Al Grand, whose masterful translations of Gilbert and Sullivan’s works returns to Der Vinkl once more with a few of his laugh-provoking translations from his “Yam Gazlonim” (“Pirates of Penzance”). What follows is his submission to our readers, along with an announcement about a forthcoming Folksbiene Yiddish Theater’s “Di Yam Gazlonim.” In Gilbert and Sullivan’s…
Washington — Emboldened by the passage of a ban on so-called “partial birth” abortions last week, Republican conservatives in Congress now plan to push several other bills aimed at limiting abortions on a national level. Congressional staffers confirmed this week that Congress is planning to restart the legislative process in the near future on three…
Jewish researchers frustrated with the trouble-plagued National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01 are calling for a question on religion to be added to the decennial United States Census. Bucking the Jewish community’s historic opposition to government inquiries on religion, three leading scholars now say it may be the only way to count Jews accurately. The reform…
Up and down the streets of London’s most Orthodox neighborhoods, Rafi Fuchs drives a van that has kids giving chase, yarmulkes flapping in the wind. Europe’s first kosher ice-cream truck sells only one flavor: vanilla. But that was good enough to sell some 3,000 cones on hot afternoons in Golders Green this summer, when the…
JERUSALEM — With fears growing that Israeli-Palestinian relations are reaching a dangerous stalemate, a power struggle has erupted within the Israeli security establishment over the conduct of Israel’s war against terrorism. Israel’s military brass is pressing for an easing of some recent restrictions on the Palestinian population, arguing that the restrictions on movement and economic…
Ancient Jewish Novels: An Anthology Edited and Translated by Lawrence M. Wills Oxford University Press, 320 pages, $24.95. * * *| In “Joseph and Aseneth,” a “purer than thou” Joseph, the biblical patriarch and newly appointed regent of Egypt, meets the “holier than thou” Aseneth, virginal daughter of Pharaoh’s chief counselor. Aseneth — “more beautiful…
When God decides to destroy His creation — the inhabitants of this earth and all the flora and fauna except for Noah, his family and the very precise passenger list God gives Noah — it is very early on in Genesis. Of course, He is going to try again to make a better world. This…
In a rare rebuke, a top American Jewish organizational official is criticizing the Israeli minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, for penning a scathing critique of American Jewish campus activism. Avraham Infeld, interim president of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, said that Sharansky’s portrayal of the state of…
Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction From the Edge Edited by Paul Zakrzewski * * *| In “Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge,” editor Paul Zakrzewski explains that the inspiration for his collection of 25 stories originated in “Bad Jews,” a series of monthly literary readings he organized at the KGB Bar in New York’s East…
When playwright William Gibson’s one-woman play “Golda’s Balcony” opened last March at the Manhattan Ensemble Theater, reviewers proclaimed Tovah Feldshuh’s portrayal of Israel’s Prime Minister Meir as “blazing,” “sensational” and “extraordinary.” Nothing has changed in the recent move to Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, except that the seats are far more cushy. At the play’s October…
Call them the “Norm Coleman Republicans.” A surprising number of Jews running for office in 2003 appear to be modeling themselves after the newly minted Minnesota senator and former mayor of St. Paul — moderate, Jewish Republicans running on urban-friendly platforms. In mayoral, city council and state senate races in New York, New Jersey and…
