It’s a seasonal phenomenon — this contrast of holidays and observance, ping-ponging between solemn and celebration. Several children’s books this spring marked Purim’s story of threat and deliverance and should be noted, even if a bit late. But celebrated here are also some new works appropriate to Pesach, Yom Ha’atzmaut,Continue Reading
Seattle is no New York. Here, bourekas are more common than blintzes and gefilte fish is reinvented with wild Pacific salmon. The Yiddish culture that unloaded all of its baggage onto Ellis Island and came to define, in large part, the phenomenon of American Judaism, got watered down enough somewhereContinue Reading
Life in Weimar Germany was, well, a cabaret. For a few years between the two world wars, before the Nazis came into power, Germany’s gay community was progressive, accepted, and even vocal. “We found one song, called “˜Lavender Nights,’ that was a gay pride anthem from that period,” said DennisContinue Reading
It’s not by any means the whole Megillah, but like the woman at the heart of the Purim story, the Baroque oratorio “Esther” made history. With its premiere, it introduced to the world a new musical form: The English-language oratorio, a grand creation for chorus and orchestra. Its composer, GeorgeContinue Reading
When a band has been together for nearly a quarter of a century, a celebration is warranted. If it’s a Jewish band, you can assume that a certain amount of tzuris has accompanied the success. That’s the case with the Klezmatics, the world-renowned klezmer band founded in the mid-‘80s inContinue Reading
Rachel Amado Bortnick didn’t suffer through pogroms. She didn’t escape her home country as government troops closed in on her town. She didn’t have to leave everything behind — her family, her cherished treasures — to make her way to the new world. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t haveContinue Reading
Chaim just can’t keep it together. Like the panels of the ads unravel off the rusting billboards, Chaim is falling apart. And just like he tries, desperately, to keep the smiling face of a politician from revealing the toothpaste ad underneath, Chaim can’t pull himself together. Every time he hearsContinue Reading
VANCOUVER, BC — David “Dudu” Fisher, Israeli-born world-renowned performer who rose to fame as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, first in Israel — where “Les Miz” became the nation’s longest running show — and then on Broadway, is coming to Vancouver, BC for one Pacific Northwest performance as part ofContinue Reading
When we think about Israeli films, we think about them taking place in Israel. Often, we think about them addressing the kinds of issues that make Israel such a dynamic place and such a constant presence on the nightly news: tension, territorial conflict, and terrorism. Lauded Israeli director Eran Riklis’sContinue Reading
For decades after the war, French filmmakers avoided the subject of their country’s collaboration during the Nazi Occupation. The late Louis Malle helped break the silence with his chilling teenage-fascist saga Lacombe Lucien (1974) and movingly autobiographical Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987). The latter film famously centered on the wartimeContinue Reading
Were things really better in the old days? Or do we look back and see our past with rose-colored glasses? Those hazy memories — of the shtetl in Russia, of the farm fields in the Congo — may feel like simpler, happier times, especially compared to a lonely subway rideContinue Reading
The music director of southwest Washington’s Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is also the principal guest conductor of Israel’s Raanana Symphonette. Maestro Salvador Brotons, now celebrating his 20th season in Vancouver, conducted in Raanana last week on Feb. 17 and 19, and returns there within the month, to lead three concerts onContinue Reading
1. Benaroya Hall holds 2,500 people. It’s an acoustic paradise, especially when it’s full. Welcoming guests is a major mitzvah, so think of your attendance as giving some visiting Israelis the warmest Seattle welcome. 2. The orchestra is celebrating an anniversary: 75 years since its creation in 1936. Twelve yearsContinue Reading
On his way to becoming a perennial All-Star in the mid-1950s, Cleveland Indians clean-up hitter Al Rosen received more than his share of barbs from opposing dugouts and the stands. All these years later, the slugging Jewish third baseman recalls how he distinguished casual insults from malicious slurs. “There’s aContinue Reading
“I’ll change that!” Cantor David Serkin-Poole calls out, pointing to Isaac Azose during rehearsal on Feb. 2, then getting right back to the music. Azose nods an affirmation. “That” which Serkin-Poole is referring to is the accidental mention of God’s name in a passage of liturgical music he’s been singing,Continue Reading
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a multi-part series honoring Seattle Symphony Music Director Gerard Schwarz’s final season. Seattle Symphony has already released its schedule of concerts for next season, starting in September of 2011, when its new music director, Ludovic Morlot, takes over. But right now, at theContinue Reading
Her own journey of spirit By Ann Coppel Debbie believed that singing was life giving. She loved people singing with her, participating. Singing is how I first met Debbie in the early 1970s — she was at a NoFTY summer conclave in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin as our songleader. We learned theContinue Reading
First the bad news: Book Lust is finished. Now the good news: Nancy Pearl, the creator of the series of books that helps hungry readers find the right book at the right time and Library Journal’s 2011 librarian of the year, isn’t giving up her personal quest to promote literacyContinue Reading
“Even after 70 years, I still remember how to make my own developer,” says Faye Schulman. During the three years she lived in the woods, fighting the Nazis with a band of Soviet partisans, Schulman documented her experiences, developing negatives under blankets at night and burying her camera and tripodContinue Reading
The end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will happen as a result of the everyday efforts of ordinary people, not the proclamations of politicians, filmmakers Ronit Avni and Julia Bacha are convinced. Encounter Point, their powerhouse 2006 documentary, focused on Jews and Arabs who’d lost loved ones to violence yet wereContinue Reading
