Sidney Lumet, the acclaimed director more than 50 films, died April 9 in Manhattan at the age of 86. Best known for taut psychodramas such as “Serpico” (1973), “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), “Network” (1976) and “The Verdict” (1982), Lumet’s work demonstrated an enduring interest in social realism and the difficulty of obtaining justice, a concern…
A version of this post appeared in Yiddish. On March 12 the Yiddish theater lost one of its most beloved stars. Shifra Lerer, an Argentine-born actress who toured the world and who later appeared in films by Woody Allen and Sidney Lumet, died in Manhattan at the age of 95. I met Shifra during my…
The latest issue of Habitus features eight poems by Esther Dischereit. The winners of the 2011 Rappaport Prize, a one million dollar award given annually to two Israel painters, have been announced. Woodie Allen talks about his controversial marriage. Cynthia Ozick accepts the Jewish Book Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Philip Glass is so prolific that…
For many Jews and non-Jews, American Jewish culture is defined by stereotypes such as the pushy mother, the shleppy father, chopped liver swans, too much food (“just in case…”) accountants, doctors, and holidays in the Catskills or Florida. But a new generation of Jews are so hip, Americanized and assimilated that they are not even…
Earlier this week, Saul Austerlitz wrote about his recent author tour and five not-as-terrible-as-you-think movies. His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog series. For more information on the series, please visit: One of the trickiest aspects of writing…
Is literature being dropped from Israeli curricula? Simon Sebag-Montefiore writes a “biography” of Jerusalem. After a 45 year retreat from the public eye, Abstract Expressionist painter Abraham Yurberg has a new exhibit. Woody Allen’s new film “Midnight in Paris” is set to open this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Liel Leibovitz ruminates on the legacy of…
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree I don’t know about you, but these days, when my mailbox bulges with solicitations from just about every non-profit organization known to man, I can’t help but wonder whether there might be another way to go about it. The history of fundraising, after all, is the history of innovation….
Michael Wex is best known for his acerbic, authoritative books on Yiddish language and culture, but in this fall’s “The Frumkiss Family Business,” he has turned his attention to fiction. The sprawling novel is a farcical family saga, following three generations of a Jewish clan in Toronto’s Bathurst Manor neighborhood and questioning, in Wex’s characteristically…
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