The inimitable Phil Rosenthal is back for a second season on Netflix with his entertaining food/travel show, Somebody Feed Phil. He describes himself as a foodie, but he’s really a gourmand rather than a gourmet. Jokey and light, he’s the polar opposite of the late Anthony Bourdain. An indefatigable kibitzer with a gift of the gab […]
The Israeli thriller Fauda, which started on Netflix in 2015, is back again for a second season, and it’s every bit as good as the first one. Unfolding in Hebrew and Arabic, it focuses on an Israeli army undercover unit charged with flushing out terrorists in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since […]
One of the most enduring antisemitic stereotypes prevalent in the United States was badly dented after it entered World War II. This anti-Jewish calumny claimed that Jews shirked military duty and that Jewish soldiers sought cushy jobs far from the front lines. It was all a lie, of course. More than half a million Jewish men […]
The United States has always taken pride in being a democratic haven for the oppressed, a place where persecuted minorities like Jews could begin life anew. But for centuries, American society was racist to the core. A case in point is The Chinese Exclusion Act, signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. […]
Five hundred thousand Jewish Americans, many of them the sons and daughters of immigrants, served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. Ten thousand of them were women. Lisa Ades’ absorbing documentary, GI Jews: Jewish Americans In World War II, scheduled to be broadcast on the PBS network on April 11 at 10 p.m. […]
A 10-part series on the ambitious, power-hungry henchmen who worked closely with Adolf Hitler is now available on the Netflix streaming network. Hitler’s Circle of Evil, a skillful German production, is an amalgam of newsreels, wordless dramatizations and commentary by British and German historians. Judging by four of its episodes, this fascinating documentary is a […]
Al Capone was the first American gangster to achieve celebrity status. Such was his notoriety that he appeared on the cover of Time magazine on March 24, 1930, an honor normally reserved for politicians, statesmen, scientists, movie stars, novelists or captains of industry. Capone’s ascent to stardom is the subject of Al Capone: Icon, which will […]
Iran and Saudi Arabia, carrying the banners of the Shi’a and Sunni strains of Islam, are engaged in an intense struggle for primacy in the Middle East. Their bruising competition for dominance, playing out mainly in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, has already affected Israel and Arab countries. Martin Smith, a seasoned Middle East correspondent, […]
Phil Rosenthal, the creator of the phenomenally successful TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, indulges his passion for travel and food in a new six-part Netflix series, Somebody Feed Phil. A voracious gourmand rather than an astute gourmet, he eats his way through six cities — Bangkok, Saigon, Tel Aviv, Lisbon, Mexico City and New Orleans. […]
Disguised as an Arab, the Swiss adventurer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt discovered Petra in 1812, long after it had been abandoned and left to the elements and the bedouins. Since then, droves of visitors from far and wide have descended on this Nabatean city carved out of the spectacular sandstone cliffs of southern Jordan. Tourists are […]