Last summer, Battery Park was busier than usual on July 4th. In addition to the crowds who had come to see fireworks explode around Lady Liberty, all the lights were also on at the Museum of Jewish Heritage (MJH). Manhattan luminaries, arriving in limousines and via car services, were there for the opening night of […]
Kudos to Cantor Suzanne Bernstein (aka “Lenny”) for last night’s terrific Purim Shpiel. This was the debut performance of the new B’ShERT Congregation = the merger of Temple Beth Emeth (Beth Emeth v”Or Progressive Shaari Zedek) and PTBAS (Progressive Temple Beth Ahavath Sholom). Learn more about B’ShERT on Facebook. Meanwhile, Reform Judaism is alive and thriving […]
When is the right time to say goodbye? My relationship with the JUF News began with a freelance assignment way back in July 2004. Abigail Pickus was one of Chicago’s Nextbook coordinators at that time (raise your hand if you remember Nextbook), she had an event on the horizon, and she told Aaron Cohen (JUF’s much loved and recently […]
From October 25th through November 5th, Metro Chicago will be hosting the 12th Annual Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema at theaters in Chicago, Glenview and Skokie. On Wednesday, November 1st, nestled in the midst of this twelve day celebration of Israeli filmmaking, sits the 6th Annual Films By & About Women, showcasing the work of […]
D’var Torah for July 15, 2017 By Jan Lisa Huttner Park Slope Jewish Center Brooklyn, NY Follow link to download text as a PDF file: 17July15DvarTorahPinchas My D’var Torah today on Parsha Pinchas is about “cherry-picking,” a subject which immediately leads us into the conceptual thicket of memory and the construction of memory – not just […]
Told from two perspectives, Someone to Run With directed by Oded Davidoff and based on the novel by David Grossman, follows two teenagers on parallel journeys of salvation and self-discovery. (EML: 3.5/5) Review by FF2 Associate Eliana M. Levenson “Tamar” (Bal Belfer) never goes anywhere without her dog, “Dinka.” Living on the streets, Tamar busks to […]
On Account of a Hat. In one of Sholem Aleichem’s best–loved stories, a wheeler dealer is forever “negotiating transactions” until “one day God takes pity on him, and for the first time in his career—are you listening?—he actually works out a deal.” But on account of a hat, exhilaration turns into farce and when he […]
I am not just in love with Joseph Cedar’s new film Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, I am ensnared and somewhat obsessed. I have now seen Norman three times, first at a critic’s screening in mid-March, then at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema on opening weekend in NYC (the night […]
Spring brings two new documentary films from Israel to Chicago. One I loved. The other? No so much. So let’s start with the spinach. Mr. Gaga, which opens tonight at the Music Box Theatre on Southport, is Tomer Heymann’s new film about Ohad Naharin, the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company. Chicago has long […]
Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife recounts the efforts of Antonina Żabiński and her husband, Jan, who risked their lives during World War II to harbor Jewish refugees in the basement of their zoo during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. (EML: 3.5/5) Review by FF2 Associate Eliana M. Levenson Warsaw, Poland, pre-invasion. Happy. Simple. Unafraid. “Antonina […]