Jewish History & Culture
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Waxing Roth
The movie, “Elegy,” which opens Aug. 8 and stars Ben Kingsley as David Kepesh and Penelope Cruz as the object of his desire, is the latest film to be adapted from the writings of Philip Roth. This one is based on his novella, “The Dying Animal.” Despite Roth’s long, successful career in American letters, his […]
Bela & The Benz
Hatschek Bela. The very sound of my great-grandfather’s name brings a smile to my face. In Hungarian, last names go first, so although Bela was his first name, he has always been Hatschek Bela to me — all one name — a legendary figure in our family, a celebrated forebear about whom my mother and […]
Making Book on LA
BookExpo, the annual convention of booksellers and book publishers that took place in Los Angeles one recent weekend, is the book industry’s annual get-together, alternating among the publishing hub of New York and various other cities, such as Miami, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. Perhaps it’s the state of the book industry, the economy […]
The pariah loophole
The following opinion article appeared yesterday on the Op-Ed page of the Los Angeles Times: John Demjanjuk’s last appeal to avoid deportation was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 19. The 88-year-old accused Nazi concentration camp guard was stripped of his citizenship and ordered sent to Ukraine, his birthplace; Poland, the locus of […]
Sandler and the Zohan
As everyone knows by now, Adam Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” dives in where few comedies have gone before: The Middle East conflict between Arabs and Jews. Hollywood has a long tradition of preferring onscreen Jews to be Semitic-lite (or even better, portrayed by non-Jews such as Gregory Peck in “Gentleman’s Agreement”). Sandler, […]
Made in New Orleans
It’s 2 a.m., and there’s a crowd on St. Peter’s Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter; people are waiting to see the Stanton Moore Trio play Preservation Hall. Midnight and early morning shows during Jazzfest are part of a new tradition initiated by Benjamin Jaffe, Preservation Hall’s creative director, the man charged with safeguarding New […]