Michael Maren has lived an Indiana Jones kind of life: Peace Corps volunteer, war correspondent from Africa, kidnap victim of a Somali warlord, author, and now filmmaker. However, anyone expecting a hard-hitting documentary exposing the troubles of foreign aid (the subject of his book, “The Road to Hell”) is in for a surprise. In fact,…
In the film “Fed Up,” opening May 9, the untenable reality pours down like a mid-summer rain: In the United States, more people die from obesity than starvation. 87% of food items on supermarket shelves have added sugars. Teenagers are having gastric bypass surgery. We’ve become a corpulent nation, which is not news to anyone…
‘Frozen’ has hit the place where it (almost) never freezes: Israel. The Disney hit, which has grossed $1.13 billion worldwide — and counting, translates to “Lishbor Et Ha’Kerach” in Hebrew, which means “Breaking the Ice”. “Let It Go” becomes ‘La’azov’ in Hebrew, and it means “To Let Go / To Leave.” Ice Queen Elsa is…
Movies about the army are usually about fighting, sacrifice, a tense atmosphere and people in uniform plotting war strategies. “Zero Motivation,” the first feature film by Israeli director Talya Lavie, shows a different aspect of military life: Set in an army base in the Israeli desert in 2004, it tells the story of a group…
Irish-born British actor Jonas Armstrong stars in “Walking With the Enemy,” a story set in Hungary during the last months of World War II. Inspired by a true story, it tells of a man who used a stolen Nazi uniform to free hundreds of Jews. It’s an action story about love and courage directed by…
Ellen Litman dreamed of being a writer when she went to school in Moscow in the 1980s. There was only one problem: She was Jewish, and thus she was advised to focus on something more practical, since in the Soviet Union, Jews couldn’t be successful at writing. Litman studied math and computer programming, and immigrated…
“Twist and Shout.” “Under the Boardwalk.” “Piece of My Heart.” “Brown-Eyed Girl.” The songs are recognized almost everywhere. But their Jewish creator, Bert Berns, has nearly vanished into obscurity. That should change this year, with a book, documentary, and stage musical — all inspired by Berns and his music. April 15 sees the release of…
The marketing spiel makes the John C. Anderson Apartments sound like an enviable place to live: Open floor plans, oversized windows, and fully equipped kitchens, all in a happening downtown neighborhood. The twist: The just-opened Philadelphia building is a pioneering “LGBT-friendly senior apartment community” — the only one in Pennsylvania, and one of just three…
דער זשורנאַל, גרויס ווי אַ גאַנץ בוך, נעמט אויך אַרײַן טײַגע־לידער און פֿאַקטאַזיע־ווערק.
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