Masha Leon
By Masha Leon
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The Schmooze Giulio Ricciarelli Exposes Holocaust Ignorance in ‘Labyrinth of Lies’
“I assumed your film [“Labyrinth of Lies”] was fiction — not realizing you were recreating history,” I told Giulio Ricciarelli during our chat at the Regency Hotel. In this, his directorial debut film of the behind-the-scenes drama that led to the 1963-65 Frankfurt [Auschwitz] trials, which, he said “was as important in its way as the…
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The Schmooze That Time Carly Fiorina Quoted Amos Oz
As Carly Fiorina checkmated Donald Trump’s “you have a pretty face” gaffe/apology and challenged the 11-strong GOP “boys’ club” presidential candidate lineup at the September 16 presidential Olympiad at the Ronald Reagan Memorial Library, I recalled Fiorina’s address at the October 1, 2002 Appeal of Conscience Foundation Awards Dinner at which she was an honoree….
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The Schmooze For Rosh Hashanah, Remembering Two (Jewish) Decades of Hillary Clinton
As the Jewish New Year approaches, this seemed an apt moment to revisit a few of the many Jewish events that presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton has graced over the past two decades. Among my earliest chats with Hillary Clinton was at president Bill Clinton’s 50th birthday celebration in 1996 — a three-part one-day marathon led…
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The Schmooze Talking Polish Underground and World War II With Joshua Zimmerman
“I am always explaining — often to American Jews — that not all Poles were anti-Semites,” I told Joshua Zimmerman Yeshiva University Associate Professor of History and Eli and Diana Zborowski Professorial Chair in Holocaust Studies and Eastern European Jewish Studies” and author of the just published [Cambridge University Press] “The Polish Underground and the Jews…
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The Schmooze Backstage With Michelle Lee’s ‘Wicked’ Madame Morrible
“How did you come to “Wicked”? I asked twice Tony-nominated Michelle Lee who inhabits the role of Madame Morrible — the headmistress of Shiz University and cohort of the Wizard who mentors [the green girl] Elphaba. We were chatting in her dressing room at the Gershwin Theatre where two weeks earlier I sat next to a…
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The Schmooze Hearing Yiddish at a ‘Hamilton’ Hip Hop Musical
I never expected to hear Yiddish in the lobby of the Richard Rodgers Theatre for “Hamilton, the hip hop mega hit musical. “Do you know how to get to your seat?” asked the feisty petite, blonde senior veteran usher who had just told a theatergoer “We’re all mamelige,” a reference to corn meal mush and…
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The Schmooze Remembering the Night of the Murdered Soviet Yiddish Poets
What made this year’s Remembrance of the “August 12, 1952 Night of the Murdered Poets” Memorial held at the Center for Jewish History unique, was the presence of Ala Zuskin Perelman, daughter of murdered Yiddish actor Benjamin Zuskin. Following greetings by event host *Shane Baker, Director, Congress for Jewish Culture, YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent…
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The Schmooze My Memories of The Donald
As Donald Trump is being credited for Fox News’s kvelling at the largest-ever viewership of the August 6th GOP primary debate, I thought back to my first Trump encounter at the June 1990 American Booksellers Association Convention in Las Vegas where the hottest ticket was the by-invitation-only reception launch of his book “Staying on Top”…
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