A Holocaust Survivor's Confounding Choices
Yael Reuveny’s award-winning ‘Farewell Herr Schwarz’ looks at the radically different choices made after the Holocaust, including her great-uncle’s decision to live in Germany and celebrate Christmas.
Pluralistic Shavuot at Tel Aviv City Hall
Photo courtesy of Beit Tefilah Israeli
Pushing Ben-Gurion off the Roof
In his latest tour de force, Assi Dayan, Israeli cinema’s enfant terrible, seeks to push Israel’s Ashkenazi elite into its grave, literally and figuratively.
Nominees for Israel’s Most Coveted Film Award
For Israeli filmmakers the most wonderful time of the year is almost here. No, it’s not Hanukka or even Christmas — it’s the Ophir awards. Recently the Israeli Academy of Film and Television announced its nominations for the 2012 awards, which will be distributed at a ceremony in September.
Slideshow: The Sound of Painting
Painting can be a lot like playing music. Just as a jazz musician riffs on a standard, so too a painter can create a scene on canvas that evokes familiarity but still contains creative flourishes and emotional depth. That’s the notion behind Israeli artist Ishay Rossano’s latest series of paintings, first displayed in a solo exhibition at the Ori Ostreicher Gallery in Tel Aviv last summer.
Monday Music: Gypsy Jazz in Jaffa
Photo by Ronen Goldman
Friday Film: Exiles in Any Land
Once in a blue moon you get the chance to see a real talent in the making. That was my main thought after seeing first-time director-screenwriter Guy Yeroslavsky’s new TV pilot, “Forced Landing,” last October at the Haifa International Film Festival. Luckily, Israeli viewers may soon have a full-season of “Forced Landing” in store for them, as Yeroslavsky said he is in negotiations with a major Israeli TV channel to produce the show.
Friday Film: Lost on the Way to the Witness Stand
“Testimony” is the rare movie that contains all the building blocks of an aesthetically powerful political statement, only to fall short in its execution. Put plainly, “Testimony” — which recently screened at the Haifa International Film Festival and the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival — amounts to a good deal less than the sum of its parts.
How Do You Say Turkey in Ge'ez?
Thanksgiving is often considered the most American of holidays, perhaps second only to the Fourth of July. Nothing speaks more to American culture and values than celebrating the religious tolerance generations of immigrants sought on U.S. shores, or the creation of a land of plenty, by eating helping after helping of turkey, stuffing and cranberry mold. Yet, by the vagaries of the lunar calendar, a very similar holiday of thanksgiving was celebrated November 24 by Israel’s 120,000-strong Ethiopian Jewish community.
Friday Film: An Israeli Arab in the IDF
Did you hear the joke about the Arab who volunteered for the IDF? He was so patriotic that the Beitar Jerusalem fans in the Border Police were impressed. They even considered visiting his family’s home in Sakhnin. Well almost, anyway.