Joseph Mallard William Turner (1775-1851), the illustrious painter, is the subject of an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario which runs until January 31, 2016. J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free, an illuminating tribute to a British master, is comprised of more than 50 paintings on loan from Tate Britain. Nearly all of them were produced […]
Friday, November 13 was a black day for France as nine Arab terrorists ruthlessly killed 129 people in Paris in the deadliest attacks in the French capital since World War II. But is there a silver lining in this tragedy? The bloodshed may well spell the beginning of the end of Islamic State. Perhaps a […]
Michael Stroh, a retired Reform rabbi, was speaking about an Israeli trend that unsettles and upsets progressive Zionists like himself. “There’s a right-wing secular and religious militancy in Israel that’s very scary, and we have to confront it,” he said without mincing his words. Stroh unburdened himself of this concern on November 15 at a […]
Despite the November 13 massacres in Paris and the revelation that one of the Islamic State (IS) attackers apparently arrived in Europe as a “migrant,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who defeated Stephen Harper in last month’s election, remains determined to fast-track 25,000 Syrian migrants into Canada by year’s end. Indeed, one cabinet position has […]
Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979), the scion of a fabulously wealthy American Jewish family, was one of the pillars of the modern art movement. Bohemian, rebel, iconoclast and hedonist, she was an astute judge of talent, having recognized the potential of painters like Jean Miro, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollack long before they were famous and having bought […]
There are films that soar majestically above the rest, and Brooklyn, directed by John Crowley, is one of those rare ones. Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and scheduled to open in Toronto theaters on November 20, it conjures up a self-contained universe that is both culturally distinct and brimming with fully formed characters. Set in […]
Is Poland’s new defence minister, Antoni Macierewicz, fit to hold public office? That’s a legitimate question following the disclosure that he flirted with the possibility that The Protocols of the Elders Of Zion, a notorious antisemitic tract, may be an authentic historical document, and that he supports its twisted thesis. In an interview in 2002 […]
Israel’s official reaction to a European Union ruling that Israel can no longer attach made-in-Israel labels to some goods produced in the occupied West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem is nothing less than overblown and self-serving. On November 11, the European Commission — the EU’s executive body — issued guidelines mandating that certain products […]
Ben Palmer’s British romantic comedy, Man Up, which opens in Canada on November 20, hangs on the flimsiest of thematic threads, but holds up quite nicely. The plot, though old as the hills, remains endearing. In a case of mistaken identity, two love-starved and lonely people meet in a busy railway station and sparks fly. […]
Thanks to his diaries, published in two volumes by Indiana University Press in 2007 and 2009, James Grover McDonald has received the recognition he so richly deserves. McDonald (1886-1964), an American who worked tirelessly in the 1930s and 1940s to find a safe haven for Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, was the first U.S. ambassador to […]