By David Shayne, Special to JTNews “Haviva Reick: A Kibbutz Pioneer’s Mission and Fall behind Nazi Lines” by Zeev and Tehila Ofer (FAWNS, $16). Toward the end of World War II, the British and the Haganah (the underground army of pre-Israel Jewish Palestine) collaborated to train and insert some threeContinue Reading
By Tori Gottlieb, Jewish Sound Correspondent If you’ve ever heard the Hanukkah song “Ocho Kandelikas” (“Eight Little Candles”) you’re familiar with Flory Jagoda’s music. Next week, the 90-year-old Sephardic songstress will visit Seattle to perform that and other songs — some her own, and some passed down from generation toContinue Reading
By Rita Berman Frischer, Special to the Jewish Sound Sometimes it seems like a miracle how many different books on Hanukkah are out there. One of the newest and best is It’s A Miracle: A Hanukkah Storybook by Stephanie Spinner, illustrated by Jill McElmurry (Simon & Shuster/Aladdin; ages 4-8). AContinue Reading
Boris Kurbanov, Jewish Sound Correspondent It’s a noir world, or so the publishers at Akashic Books would have us think. Ever since the release of 2004’s best-selling “Brooklyn Noir,” the editors at the Brooklyn-based independent publisher have taken to traversing the globe, soliciting seamy and sometimes downright malicious tales fromContinue Reading
By Masada Siegel, Special to the Jewish Sound “Israel had a big effect on me,” says Ruchama King Feuerman. “It’s the kind of place where outrageous stories are handed to you on a platter, and then you have to tone them down to make them believable.” Much like the charactersContinue Reading
By Batya Ungar-Sargon, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — As the last generation of Holocaust survivors ages and dies, efforts to capture their final, untold stories have abounded. But in her new book “Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind,” Sarah Wildman has turned insteadContinue Reading
By Peter A. Klein, Special to The Jewish Sound It may surprise some to see the words “Schoenberg” and “Romantic” in the same sentence, but it’s not a misprint. Before he invented the modernist 12-tone method of composition, the Vienna-born composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was steeped in the late RomanticismContinue Reading
Boris Kurbanov, Special to The Jewish Sound Chilling and utterly compelling, Vanessa Lapa’s new documentary “The Decent One” uses narrated excerpts from a cache of SS Chief Heinrich Himmler’s letters and diaries — including those of his wife, Marga, his parents, mistress and even daughter Gudrun — to illustrateContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound How do you see Torah? That’s the question Nancy Current and Jeremy Alk will be asking upon the launch of their new class, “The Genesis of Creativity: Using Visual Midrash to Capture the Jewish Imagination.” It’s not exactly a new question.Continue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound Art Spiegelman has a hard time explaining his new production. It’s “somewhere between intellectual vaudeville” and “a lecture run amok” inspired by woodcut novels, the musical genius of Phillip Johnston, and an opportunity to use the Sydney Opera House. Whatever it’sContinue Reading
By Boris Kurbanov, Special to The Jewish Sound Last October, America’s favorite travel guru Rick Steves left for Israel with one goal: To “show both narratives” and help people in the West better understand the players involved in the Holy Land. There, he filmed his latest TV travelogue, “Rick Steves’Continue Reading
Rita Frischer Special to The Jewish Sound As the leaves turn, we turn — from summer’s indulgences to the crisp demands of fall as school resumes and our work schedules intensify. At the same time, Judaism asks us to turn inward as well. We practice teshuvah, returning to our bestContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, The Jewish Sound For those of us that live in or grew up in Seattle, “The Boys in the Boat” (Viking Penguin, paper) is even more special than the tens of thousands of readers that last year made this book a silent bestseller, inspiring its paperbackContinue Reading
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Joan Rivers, who broke barriers for women in comedy and on television, has died. Rivers, 81, died Thursday a week after being rushed to Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital after her heart stopped during throat surgery at a clinic. Doctors at the hospital put her in an inducedContinue Reading
By Dikla Tuchman, Jewish Sound Correspondent On Sunday, August 31, South Seattle’s newly formed Eruv Cooperative hosted SPARK, an outdoor Jewish music festival in Seward Park. Hundreds of community members and Jewish music appreciators piled into Seward Park Amphitheater to enjoy artists like singer-songwriter Ari Lesser, local Seattle-based recording artistContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JewishSound Columnist Holocaust Sometimes the idea behind a book is as successful as the book itself, but sometimes the idea is more interesting than the end result. The story behind Dan J. Puckett’s “In the Shadow of Hitler: Alabama’s Jews, the Second World War, and the Holocaust”Continue Reading
By Boris Kurbanov, Special to The Jewish Sound Any time the word “music festival” is thrown around, people typically think of events like Sasquatch!, SXSW, or Bumbershoot. On August 31, Jewish music from around the world comes to Seattle for the city’s first-ever outdoor Jewish music festival, SPARK. Middle Eastern rock,Continue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, The Jewish Sound When there are so many of us in our Jewish community that don’t worry about where our next meal is coming from, we can easily forget there are plenty who do. That’s why so many local Jewish organizations have come together to offerContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, The Jewish Sound Interested in knowing more about why there’s a war against Hamas in Gaza? Where ISIS came from and how it came about? Why there’s such an anti-Western bias throughout the Middle East? You could get a lot of that information from spending hoursContinue Reading
By Boris Kurbanov, Special to The Jewish Sound The history and tales of Jewish immigration to Washington is documented in an exhibit now on display at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry. “Shalom! Open for Business: Tales of Jewish Merchants in Washington State” is a joint project of the WashingtonContinue Reading
