More than half a century before the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, hundreds of Jewish men, women and children on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Majorca were forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism. They were to be known as Xuetas, which may come from the word “Jueto,” or “little Jew.” The converts became crypto-Jews, […]
It’s no secret that The New York Times, the preeminent daily newspaper in the United States, downplayed the Holocaust as it unfolded in real time in Europe. Scholars and journalists have written reams of articles and monographs about its abject and unforgivable sin of omission. The Times’ failure was all the more shocking because it’s […]
A plane touches down at Ben-Gurion Airport in September of 1990. The passengers are Russian Jews starting a new life in Israel. Victor and Raya Frenkel, an elderly childless couple, are among these immigrants. And so begins Golden Voices, an endearing Israeli drama by Evgeny Ruman about displacement and adjustment. Infused with comedic touches, it […]
Ehud Barak, nearing 80 years of age, can look back at a rewarding career in public service. He was prime minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001. Prior to his ascent to the premiership, he held three cabinet portfolios, having been interior minister, foreign minister and defence minister. Subsequently, he was the leader of the […]
Arabs comprise 21 percent of Israel’s population, yet almost half of the players on the Israeli national soccer team are Arabs. Shuki Guzik’s interesting 52-minute documentary, A Common Goal, examines this curious phenomenon. It will be screened online by the Calgary Jewish Film Festival on November 17 at 7 p.m. The festival, now in its […]
The recreational use of cannabis is currently illegal in Israel, but medical marijuana is perfectly legal. Working within these parameters, Assaf Abiri and Mattan Guggenheim present Greener Pastures, a feature-length Hebrew-language movie that deals comedically with this contentious issue. Scheduled to be screened online by the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation from November 18-21, it stars […]
Ranked academically above all other secondary schools in San Francisco, Lowell High School is known as an “Asian excellency school.” Its relentless competitive environment forces its majority Asian student body to study hard and achieve high marks as to gain entry into the top universities in the United States. Debbie Lum’s interesting and sometimes heart-wrenching documentary, Try […]
The Gaza Strip, a densely-populated and impoverished enclave ruled by Hamas and blockaded by Israel and Egypt, evokes a sense of grimness and desperation. To outsiders, the everyday lives of its inhabitants are a blank, except when they’re filmed sorting through the ruins of buildings bombed by the Israeli Air Force after yet another cross-border […]
Philip Roth, the great American novelist, was 77 when he agreed to be interviewed for Roth on Roth, a nearly one hour documentary by William Karel and Livia Manera in which he bares his soul. Speaking candidly, he discusses a wide range of issues. Roth on Roth, currently being screened online by the Toronto Jewish Film […]
Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky was one of the titans of the Zionist movement, yet his residency in Palestine, the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, was extremely brief. A cosmopolitan Russian Jew fluent in nine languages, he was both a political theoretician and organizer, as well as a man of letters. During his life, he oscillated […]