Passions erupt and flow like red-hot lava in Woody Allen’s 48th film, Wonder Wheel, which opens in Canadian theatres on December 8. Set in the 1950s amid the honky-tonk atmosphere of New York City’s Coney Island amusement park, this dark, high-strung drama delves into the lives of four people who touch each other’s hearts profoundly. […]
The massacre of 311 Muslims in a Sufi mosque in the northern Sinai Peninsula on November 24 underscores an unpalatable reality that Egypt has yet to accept and internalize: the Egyptian armed forces have utterly failed to quell the jihadist insurgency in the Sinai. No group claimed responsibility for the attack in the remote town […]
The Holocaust unfolded in a succession of Nazi-occupied countries ranging from Poland and the Soviet Union to France and Hungary, and although much is known about this catastrophe 72 years after the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp by the Red Army, a whole lot of new material is still turning up and enlarging our […]
What would Christmas be like without iconic Christmas songs such as White Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Sleigh Ride or Chessnuts Roasting on an Open Fire? Larry Weinstein asks this intriguing question in his film, Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas, whose world premiere takes place on the Documentary Channel on December 3 at 8 p.m. CBC TV […]
Muslims are the fastest growing religious minority in Canada. The arrival of 40,000 Syrian refugees in the past year certainly accentuated this trend. From 600 Muslims in Canada in 1931 to 579,000 in 2001 and to more than one million in 2011, the size of the Muslim community has grown exponentially. Statistics Canada expects the Muslim […]
Once upon a time, the American public was fascinated by the spectre of criminality. This era lasted from about 1920 to 1940 and spanned Prohibition and the Great Depression. Sometimes referred to as the golden age of gangsterism, it inspired a profusion of Hollywood movies like Little Caesar and Scarface, an avalanche of novels like Damon […]
Despite all his troubles, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria can count his blessings. His steadfast ally, Russia, is fully behind him, no matter what atrocities his armed forces commit in the ongoing civil war in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin is assisting Damascus militarily and politically. Without Russia, Assad might already have lost the war […]
It was a visit like no other in Israel’s history. Forty years ago, on November 19 at 7:59 p.m., a Boeing 707, code-named Egypt 01, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport, one minute ahead of schedule. Anwar Sadat, the president of Egypt, had arrived in Israel, the first Arab head of state to set foot in the Jewish […]
If Tel Aviv weren’t an Israeli city with a Jewish majority, usually only noticed abroad in relation to conflict and terrorism, its Mediterranean ambience would be better appreciated. With 318 sunny days a year, beaches, and a “la dolce vita” way of life, it reminds one of cities in Italy and Greece. Even in mid-November, […]
She was the essence of beauty and brains. She was Hedy Lamarr, the alluring Hollywood actress and brilliant amateur scientist whose secret communication device ushered in the brave new era of cell phones, WiFi, drones, Bluetooth technology and GPS guidance systems. One of the most glamorous movie stars of the late 1930s and early 1940s, she’s the […]