At a moment when African Americans are enjoying the fruits of equality to a far greater degree than at any time in their often tragic history, a new survey commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League paradoxically shows that antisemitic stereotypes in the United States have reached their highest level in decades. The data is “stunning and […]
Eighty thousand Israelis braved cold winter rain on the night of January 14 to attend a rally in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square to vent their anger and outrage at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial proposal to radically overhaul the judicial and legal system. Still other Israelis staged smaller protests in Jerusalem and Haifa. Had I […]
Conspiracy theories have spanned the centuries, feeding human impulses like jealousy, anger, insecurity and fear and often causing needless death and destruction. This explosive topic is explored in “Conspiracy,” the first episode of Lewis Cohen’s Truth & Lies, a six-part television series on TVO and tvo.org that starts on January 17 at 9 p.m. and runs […]
Krzysztof Lang, the director of March 1968, dedicates his empathetic and powerful film to old Jewish school friends who were compelled to leave Poland after the Polish communist regime launched an anti-Zionist campaign reeking of antisemitism. At least 15,000 Poles of Jewish descent emigrated in 1967 and 1968, having been falsely tarred as rootless cosmopolitans […]
Ady Walter’s cinematic portrayal of a shtetl in Ukraine before the Nazis and their collaborators murdered its Jewish inhabitants is heartwarming and heartbreaking. Shttl, a mostly black-and-white movie written and directed by Walter, is due to be screened on January 16 and 17 in its North American premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival. Haunting […]
Alain Sauma’s satirical short film, Blue Line, focuses on a flashpoint in the Middle East, Israel’s sometimes volatile border with Lebanon. Currently being presented online by the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation, this movie turns on a beefy Lebanese cow that strays into Israel, setting off a burst of excitement and anxiety on both sides of the […]
Warsaw 1942. The third season of Wartime Girls, an atmospheric and suspenseful Polish television series that will be available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform starting on January 12, takes place in that fateful year. It unfolds in Polish, German and English and revolves around three young Polish women from different socio-economic and religious backgrounds. Ewa […]
Bernard (Bernie) Madoff was the ultimate fraudster, a revered Wall Street trader and investment advisor who bilked his clients to the tune of $64 billion. Madoff’s epic Ponzi scheme, which went bust during the great financial crisis of 2008, is the subject of Joe Berlinger’s fascinating four-part Netflix series, Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street. […]
Paul Gruninger was the Oskar Schindler of Switzerland. Instrumental in saving the lives of 3,60o Austrian Jews from 1938 to 1939, he was the police commander of the St. Gallen district, near Austria and Germany. Alain Gsponer’s absorbing movie, The Gruninger File: One Step To Freedom, is based on real events. Now available on the ChaiFlicks […]
Kiryas Joel, a New York town in the Catskill Mountains 80 kilometres northwest of New York City, is a quintessential European-style shtetl designed to evoke a traditional East European past. KJ, as it is often called, is inhabited mostly by ultra-Orthodox Jews from the Satmar sect, which was founded by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum (1887-1979) in […]