Pamela Rafalow Grossman
By Pamela Rafalow Grossman
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Life ‘The Women’s Balcony’ Explores Tensions Among Observant Jews In Jerusalem
Details of conflicts between Israel and its neighbors in the Middle East have filled the news, of course, for many grief-filled years. Less prominently discussed outside of Israel are conflicts between communities of Jews in Israel — for example, over methods of and approaches to religious observance. Emil Ben-Shimon’s dramatic comedy “The Women’s Balcony” explores…
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Life Five Reasons to Love Rama Burshtein’s ‘The Wedding Plan’
It’s spring, and your calendar might be filling with wedding invitations. Or maybe you’re planning your own wedding, and/or discovering that you dislike weddings and the myriad pressures they can bring. Whatever you’re feeling about wedding ceremonies, or romantic love altogether, Israeli director Rama Burshtein’s poignant, funny, and beautifully heartfelt second feature, “The Wedding Plan,”…
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Life The Joys Of Seder At The Diner
A stapled Haggadah started it all. In spring of 2010, I attended a Seder where the Haggadah was unbound, its pages stapled together. It had been crafted by three Reform temples, as its front page stated, and released in April of 1974; and its language was a poignant reflection of its era. “Our ancestors suffered…
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Life Getting ‘The Last Laugh’ In The Face Of Tragedy
Director Ferne Pearlstein began to consider her most recent documentary, The Last Laugh, 26 years before the film had its world premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. This lengthy gestation period can be attributed, to some extent, to the documentary’s not-so-user-friendly focus: The role of humor during and regarding the Holocaust. But Pearlstein’s dedication…
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Life Jewish Women’s Group Celebrates 80 Years of Friendship
In 1936, 12 young Jewish girls in Hillside, NJ, faced a dilemma. At ages 7 and 8, they were interested in joining their local Brownie troop—but they and their families felt less than comfortable with troop’s choice of a local church as a meeting place when secular spaces were available. Worse, having faced some anti-Semitic…
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Life Q&A — Filmmaker Reveals How to Survive a Monster of a Jewish Mother
Many of us have, shall we say, challenges in our family relationships — and memories from childhood that are more brutal than blissful. Most of us work out these sorrows and struggles in journals, in therapy, or perhaps over wine with trusted loved ones. Gayle Kirschenbaum took a road that’s surely less traveled. In the…
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The Schmooze Idina Menzel Works to Create A Generation of Confident, Nonconformist Girls
As the days lengthen and the weather warms, Idina Menzel — star of stage (an Obie winner for “Rent” and a Tony winner for “Wicked”) and screen (on TV in “Glee” and, of course, a worldwide cartoon mega-smash on film in “Frozen”) — is thinking about summer camp. At the Tribeca Film Festival in New…
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Life Don’t Go Gaga Over Ivanka — a Nice Jewish Daughter Doesn’t Atone for the Sins of the Father
I have one thing in common with Donald Trump. We both think highly of his daughter, Ivanka. Granted, I have not had any thoughts of dating her, like her father has. But I’m more than willing to admit she seems terrific: smart, gracious, and hard-working, even though by birth she wouldn’t have to do much…
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