disappointments and travails of a Sephardi family in Jerusalem during the British […]
With its recognition of Morocco’s territorial claim to the disputed Western Sahara region, Israel has taken a giant leap forward to consolidate its bilateral relations with that North African Arab nation. Israel officially recognized Morocco’s claim on July 17, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent King Mohammed VI a letter affirming Israel’s decision to “recognize […]
Judging by recent events, Israel’s alliance with the United States, its most important and enduring ally, has entered an unsettling period of turbulence. U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s divisive plan to overhaul Israel’s judicial system and has expressed public support for the mass demonstrations breaking out in Israel […]
Robert F. Kennedy, the attorney-general in John F. Kennedy’s administration and the victim of an assassination in 1968, must surely be spinning in his grave. Kennedy’s son, Robert Jr., a candidate running against President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, claims that the coronavirus pandemic was “ethnically targeted” to spare Chinese and Jewish […]
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s two-day visit to Baku recently underscored Israel’s burgeoning ties with Azerbaijan, a secular Muslim state which shares a border with Iran, Israel’s arch enemy. Gallant arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, on July 13 with the objective of upgrading Israel’s strategic relationship with Azerbaijan in such key sectors as security, diplomacy […]