The village of Lifta spreads out on the slopes of a steep hill adjacent to the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, which leads directly into the western half of Israel’s capital city. It’s a unique place — the only Palestinian locality abandoned by its residents during the first Arab-Israeli war that was not destroyed by Israel or repopulated […]
Another name for Japan, in case you’re interested, is Ramen Nation. This refers to the craving Japanese people have for ramen, an iconic soup made of broth, garnished with noodles and topped with ingredients such as vegetables, seaweed, bamboo shoots, dried fish, a hard-boiled egg, chicken or pork. Ramen was supposedly brought to Japan by […]
Csanad Szegedi was an antisemite before becoming a Jew. A leader of Hungary’s extreme right-wing Jobbik Party, and the founder of the fascist-style Hungarian Guard militia, he was one of the rising stars of the political scene in Hungary. And then it all came crashing down after he was “outed” as a Jew, a sickening […]
This year’s edition of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, rebranded as the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation, runs from May 4-14. As usual, the lineup is impressive. The films reviewed here deal with a scandal in the powerful Greek Orthodox Church in Israel, the Austrian novelist and refugee from Nazism, Stefan Zweig, and a Polish veteran […]
This year’s Toronto Jewish Festival, rebranded as the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation, runs from May 4-14. The five films reviewed here are eclectic. They’re about a Polish village which once had a substantial Jewish population, an Israeli couple whose marriage grows more stale by the year, an ultra-Orthodox woman who runs for a seat in […]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been auditioning for the role of Ottoman sultan — a position left vacant by Mehmed VI with his abdication in 1922 — for at least the past 14 years. In 2004, Erdogan became Turkey’s prime minister, following the parliamentary election victory of his newly-founded Justice and Development Party (AKP) […]
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from May 4 to 14. To mark this milestone, the festival is rebranding itself as the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation. This year’s edition offers a rich and eclectic selection of movies — feature films, documentaries and shorts — from around the world which will […]
Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz recently unveiled a Middle East peace plan predicated on two practical public works projects. He claims they can be “game changers” in terms of Israel’s future relationship with the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab countries. Katz’s proposal, while innovative, suffers from a fatal flaw. Katz wants to build a seaport on […]
Russia, Syria’s chief ally and protector, faced a moment of truth following last week’s military strike and counter-strike in the Middle East. On April 6, the United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles into a Syrian air force base in retaliation for a bombing raid launched by Syria on April 4 that killed 87 civilians in […]
The 100th anniversary of the death of Ludwik Zamenhof, the creator of the Esperanto language, was observed on April 14 of this year. Zamenhof, a Jewish physician, was born in the northeastern Polish city of Bialystok in 1859 and died in Warsaw in 1917. Bialystok belonged to the Russian Empire at the time and, as […]