Shimon Peres, Israel’s three-time prime minister and ninth president, was a dreamer who fused idealism with practicality. A hawk who was instrumental in building the Israeli armed forces in the late 1940s and 1950s, he was also a dove who strove for peace with the Palestinians and Israel’s Arab neighbors in the 1990s. Peres, who […]
Latvia and Lithuania, which are among the newest members of NATO, have been hailed by some as Western bastions of democracy and bulwarks against Russian expansionism. But both Baltic republics were complicit in the mass murder of their Jewish citizens during the Holocaust. Baltic Truth, a revealing and troubling documentary by Eugene Levin and Andrejs […]
American- sponsored talks aimed at finally resolving Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon have been progressing relatively well since the resumption of mediation efforts by U.S. diplomat Amos Hochstein last month. By his estimation, Lebanon has dropped its demand for part of the Karish natural gas field, which is fully claimed by Israel and is recognized […]
Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s astonishing rise to power from furniture company marketing director to prime minister is the subject of Dan Shadur’s absorbing biopic, King Bibi: The Life and Performances of Benjamin Netanyahu, which will be available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform from July 27 onward. Shadur delivers an incisive and balanced portrait of Israel’s longest-serving premier. […]
Polish American historian Jan Gross caused an enormous uproar in Poland following the publication of the first edition of his explosive book, Neighbors: The Destruction Of The Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland. Published in May 2000, and since translated into 13 languages, it generated an intensive nation-wide debate about collective memory and Polish-Jewish relations after […]
The Polish TV series Wartime Girls is back for a second season on the ChaiFlicks Jewish streaming platform. This is good news because Michal Rogalski’s drama, set during the German occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945, is compelling and entertaining, judging by the first four of 13 episodes. Three characters, all young women from completely […]
U.S. President Joe Biden’s whirlwind visit to Israel, his tenth in nearly 50 years, was a striking reaffirmation of Israel’s deep bonds with the United States and a stark demonstration of their differences over two major issues. The Jerusalem Declaration, a joint statement issued by Israel and the United States, hailed their strategic partnership and […]
On July 28, 1959, thieves in Bucharest committed an audacious crime. In broad daylight, they ambushed a truck from the National Bank carrying the equivalent of several hundred thousand dollars in Romanian currency. The theft shocked the Communist leadership and led to the arrest of hundreds of suspects and the production of a unique film. […]
The first ever Hollywood movie about Israel’s struggle for statehood, Sword in the Desert, was released in the United States in 1949, a year after Israel achieved sovereignty and independence. Directed by George Sherman, and based on a short story by Robert Buckner, it appeared eleven years before Otto Preminger’s Exodus. Filmed in California, and starring […]
Cecil B. DeMille was a major force in the Hollywood movie industry for decades. From 1913 until the late 1950s, he directed more than 70 silent movies and talkies and worked with the leading actors of the day. More than 60 years after his death, he is probably best remembered for, among other pictures, The Squaw […]