For Mel Brooks, world history (no joke!) repeats itself
Nearly 40 years after his “History of the World, Part I” debuted in 1981, Mel Brooks released “History of the World, Part II” on the eve of Purim, which began on March 6.
Brooks (he’ll...
Chaim Topol, of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ fame, dies at age 87
Israeli actor Chaim Topol, who gained international fame for his portrayal of Tevye in the stage and cinematic versions of the “Fiddler on the Roof,” died on March 9 in Tel Aviv after a...
Yad Vashem-sponsored symphony celebrates Japanese diplomat who saved Jews during the Holocaust
Samurai warriors live by the moral code bushido, or “way of the warrior.”
World-renowned cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper, a half-Japanese convert to Judaism living in Tel Aviv, comes from a samurai background. So did Chiune Sugihara,...
Oporto Jewish Community seeks justice for its founder, the ‘Portuguese Dreyfus’
The Jewish Community of Oporto, Portugal, is campaigning to have its founder posthumously reinstated into the army.
Capt. Arthur Carlos Barros Basto (1887-1961), a decorated Portuguese army officer who fought in World War I, was...
A century old, Buber’s ‘I and Thou’ will endure for another 100 years, experts...
German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber’s references to personal “I-Thou” and detached “I-It” relations ring a bell even for those who never read his 1923 book I and Thou, or read it long ago. But on...
Joe Woolf, 94, helped connect fellow veterans of Israel’s 1948 War of Independence
Joe Woolf, a South African Jewish volunteer in the foreign-fighters unit Machal who conducted research that helped preserve that group’s legacy for 75 years after Israel’s War of Independence, died on Feb. 28 at...
Artist depicts disarmingly beautiful Holocaust art
At first blush, the recent, photorealistic paintings of Los Angeles-based Jewish artist Robert Russell look inviting, almost sweet. A lamb turns its head to look back over its shoulder in one, and in another, a crouching...
Educational group formed to address day-school strategies, teacher shortage
Seeking to address a shortfall of educators in Jewish schools, Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day School and the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge established a working group to find creative proposals and solutions.
The Jewish Day...
‘I was Jewish, and that was it’
A rabbi on his way to board a connecting flight at Jordan’s main airport had the straps of his tefillin (phylacteries) cut by security guards who called them a security threat, he said Thursday.
It was the...
Why are the ultra-Orthodox the happiest group in Israel?
Haredi Jews are the happiest group in Israel, according to a 2022 life satisfaction and happiness survey conducted by Panels Politics. However, a report prepared by the Israel Democracy Institute noted that more than 44% of...