‘Nana’: A thorough doc. film of a Holocaust survivor
“Nana,” as many of us know from the time as children we were mouthing our first words, means “grandma” and, in this case, “Nana” refers to Maryla Dyamant Michalowski, z”l, a Holocaust survivor who...
Steal Some Time to Watch ‘The Book Thief’
The Book Thief is a historical fictional novel published in 2005 by Australian author Markus Zusak. It is his most popular work having been translated into 63 languages selling over 16 million copies worldwide. The...
Going the way of movable type and printing presses
Paul Aken operates the Platen Press Museum which is located, appropriately enough, in Mt. Zion, Illinois. Although it is coincidental, the religiously themed name of Aken’s city harkens back to the primary use of...
Schwinging start to the Jewish Film Festival
Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Quincy Jones, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock… If you’re a jazz fan, you know these names. They are the stars shining in the jazzosphere of Blue Note Records. And...
‘Landing Up’: a sensitive look at the homeless
Landing Up, a debut film by Israeli director Dani Tenebaum starring and co-produced with him by his wife Stacey Maltin, is a sensitive portrayal of a young homeless woman who dreams of having her...
Leonard Bernstein Netflix film criticized over ‘Jewface’
In lush black and white, a man and woman sit back-to-back in a park, playing a guessing game together, dreaming that they can communicate telepathically if they just try hard enough. The scene cuts...
Documentary: Jewish Refugees Return To Fight Hitler
The 2020 documentary About Face: Jewish Refugees in the Armed Forces, streaming on Amazon, documents the thought-provoking WWII story of young Jewish men and women who escaped certain death at the hands of the Nazis. They...
Nuclear story ‘not over,’ says author of book behind ‘Oppenheimer’ film
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film “Oppenheimer,” now in theaters, explores the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer—the so-called “father” of the atomic bomb and one of history’s most famous and controversial Jews.
One of the authors of the...
Why Jewish songwriters wrote the soundtrack to the world’s most musical holiday
What's the connection between Silver Bells, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, A Holly Jolly Christmas, The Secret of Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and White Christmas?
They were all...
‘I’ve always been seen by other people as Jewish’
My experience of comedians is that they’re rarely funny to meet. I’ve interviewed Ben Stiller, Bobcat Goldthwait, Ricky Gervais, Rob Schneider, Robin Williams and Woody Allen, and they were all interesting, intelligent individuals, but...