Roger Cohen, a New York Times columnist, has written a poignant memoir of identity, displacement and prejudice in The Girl From Human Street: Ghosts of Memory of a Jewish Family, published by Alfred A. Knopf. Born in London, raised in South Africa, schooled in Britain and now a citizen of the United States, he’s a […]
A voice from the past emerges in the pages of The Vilna Vegetarian Cookbook: Garden-Fresh Recipes Rediscovered and Adapted for Today’s Kitchen (Schocken Books), first published in Yiddish in 1938 when Vilna — a center of Jewish learning and scholarship — was part of Poland rather than Lithuania. It’s the inimitable voice of Fania Lewando, the […]
Technicolor was all the rage when it was introduced in Hollywood films decades ago. Moviegoers who had grown accustomed to the reality of black and grey gladly embraced the rainbow of vibrant colors. In a tribute to this ground-breaking technology, which revolutionzed the industry, the Toronto International Film Festival is presenting Dreaming in Technicolor, a […]
Vera Brittain’s memoir, Testament of Youth, struck a chord when it was published in 1933, just 15 years after the end of World War I, supposedly the war to end all wars. Brittain, a smart, spunky, independent spirit born in an epoch when women were expected to be meek, mild and submissive, elaborated upon themes […]
For more than 500 years, between the 10th and 15th centuries, Spanish Christians, Jews and Muslims coexisted in what Jeffrey Gorsky calls “unparalleled harmony.” This period, known by some as the convivencia, a word which means living together in Spanish, ended tragically in persecution, forced conversion and expulsion. Gorsky’s masterful account of this golden era […]
Reshef Levi’s Hebrew-language film, Hunting Elephants, is a non-stop exercise in farce. Scheduled to open in Toronto theatres on June 12, it’s set in Jerusalem and revolves around a nerdy 12-year-old boy and his grumpy, tough-as-nails grandfather. Jonathan (Gil Blank), whip smart but socially awkward, is the butt of jokes and pranks at his school. […]
Two years ago, as Islamic State swept through northern Iraq in a rampage of conquest, pillage, rape and murder, the fighters under its ominous black banner singled out Christians and Yazidis for maltreatment. Members of these ancient minorities were killed and compelled to convert to the Sunni variant of Islam, while their women were subjected […]
In the spring of 1933, less than four months after Adolf Hitler’s accession to power, four Jewish inmates in the newly opened Dachau concentration camp were killed while supposedly trying to escape. In fact, they were murdered by SS guards, who fired the opening shots of an incremental process which culminated in the Holocaust. The […]
Midway through Saint Laurent, Bertrand Bonello’s buoyant biopic, one of Yves Saint Laurent’s world-weary assistants says, “Fashion passes like a train.” It’s a relevant observation. Like the advertising business, fashion is fleeting, susceptible to rapidly changing tastes. The famous French couturier Saint Laurent (1936-2008) was acutely aware of this occupational hazard, but never allowed it […]
Facing increased harassment and persecution, several thousand German Jews still in Berlin after the outbreak of World War II went into hiding. Marie Jalowicz Simon was one of these so-called “submarines.” Living under an assumed name and shuttling between a succession of safe houses, she survived the tyranny of Nazism by the skin of her […]