(JTA) — In the upcoming season premiere of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” Bernie Sanders gets emotional when he discovers a relative died while standing up to the Nazis during World War II. In a clip released to JTA, the Jewish lawmaker is visibly moved as the show’s host, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates,…
They’ve been bestselling authors, social-media stars and champion bakers. Now, Marilynn and Sheila Brass are reinventing themselves again. With “Food Flirts,” their new PBS show, the Brass sisters have become the most irresistible stars in TV’s vast universe of food shows. There’s no hip-shaking here: “Flirting” means these culinary detectives cajole their way into kitchens…
At the very end of “Dalya’s Other Country,” a young woman named Dalya — the documentary’s namesake — attends the January protests at Los Angeles International Airport against the president’s first travel ban. Accompanied by her two brothers and wearing a hijab, she carries a piece of poster board on which she has written in…
“Holocaust Escape Tunnel,” the latest episode in the PBS science series “Nova” follows a group of scholars and engineers as they use the latest ground radar techniques to re-discover an important piece of Jewish history in Vilna. Napoleon called Vilna (now officially Vilnius) the “Jerusalem of the North.” It was home to Elijah ben Solomon…
Public television has a pretty good idea of which side its donations are buttered on. So when it’s fundraising time, the network rolls out Jewish-themed documentaries: “Life in the Jewish Bronx,” “Life in the Shtetl” and “Life in Jewish Brooklyn.” (As a Bronxite, I have to wonder what kind of life that possibly could have…
“Netanyahu at War,” the Frontline documentary airing on PBS stations Tuesday night, manages to walk a very narrow line with surprising success. Despite the fairly transparent liberal leanings of the filmmakers and most of their on-screen interviewees, the two-hour film presents a reasonably balanced, objective portrayal of the Israeli prime minister and his beliefs. It’s…
I have a confession: I am completely, utterly addicted to Downton Abbey. It might go against my progressive politics, or , but – let us tell the truth – it is a soap opera in gilded clothes. The sixth and final season is about to premiere next month in the United Kingdom (Americans will have…
The documentary “1913: Seeds of Conflict,” which airs on June 30 on the Public Broadcasting Service, disputes the idea that Muslims and Jews have always been enemies; it also challenges standard Zionist narratives about Jewish settlement in prestate Israel. Though “1913” is the first major American-Jewish film to take these positions, it is not unique…
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