November 9 is a Schicksalstag, a fateful day, a shameful day, but also a happy day in German history. On November 9, 1918, Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the first German republic from a window of the Reichstag. This proclamation raised the hope that Germany, after the defeat in World War I and the resignation of […]
The Gaza War between Hamas and Israel last summer may not have extended to the West Bank, but it has unleashed a wave of urban violence in eastern and western Jerusalem, affecting its transportation system and dividing its Arab and Jewish segments even further apart. Given the use of attack vehicles in this unrest, which […]
The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in Warsaw, was created from the inside out. Before there was a museum, before there was a building, before there was a collection, there was a plan for the exhibition. The story — the thousand-year history of Polish Jews — came first. All else followed. The […]
For nearly two weeks in 1978, the Middle East metaphorically held its breath as the leaders of the United States, Israel and Egypt attempted to make an historic break with the past. The Camp David summit brought together Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat for the purpose of forging a peace treaty between Israel […]
The 18th annual Reel Asian International Film Festival in Toronto runs from Nov. 6-16. Movies ranging from China and India to Japan and the United States will be screened. Judging by two films I previewed, Brahmin Bulls (Nov. 16) and Fandry (Nov.11), this should be a fine showcase for Asian cinema. Brahmin Bulls, directed by Mahesh […]
When I was last in Warsaw in the summer of 2009, the site of the future Museum of the History of Polish Jews was cordoned off to the public, and it wasn’t clear when construction would begin, much less end. The project to build a museum in honor of what had been one of the […]
A marriage can change for better or worse in the bat of an eyelash. In Force Majeure, a Swedish film by Ruben Ostlund scheduled to open at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Oct. 31, this is precisely what happens when an avalanche thunders down a mountain in the Alps and alters the lives of a […]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has got things backwards, much to Israel’s detriment. Lashing out at U.S. condemnation of Israeli plans to build more than 1,000 apartments in areas of eastern Jerusalem annexed by Israel after the 1967 Six Day War, Netanyahu declared, “I have heard a claim that our construction in Jewish neighborhoods in […]
Has there ever been a Toronto mayor in recent history like Rob Ford? I doubt it. Ford was a drunkard, a drug addict, a racist and an antisemite who besmirched and disgraced our fair cosmopolitan city. He was not even fit to be a dog catcher. After yesterday’s municipal election, during which Ford’s equally unpalatable […]
Since the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, Poles who had concealed their Jewish ancestry with a zealousness bordering on fear and/or self-hatred have come out of the closet in droves, proclaiming and embracing their Jewishness to various degrees. The “new” Jews, whatever their Jewish lineage may be, are Jews by choice, says Poland’s […]