The Toronto Jewish Film Festival, one of the best of its kind, gets under way on April 30 and runs until May 10. A preview: Veronique Lagoarde-Segot’s Shoah: The Forgotten Souls of History, is a hard-hitting and important documentary about the role of cinematography in Soviet propaganda during World War II. Regarding cinema as a […]
The 10-day Toronto Jewish Film Festival starts on April 30, featuring a wide selection of movies from North America, Israel and the rest of the world. A preview: “They were the Israeli Hollywood,” says the film director Boaz Davidson. First cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus were the founders and prime movers of the […]
The Toronto Jewish Film Festival, one of Toronto’s biggest cultural events, starts its 10-day run on April 30 with an eclectic selection of movies from around the world, including Israel. A preview: Are Jewish-style delicatessens a dying breed? It would seem so, judging by the hard, cold statistics served up in Deli Man, Erik Greenberg Anjou’s affectionate […]
Whatever you may think of her, Marine Le Pen certainly has the courage of her convictions. Last week, the leader of France’s far right National Front party officially distanced herself from her father, Jean Marie Le Pen, its founder and honorary chairman, in an astonishing parting of the ways. Ms. Le Pen, who has been […]
The annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival , far and away the premiere cultural event in Toronto’s Jewish community, runs from April 30 to May 10. This year’s edition offers a great selection of 110 feature films, documentaries and shorts from 18 countries. A preview: Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, understood the allure of film, […]
While waiting for a bus in Manhattan on August 29, 1959, Raphael Lemkin collapsed, dying a few hours later. He was 59. Only seven people attended his funeral, according to New York Times columnist A. M. Rosenthal. Lemkin, a Polish Jew, was on his way to meet his literary agent. They were to discuss his […]
The “organic” revolution is big business these days. By one estimate, organic products — from food to fast-fashion — gross $64 billion around the world annually. Some consumers swear by organics. Still others are skeptical. Where does the truth lie? Richie Mehta’s five-part series on Vision TV, Organic Panic, which starts on Monday, April […]
We think of the Sunni-Shia “border” as the one between Iran and its Arab neighbors to its west. But there’s another: the one between Iran and Pakistan, the mainly Sunni state to its east. Two episodes in the volatile area in early April left eight Iranian border guards and three militants dead. The border guards […]
As the Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis observes, Jascha Heifetz was “a God-given gift for a God-forsaken world.” Probably the greatest violinist of his generation, Heifetz (1901-1987) bequeathed a musical legacy that endures. Through concerts and recordings, the Lithuanian-born Jewish virtuoso set the gold standard for generations to come. He’s the subject of a forthcoming documentary […]
Tikal, one of Central America’s most heralded archeological sites, lies deep within a trackless rainforest in Guatemala. Containing the mouldering ruins of a great Mayan empire which reigned supreme more than 1,000 years ago, Tikal is far from the beaten track, an enclave within Tikal National Park, 300 kilometres north of Guatemala’s capital, Guatemala City. […]