The Bat Mitzvah, a rite of passage in Jewish communities, is lampooned in a Netflix comedy starring Adam Sandler, his two daughters and wife. You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah, set in the United States, filmed in the greater Toronto area and directed by Sami Cohen, zeroes in on the Friedmans, an […]
Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust, entered a not guilty plea at his trial in Jerusalem in 1961, claiming he was merely following orders and insisting he was a “nationalist” rather than an “antisemite.” The German-Jewish political scientist Hannah Arendt, who covered the proceedings for The New Yorker, implicitly endorsed his ludicrous […]
The Israeli historical drama, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, is back for a second season on Netflix, and that’s good news. Based on a novel by Sarit Yishai-Levy, and unfolding in Hebrew, Ladino and English over 16 episodes, it is about the joys, disappointments and travails of a Sephardi family in Jerusalem during the British […]
Musical drama Less Than Kosher skillfully charts a young Jewish woman’s awakening to her cultural, artistic and religious roots. Divided into seven short segments, this zesty and exuberant Canadian production is currently available on Highball TV, and can be viewed on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform from June 12 onward. Created by Shaina Silver-Baird and Michael […]
Imad Mughniyeh, a founder and principal of Hezbollah, lived and died by the sword. A notorious terrorist, he masterminded a string of suicide bombing attacks in the 1980s and 1990s that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Americans, Israelis and Argentinian Jews and the kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon. Before the September 11, 2001 […]
Israel is riven by profound political fault lines pitting Jewish liberals and moderates against conservatives and ultra-nationalists and secular Jews against haredim. Israelis are a fractious lot, though they tend to be united in times of emergencies and wars. These tensions emerge in The Lesson, a thoughtful, jolting and disturbing six-part Israeli drama directed by […]
Matchmaker and dating coach Aleeza Ben-Shalom offers sound advice to her Orthodox, Conservative and Reform clients: “Date them until you hate them,” “Never give up,” and abide by the golden rule that “too much analysis leads to paralysis.” Ben-Shalom, an American who lives in the Israeli town of Pardes Hanna with her husband and five […]
Antwerp, the world’s diamond capital, looms large in Netflix’s crime thriller, Rough Diamonds, a joint production from Israel and Belgium. The diamond trade in rough and polished stones in Antwerp is dominated by ultra-Orthodox Jews. The Wolfsons, a fictitious haredi family, are at the center of this intriguing, mostly satisfying eight-part series, which unfolds in […]
Jews who survived the Holocaust tended to be physically and mentally strong, adept at a certain skill, amazingly resourceful, or simply lucky. David Wisnia, who owes his survival to a fine singing voice, is one such person. Sara Taksler explores his unusual story in How Saba Kept Singing, a PBS documentary. A melange of on-camera […]
Varian Fry, the first American to be designated as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, is at the core of Transatlantic, a seven-part Netflix series. A Harvard University graduate and a journalist, Fry was one of the founders of the Emergency Rescue Committee. It was founded in New York City in 1940 with the aim […]