Long before the emancipation of women in Western societies, Gertrude Bell led the way forward as an historian, political analyst, administrator, archeologist, writer and photographer. She was surely was one of the most influential females of the 20th century. T.E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, hailed her as “a wonderful person.” D. G. Hogarth, […]
George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, was at the centre of the political and military turbulence that lashed and shaped the Middle East a generation ago. Bush, who died on December 1 at the age of 94, served from 1989 to 1993, during which the U.S. liberated Kuwait in the […]
Roger Ailes would not have been pleased with Divide and Conquer: The Story of Rogers Ailes, Alexis Bloom’s critical biopic of the late Republican Party strategist which opens in Toronto on December 7. Bloom, a liberal filmmaker, portrays the conservative media consultant and Fox News chairman as a divisive force in American politics and as a […]
Iconic Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman was born a century ago. His life and legacy are woven into Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic, Searching for Ingmar Bergman, which opens in Toronto at the TIFF Lightbox on December 7. Bergman, one of the legendary figures of cinema, directed 45 feature films, from The Seventh Seal and Wild […]
Roaming the streets of New York City at night with a Speed Graphic camera equipped with a flash, the self-taught, now-legendary photographer Arthur Fellig exposed the nooks and crannies of a great metropolis for millions of New Yorkers during the 1930s and 1940s. Freelancing for agencies like the Associated Press and the International News Service and […]
By Iranian standards, Hassan Rouhani, the president of Iran, is something of a moderate. But when it comes to Israel, Rouhani is ideologically on the same page as Iran’s hard-line spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who never tires of threatening the Jewish state with destruction. Addressing the annual Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran on November […]
Yale University Press has published two books in its Jewish Lives series for film aficionados — Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films by Molly Haskell, and Warner Brothers: The Making of an American Movie Studio by David Thomson. Spielberg, of course, needs no introduction, being one of the most successful directors of his generation. In a […]
I‘m not much of a wine drinker, but I jumped at the opportunity of visiting the fabled Wine Route in the Alsace district of France. Winding past immaculate wineyards and quaint villages and towns beautified by bright potted flowers in windowsills, the route traverses the eastern side of the Vosges mountain range. Fine wines have […]
Ben Ferencz, a chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, played a critical role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court. Now 98 and living in retirement in Delray Beach, Florida, he was instrumental in crafting the legal process by which war criminals are prosecuted. To Rosalie Abella, a justice on the Supreme Court […]
With a metaphorical wave of the hand, U.S. President Donald Trump has absolved Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman of complicity in the brutal murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2. By shielding the crown prince from accountability and treating him so […]