Max Ferguson is, without a doubt, a New York realist, choosing the city’s sights as his subjects for detailed depiction. An exhibit opens this week at the ACA Galleries that includes several of his recent paintings, including “Wonder Wheel” (2002) and “My Father at Coney Island (Skee Ball)” (2002). Ferguson is well-known for his works…
ST. PAUL — The ethics committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives met this week to hear the case of a Republican colleague under fire for repeatedly suggesting that homosexuals were not persecuted by the Nazis. Part history lesson, part political circus, the hearing featured testimony from a wheelchair-bound Holocaust survivor and calls of “kangaroo…
If music is to reflect the world, believed composer Stefan Wolpe, it must grip the listener with its life-and-death struggle. As a result, Wolpe’s work is not music for light enjoyment. Far from being pretty or tuneful, his music is obstreperous and ferociously in-your-face argumentative, reflecting a bracing anger that has drawn the devotion of…
An estimated 3.3 million people have died during the last four and a half years as a result of the bloody war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a report issued Tuesday by a relief group. The International Rescue Committee report said that about 85% of the deaths were from hunger and…
The worst-kept secret of the comic book industry of the last six decades has been the genre’s Jewish subtext. Call it the superheroes’ secret Jewish identities, going back to a couple of ghetto kids in pre-World War II Cleveland who created Superman as an updated Golem. Now, the masks are off. Marvel Enterprises, the giant…
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Since getting the call to leave Long Island and fly to an army base somewhere in the Midwestern corn belt, where she’s in final combat training exercises before heading to Iraq, Specialist Joanna Cohen has had plenty of time to meet the other Jewish soldiers stationed with her — all three…
The walled city of Israeli artist Avner Moriah’s new illuminated Haggada looks less like a Middle Eastern capital and more like a medieval Tuscan town. The cover features Jerusalem’s Old City, hovering in space against a black background. Surrounding the cluster of towers and red-roofed houses is a sand-colored wall, delineating a graceful ark as…
Gefilte fish is at once the zenith and nadir of Ashkenazic cookery: Is there any other dish that so typifies its extraordinary resourcefulness in the Old World and its long decline in the New? Gefilte fish is a forcemeat — chopped and seasoned meat or fish usually used for stuffing — made from ground-up freshwater…
CHICAGO — Waving American flags, more than 400 people gathered last Sunday in Chicago’s Warren Park, carrying signs that read “God Bless America.” At first glance, the scene was unremarkable in this time of rallies for and against the war. But there was something unusual about this crowd. Their Middle Eastern looks. The hand-lettered signs…
Violent hate crimes in France quadrupled in 2002 over the year before, rising to their highest level in a decade, according to a new report by the National Consulting Committee on Human Rights. More than half the assaults were aimed at Jews. A string of incidents have taken place in recent days, most notably the…
French champagne and canapés greeted arrivals at the March 19 “Sounds French: A Festival of New Music from France” reception at the Fifth Avenue headquarters of the French Embassy’s Cultural Services. The evening celebrated the month-long series of performances of works by French composers at New York City concert halls. “In view of the unfortunate…
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