By Ed Rampell
Those who forget the past may be doomed to repeat it, and Jews and others strive to ensure that the Shoah does not disappear down the collective memory hole. Remembrance is one thing, but Helene Cixous raises another perplexing point in her poignant, aptly named drama “Oy,” now being performed in Los Angeles by
The Actors’ Gang. Refugees Selma (Mary Eileen O’Donnell) and Jenny (Jeanette Horn) are octogenarian German Jewish sisters who, in 1995, are invited by the mayor of Osnabrück, the city where they grew up, to travel back to talk about the Holocaust to the younger generation.
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By Ed Rampell
When remembering the waves of Jewish immigration to early 20th-century America we usually conjure up images of Ellis Island and the Lower East Side. However, thanks to the
Galveston Plan, some Eastern European Jews found themselves far from the Statue of Liberty, way down yonder in the land of cotton. Haskell Harelik may have landed at Hamilton, Texas, instead of Hester Street, Manhattan, but in 1909 this Russian refugee also sought the American Dream.
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By Ed Rampell
Actor Alan Mandell has portrayed Shakespeare’s Shylock, Prospero and Lear, and performed everywhere from Dublin’s Abbey Theatre to Broadway to the silver screen. One of his most notable recent roles was Rabbi Marshak in the Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man.” Mandell is currently playing Estragon in “Waiting for Godot” at LA’s Mark Taper Forum. He talked to The Arty Semite about Judaism, existentialism, and working with Samuel Beckett.
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By Ed Rampell
The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony is celebrating its 18th anniversary this year with a series of live performances, beginning with a March 31 concert at Valley Beth Shalom, in the San Fernando Valley. The “Istoria Judia — La Convivencia Musical” concert concentrated on Morocco’s Sephardic tradition and commemorated the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain. On June 23 LAJS is partnering for the fifth year with non-profit concert producer
Kindred Spirits for a performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall to benefit the anti-genocide organization
Jewish World Watch. LAJS’s anniversary finale takes place at Hollywood’s John Anson Ford Amphitheatre on August 26.
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By Ed Rampell
Filmmaker Oliver Stone has been keeping busy. In research for his forthcoming Showtime documentary series, “The Untold History of the United States,” which re-examines crucial events in American history, Stone conducted a seven hour interview with Tariq Ali, the Pakistani-born activist and intellectual who inspired the Rolling Stones song “Street Fighting Man.” That dialog formed the basis for a 2011 book co-authored by Stone and Ali,
“On History,” which deals extensively with America’s relationship with the Middle East, as well as for a
January 19 talk by the two at the New York Public Library.
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