Torgny Segerstedt was a courageous Swedish newspaper editor as Europe lurched toward the precipice of World War II. A former theologian who had a knack for recognizing the face of evil, he believed that the chancellor of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, was the personification of the devil. Of course, Segerstedt’s assessment of Hitler was not […]
“Welcome to my world,” Elvis Aaron Presley crooned in velvety-soft tones. “Won’t you come on in.” This invitation, emanating from a hidden loudspeaker, could be heard shortly after my bus pulled into Graceland, the gated estate in Memphis, Tennessee, where the legendary rock ‘n’ roll star lived until his untimely death 37 years ago. It […]
Mel Brooks is indubitably a funny guy. A Borscht Belt comedian in an earlier incarnation, he wrote sketches for Sid Caesar’s prime time TV show before realizing he could adapt his material to the big screen. Brooks made his first movie, The Producers, in 1968 and just kept on going, writing and directing and often […]
The Halimi affair, which gripped France in the winter of 2006, has been brought to the big screen. Alexandre Arcady’s 24 Days will be presented by the Toronto Jewish Film Festival’s Chai Tea & A Movie series on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 1:30 p.m and 4:30 p.m. Arcady’s fast-moving, suspenseful film is based on a book […]
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 […]