Even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new Israeli government was sworn in on May 14, the 34th since 1949, he reiterated his interest in enlarging his cabinet and making it more representative of the country. In the general election on March 17, the Likud won 30 seats, more than any other party. In lengthy negotiations […]
Midway through Saint Laurent, Bertrand Bonello’s buoyant biopic, one of Yves Saint Laurent’s world-weary assistants says, “Fashion passes like a train.” It’s a relevant observation. Like the advertising business, fashion is fleeting, susceptible to rapidly changing tastes. The famous French couturier Saint Laurent (1936-2008) was acutely aware of this occupational hazard, but never allowed it […]
Facing increased harassment and persecution, several thousand German Jews still in Berlin after the outbreak of World War II went into hiding. Marie Jalowicz Simon was one of these so-called “submarines.” Living under an assumed name and shuttling between a succession of safe houses, she survived the tyranny of Nazism by the skin of her […]
Historians never tire of reflecting on Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. Since his assassination 150 years ago, just days after the Civil War had ended, he has been probed and analyzed in an avalanche of some 16,000 books. With all this ink having been spilled in the cause of scrutinizing an […]
Sobibor, in eastern Poland, was a destination from which one did not usually return. This Nazi extermination camp consumed its Jewish victims with rapidity and ferocity. But in 1943, at the height of the Holocaust, a few hundred of its prisoners made a daring, unprecedented break for freedom. This little-known incident is the subject of […]
It’s finally here. Spring, I mean. After another brutal and seemingly endless Canadian winter, the second one in a row to hammer Toronto, the harbingers of fine weather are finally beckoning. The sun is stronger and warmer, its blissful rays intensely yellow. Dormant lawns have turned bright green. Blue bells, as well as a profusion […]
The Palestinians can’t get their act together, no matter how often and how hard they try. A little more than a year after signing a national reconciliation agreement — which Israel vigorously opposed and denounced as inimical to peace — Fatah and Hamas remain at loggerheads over a litany of divisive issues. As a result, […]
At the ripe old age of 93, fashion icon Iris Apfel is still busy, active, engaged and alert. According to her housekeeper, she answers about 50 phone calls a day, far more than most people in their prime. As Apfel admits, she’d be depressed if the telephone stopped ringing. There’s little danger of that. Despite […]
Israeli film director Eran Riklis can thank Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for his unintended publicity on behalf of his latest movie, Dancing Arabs, which opens in Toronto on May 15. During the recent election campaign, Netanyahu resorted to anti-Arab scare-mongering tactics in a desperate bid to whip up votes for his right-wing Likud party, […]
The American Ballet Theatre, one of the world’s most renowned dance companies, is synonymous with excellence in the arts. On the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the PBS network is presenting Ric Burns’ newest documentary, American Ballet Theatre: A History, on Friday, May 15 at 9 p.m. (check local listings) as part of its American […]