Jewish History & Culture
171 posts found
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Showing off The Israel Conference
The Israel Conference held at the Luxe Hotel on Sunset Boulevard May 30-31 was the largest gathering I’ve ever seen of … Israelis in suits. Beyond that, the two-day event was a persuasive showcase of Israeli innovation and how companies from all over the world — including Procter & Gamble (P&G), IBM and Deutsche Telekom — are opening research and development offices in Israel to bottle some of the magic of the startup nation. Organized around a series of panels… -
Q&A with Noa, Israel's Superstar Singer-Songwriter and Peace Activist
Noa Achinoam Nini, the Israeli singer-songwriter known to all simply as Noa, will perform on June 18 at American Jewish University as part of the new Geller Festival of the Arts. Born in Tel Aviv in 1969, Noa moved to New York as a child and lived there with her family until she returned to Israel at 16. After her military service as part of an entertainment unit, Noa went on to Israel’s Rimon music school, where she met… -
Belllow by way of Bellow
Sons of famous fathers rarely eclipse their parent. Although there are some notable exceptions (JFK and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes come to mind), the singularity of purpose, the ruthlessness that lead to lasting renown, as well as the perks and vicissitudes that come with fame, none of these reward excellent parenting nor allow children the same crucible to ignite a flame that might burn brighter than their parent’s. That children of the famous write memoirs is common; that they… -
The Bronfmans' New Haggadah
2 Cover of the newly released "Bronfman Haggadah." For Passover this year, Rizzoli has just released “The Bronfman Haggadah,” written by the businessman, philanthropist and Jewish community leader Edgar Bronfman Sr., illustrated by artist Jan Aronson, who is also Bronfman’s wife. Unlike other haggadot, this version includes the role of Moses in the story of the Exodus (read Bronfman Exodus Story on page 19). In his introduction, Bronfman suggests that the omission from the traditional telling may be because the… -
When Voices met Visions
Here’s a challenge: Let’s say you had $1.1 million to give away on a program to inspire people working in Jewish organizations as well as the people who find themselves in their public spaces. What would you do? Hand out baseball cards with the pictures of famous rabbis and leaders? Produce mix tapes of Israeli rap music? Philanthropist Harold Grinspoon had a different idea, and the result can be seen in an exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center of 18… -
Abraham Lincoln: The First Jewish President?
Daniel Day-Lewis stars as President Abraham Lincoln in "Lincoln." Photo by David James, DreamWorks Abraham Lincoln has been dead for almost 150 years, yet suddenly he's everywhere. At the Skirball Cultural Center, you can see an original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Lincoln, amid an impressive array of founding American documents. The Huntington Library is host to two stunning and deeply engrossing Civil War exhibitions, "A Just Cause: Voices of the Civil War" and "A Strange and Fearful… -
Rita Rocks her Persian Roots
Pop singer Rita will perforn in concert on Nov. 1 at UCLA. On Nov. 1, Israel’s most popular and enduring pop icon, Rita Yahan-Farouz, known the world over simply as Rita, will appear at UCLA’s Royce Hall, along with a special band assembled for this tour. She will perform songs from throughout her career, in Hebrew, as well as songs from “My Joys” (HaSmachot Shelanu), her most recent hit album, which includes lyrics in Farsi. Middle Eastern flavor and gypsy… -
sex,sex,sex
Portrait of Arthur Schnitzler, Atelier Madame d’Ora, 1915. Image courtesy of ONB/Vienna, 203.759-D One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons features two men in conversation walking down a city street. Surrounding them are dollar signs — in every window, on every car, on everything. The caption reads: “Remember when everything was sex, sex, sex?” This image came to mind the other afternoon at a dramatic reading by Annabelle Gurwitch and Sam Tsoutsouvas of “Arthur Schnitzler — Being Jewish,” a work… -
The Joy of Discovery: The Art of Channa Horwitz
Sonakinatography Compositition 16, 1987. Plaka on Mylar. Image courtesy the artist. Photograph by Joshua White. Part of the pleasure of seeing a survey show of contemporary art, such as the summer show “Made in L.A. 2012,” currently at the Hammer Museum, lies in the joy of discovery. There may be artists whose works you recognize, but the WOW! of finding an artist you never knew existed but whose work is fully realized, of-the-moment yet timeless and blows you away, well… -
Jonathan Foer’s ‘New American Haggadah’: Extremely Similar and Incredibly the Same
The haggadah, the user's manual to the Passover seder, might be the world's oldest annually practiced ritual, and the story of the Jews' freedom from slavery in Egypt is, Jonathan Safran Foer said recently, "the best-known greatest continuously read story" in book form. And yet, just like there isn't a singer who doesn't think he can cover a Bob Dylan song better than Dylan himself, the haggadah remains the book that everyone thinks they can improve on. The "Maxwell House… -
Demjanjuk's Just Epitaph
The recent death of John Demjanjuk, 91, in a nursing home in Germany, brings to a close one of the most extensive and most contested Nazi war crimes prosecution in history, a process that began in the United States in the mid 1970’s and was ongoing at the time of his death as Demjanjuk awaited the appeal of his conviction in Germany as an accessory to the more than 28,000 murders of Jewish men, women and children committed during the… -
Have a Fantastic Klezmatic Hanukkah!
Share5 From left: Frank London, Matt Darriau, Lisa Gutkin, Lorin Sklamberg, Paul Morrissett. Photo by Joshua Kessler On Dec. 19, as part of their 25th anniversary tour, the Klezmatics will perform at Walt Disney Concert Hall for a Chanukah concert featuring both their well-known and new repertoire. On the program are songs by the legendary folksinger Woody Guthrie — or, as he’s known in klezmer circles, American-Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt’s son-in-law. The band has just released a double CD, “Live…