By Dikla Tuchman , Special to JTNews Seattle filmmaker Lisa Cohen worked in technical post-production for 15 years before leaving her job to stay at home with her two young children. About two years ago, the idea for her first documentary film, B-Boy, came to her by happenstance, and theContinue Reading
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By Ben Magalnick, Special to JTNews Steve Sheinkin, the creator of the “Rabbi Harvey” graphic novel series, rolled through town on the last weekend of February to talk to local synagogues and schools about the popular Wild West wiseman. Seven-year-old Ben spoke with Sheinkin about this new take on JewishContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews Ben Gurion Hosting is a documentary in the truest sense: The entire film is based upon the first Israeli prime minister’s life and writings. But don’t expect a Ken Burns miniseries for this entry at the AJC Seattle Jewish Film Festival: It’s 12 minutes longContinue Reading
By Michael Fox, Special to JTNews Like a native Angeleno, Dani Menkin effortlessly conducts a phone interview from his car without missing a beat — or his exit. The energetic filmmaker divides his time between Southern California and his native Israel. Last year he was also a visiting artist atContinue Reading
By Charlene Kahn, Special to JTNews It’s a real mystery: How did Samuel Solomonovich Koteliansky become close to the major figures in modern English literature of the early 20th century? He lived through the eruption of two world wars, genocide of his people, endured anti-Semitism. Yet through his peripheral yetContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews The Seattle area is unique in that such a large Sephardic population settled here more than a century ago. While many of the families whose ancestors grew their families and fortunes here do their best to keep their culture and traditions alive, sometimes it’s bestContinue Reading
By Charlene Kahn, Special to JTNews Although cold February winds blew outside the doors, in the social hall of Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle’s North End, all was warmth and friendship. A post-Shabbat evening of interactive art drew a crowd of adults from Seattle and the Eastside on Feb. 11Continue Reading
By Janis Siegel , JTNews Correspondent On Feb. 10, Seattleite Cecelia Benzaquen, inside a packed movie house in Berlin, sat on the edge of her seat as she waited to watch the premiere of a Holocaust survival story. The Academy Award-nominated In Darkness, for which a production crew built aContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JTNews Correspondent Where is Israel going? And where has it been? These questions are explored in four new books — non-fiction and fiction — that highlight aspects of Israeli history, life and culture. Hirsch Goodman will give you a good sense of where Israel is going inContinue Reading
By Diana Brement , JTNews Correspondent Local interest The Rescuer’s Path, by Paula Friedman (Plain View, paper, $15.95). Readers will not be surprised to learn that the Portland-based author is also a poet, and brings that spirit her novel. At the heart of this story is Malca, 15 years oldContinue Reading
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By Edward Alexander , Special to JTNews Lost causes, forsaken beliefs, impossible loyalties! How many of these figure in, and sometimes disfigure, Jewish history. False messiahs like Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank. Jewish homelands in Uganda or Birobidjan or pre-state Alaska. Yiddish as the official language of the State ofContinue Reading
By Charlene Kahn , Special to JTNews “A rumination on the preservation of history: who records it and why? What drives its documentation? Is it objective truth, or the personal motive of the historian?” These questions were penned by the playwright Doug Wright during the process of writing I AmContinue Reading
By Matt Robinson, other Two recently released CDs highlight the works of legendary musicians Neil Diamond and Frank Sinatra, though Ol’ Blue Eyes gets his glory through Jewish singer Michael Feinstein. Here’s the lineup: The Very Best of Neil Diamond: The Original Studio Recordings (Columbia/Legacy) Few singer/songwriters have had moreContinue Reading
By Charlene Kahn, Special to JTNews A characteristic of timeless design is the ability for a piece to reappear as if newly imagined, seamlessly melding its actual origins with the contemporary viewer and resisting categorization. An accurately titled local exhibit, “The Enduring Designs of Josef Frank,” on view at TheContinue Reading
By Judy Lash Balint, Special to JTNews Instead of arriving to work at the Spectrum Dance Company’s home on tranquil Lake Washington Boulevard, artistic director Donald Byrd has spent the past two months crossing Jerusalem every day from his temporary home in Abu Tor to the Machol Shalem independent danceContinue Reading
