Currently Browsing: August 2011

Travel with Hodel

From Aug ’11 Spotlight:   Hear Jan Lisa (Tzivi) Huttner speak on “Hodel: From Sofievka to Siberia” on Thursday, August 18th at 12:15 pm at the Northbrook Public Library or 6 pm at the Harold Washington Library Center (Chicago Loop). These appearances, third in her series on the beloved musical Fiddler on the Roof (which […]

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THE GREAT DICTATOR Review

Criterion Collections has just released a luminous new DVD version of The Great Dictator (the Chaplin masterpiece originally released in 1940) with a huge number of related special features. Even though I’d seen the scene of Charlie Chaplin in a Hitler outfit dancing with a globe countless times, I never knew its context before, so I missed […]

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ILHMEC’s Spots of Light

From Aug ’11 Spotlight: “Women took upon themselves the responsibility to care for others,” said Yehudit Shendar when she introduced Spots of Light: To be a Woman in the Holocaust, the new exhibit at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. “It was the task of the perpetrators to take away their beauty, but after […]

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Mayses un Klangen

From Aug ’11 Spotlight: Back in Skokie on July 10th, another Sarah’s life was celebrated with joy and laughter when the Chicago YIVO Society presented Mayses un Klangen(Stories and Sounds) in honor of Sarah Rose Lazarus Cantor Stewart Figa of West Suburban Temple Har Zion in River Forest told a series of traditional Khelm Stories (including […]

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Aug ’11 Spotlight

“Women took upon themselves the responsibility to care for others,” said Yehudit Shendar when she introduced Spots of Light: To be a Woman in the Holocaust, the new exhibit at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. “It was the task of the perpetrators to take away their beauty, but after the war many became […]

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CRIME AFTER CRIME

At the end of this month, I strongly recommend the new documentary Crime After Crime by filmmaker Yoav Potash. Joshua Safran is a California attorney specializing in property law when he takes on a pro bono case of historic proportions. Potash follows Safran for years as he digs deep into Torah for sustenance. Since Safran […]

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SARAH’S KEY

Sarah’s Key, a new French film based on Tatiana de Rosnay’s best-selling novel, takes us back to an event known as the “Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup.” Over ten thousand Jews are herded into the Velodrome d’Hiver (Winter Velodrome) while French authorities collaborate with the Nazis to arrange their transport to Auschwitz. The strength of Sarah’s Key […]

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