Tomer Heymann’s Mr. Gaga, a fast-moving and absorbing documentary about one of the world’s finest choreographers and dancers, takes flight from almost the moment it begins. As the camera pans on the protagonist, Ohad Naharin, he coaches a dancer in his studio. “Really beautiful,” he says before instructing her to loosen up and “let go.” A man […]
Hoping to boost trade, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to China on March 19 for a three-day visit to the Asian economic giant, along with Israel’s largest-ever business delegation. The mission included five ministers in his government. This was Netanyahu’s second visit to China in four years. Prior to his trip, Netanyahu, who’s also the country’s foreign […]
Women have always served in the Israeli armed forces and are an integral part of it, but in the past few years, they’ve played an increasingly important role in Israel’s defence. From training new recruits and flying aircraft to manning outposts and driving tanks, they form an indispensable component of Israel’s defence shield. “Since the […]
Three U.S. senators — Ben Cardin of Maryland, Richard Durbin of Illinois and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut — were absolutely right to call for an investigation into of one of President Donald Trump’s top aides, Sebastian Gorka, who may have links to a notorious antisemitic Hungarian organization. Gorka, Trump’s adviser on counter-terrorism, was photographed at […]
Canadian historian Paul Brykczynski has written an authoritative account of a long-forgotten incident in Poland’s early 20th century history that altered its political landscape and undermined its large Jewish community. The “December Events,” as he describes them, unfolded in 1922 against the backdrop of a closely-fought election, anti-Jewish street riots and the assassination of a president. Until […]
Aficionados of classical European architecture are bowled over by Konstanz, the southern German city adjacent to the Swiss border. Niederburg, its oldest neighborhood, is a revelation, an open air museum of building styles ranging from Renaissance to Gothic. During World War II, a profusion of historically important buildings in Germany were destroyed by Allied bombing raids. Konstanz […]
Since the start of the new year, an ominous wave of antisemitism has roared across the length and breadth of the United States. Jewish community centres, schools and institutions have received about 150 bomb threats, while two Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized. These incidents, unprecedented in scale, have caused anxiety and alarm around the country. President […]
In the spring of 1945, as World War II was winding down, the British government commissioned a documentary about the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. The supervising director would be the Hollywood auteur Alfred Hitchcock. The screenwriter would be Richard Crossman, who would go on to become a British cabinet minister. The […]
I’ll lay my cards on the table: I have never been particularly fond of Chrystia Freeland’s attitude towards the Russian Federation. And when, reading her biography on Wikipedia, and noting that her mother was born in a displaced persons’ camp in postwar Germany, I felt this probably meant that her own grandparents had most likely […]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has done it again. In his usual intemperate style, he’s accused two friendly countries, the Federal Republic of Germany and Holland, of behaving like Nazi Germany. The comparison is absurd, but lest we forget, Erdogan has also levelled this odious accusation against Israel, not once but twice. Clearly, he’s a loose […]