Small Jewish communities in Canada are rarities these days. Since the 1950s and 1960s, they have been disappearing as elders have died and children and grandchildren have moved to big cities like Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. A documentary by Sonya Jampolsky and Michael MacDonald, Minyan on the Mira: The Jewish People of Glace Bay, […]
During the early 1960s, when we were teens, my friend Henry Srebrnik and I popped into a midtown cafeteria in New York City and found ourselves in a bright, bustling and unfamiliar world of fairly high ceilings, dome lighting fixtures, marble floors and tables, and chrome and glass dispensers. We had entered the inviting domain […]
Israeli President Isaac Herzog spent a day in Turkey on March 9 hoping to reboot bilateral relations with Turkey after years of rollercoaster acrimony. His host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, struck an upbeat note, saying he believed that Herzog’s whirlwind visit would be “a turning point” in Turkey’s often contentious ties with Israel. “Strengthening […]
Israel is straining to preserve its finely calibrated policy regarding the current war in Ukraine. Keen to uphold its status as one the few countries maintaining cordial relations with both the combatants, Israel has been careful to offend neither Ukraine nor Russia. It’s a difficult balancing act, and whether Israel can sustain it indefinitely remains to […]
Canadian historian John-Paul Himka has written an illuminating, important, ground-breaking and grim book about an exceedingly dark chapter in Ukraine’s history. It goes without saying that most Ukrainians would probably prefer to shove this terrible, blood-soaked interregnum under the carpet, all the more so since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Himka, a professor […]
The war in Ukraine has thrown white supremacists and neo-Nazis into a tizzy. Until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, they were inclined to be pro-Russian, admiring Russia as a white Christian country and its president, Vladimir Putin, as an authoritarian strongman who stood for traditional values. Richard Spencer, the guru of the American […]
Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman, two kibitzers from Montreal’s heavily Jewish enclave of Cote St. Luc, spend a day sampling the city’s culinary delights in their hour-long offbeat documentary, Chewdism: A Taste of Jewish Montreal. They made the film for YidLife Crisis, the Yiddish comedy web site they created a few years ago. Chewdism has […]
Poland was bloodied and traumatized by World War II. Conquered and occupied by Nazi Germany, Poland is still licking its wounds and mourning its dead seven decades on. Wartime Girls, a Polish television series now available on the ChaiFlicks streaming service, unfolds against the backdrop of these disastrous events. Directed by Michal Rogalski and Karolina […]
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, attended a pro-Ukrainian rally in Toronto last Sunday. Amid a substantial crowd of demonstrators protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she stood between two people holding a red and black scarf bearing the slogan of “Slava Ukraini” (Glory to Ukraine). A photograph of Freeland — an ethnic […]
With very few exceptions, Middle Eastern Muslim states have generally reacted cautiously to the current war in Ukraine. Until yesterday, the vast majority of Arab countries, plus Turkey, refrained from either condemning Russia’s invasion or siding with Ukraine, an ally of the United States and the West. Today, several Arab countries — Egypt, United Arab […]