The Nazi machinery of mass murder is on stark and clinical display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The Evidence Room, a chilling and ghostly exhibition of white plaster components of the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers, examines the central role that architecture played in the construction of this extermination camp in Poland. The Evidence Room, which […]
The Arab world is in disarray, riven by civil wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen which broke out following the eruption of the so-called Arab Spring at the end of 2010. But the discord that roils Arab states these days is not only politically inspired. Geneive Abdo, in The New Sectarianism: The Arab Uprisings and […]
She was the first American female performer to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of fame, and she’s commemorated on a postage stamp issued in her honour by the United States postal service. Patsy Cline, born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Winchester, Virginia, in 1932, was quite a gal. On March 4, the day before […]
The Muslim and Christian Arab inhabitants of Israel, the descendants of Palestinians who remained in their homeland during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, comprise about 20 percent of Israel’s present-day population. Although they’re citizens of Israel, some regard themselves as Palestinians of Israeli nationality, judging by surveys. A number of Israeli Arabs have attained important positions […]
Israel’s movie industry is on a roll, as the four films in the forthcoming Toronto Israeli Film Series attest. The festival, which runs from February 25 to 26 at the City Playhouse Theatre, is presented by Israel’s consulate general and the UJA Federation. The opening night picture, The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev, is a delightful […]
Raoul Peck’s documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, is a meditation on race in the United States, a topic unlikely to grow stale or irrelevant due its resonance in American history. Scheduled to open in Canadian theatres on February 24th, Peck’s thoughtful film is framed by the observations of the late African American novelist and […]
Fanny Ben-Ami’s astonishing story of survival as a Jewish child in Nazi-occupied France has been brought to the screen by Lola Doillon in Fanny’s Journey. The movie, based on her harrowing experiences, will be presented by the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation’s Chai Tea series at the Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk (5095 Yonge Street) on Sunday, February 19 […]
How did the German people experience World War II? What did they think or know about their government’s plan to exterminate the Jews of Europe in the Holocaust? These are among the key issues that Nicholas Stargardt deftly explores in his sweeping new book, The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945, published by Basic Books. […]
We should be beware of stereotypes, yet they persist from one generation to the next, twisting and distorting reality and causing misunderstandings and enmity. One of the oldest ones, concerning Poles, was perpetuated by William Styron in his novel Sophie’s Choice. Bieganski, a character in his book, is an antisemite. To some Polish Jews, especially Holocaust […]
The American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch seeks his material in the obscure, unheralded corners of America, focusing his gaze on the ordinary and the off-beat. Paterson, his latest movie, emerges from that quirky mould. Due to open in Canadian theaters on February 10, this is a quiet and appealing film which takes pleasure in elevating the […]