Articles from the May 24, 2013 edition
Sorted by date Results 26 - 43 of 43
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Scene Around
”Oy am I fahklempt” department… You know what fahklempt means… eyes tear up and a lump in the throat. That’s how I felt after just seeing “Yankee Doodle Dandy” on television with James Cagney. (I kn...
Clergyman makes the case for Israel within South Africa's parliament
LOS ANGELES—The Rev. Kenneth Meshoe, a member of the South African Parliament and founder of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), sees irony in how the anti-Israel attitudes of his c...
Families in trouble
Becoming a reviewer has made me a better reader. Instead of dismissing works I don’t enjoy, I now analyze why they didn’t appeal to me: Is it something personal, for example, did a character or plot l...
IDF not responsible for 2000 al-Dura shooting, government report finds
An Israeli government review of the death of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura during the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 has officially debunked a French television report suggesting he was killed by direct...
How 'The Iceman' cameth to be
“I don’t think I’m in any way a sociopath,” said Ariel Vromen, the Israeli-born filmmaker behind “The Iceman,” inspired by the true story of one of America’s most notorious mob hitmen, Richard Kuklinski, who died in prison in 2006. Yet Vromen remembe...
Learning Jewish history via touch-screen time travel
On a warm Sunday morning last month in Washington Square Park, parents were leisurely pushing strollers, sunbathers were strewn about on the grass, and people of all ages were lounging on the wooden benches and sipping coffee. Meanwhile about 15...
Moroccan king funding preservation of Cape Verde Jewish heritage-but to what end?
PRAIA, Cape Verde (JTA)—A Portuguese rabbi and a Moroccan diplomat stood shoulder to shoulder in a Catholic cemetery here while 200 mourners howled in grief as they buried a resident of this island o...
He's having a Mel of a time
PHILADELPHIA—The summer of 2013 is shaping up to be a pretty good one for the former Melvin James Kaminsky, better known as Mel Brooks. In addition to his son Max’s bestselling zombie apocalypse ora...
How history shapes a family
When Alexander Stille’s mother died in 1993, she left few papers behind—just some letters, photographs and remnants of the lists she maintained to organize her life. Everything was in its proper place; her bills were paid and her will was sig...
New book tries to rev up the ruach
When Rabbi Baruch HaLevi took over as spiritual leader of Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott, Mass., which is just outside Boston, Shabbat attendance was anemic and two small rival factions in the synagogue were always arguing over which group...
Books about and by Jews among baseball's must-reads
This year, at least seven Jewish athletes will ply their trade on Major League rosters (two more are on the disabled list). It might be argued that a much larger contribution to the game has been...
Jonathan Ames, 'Herring Wonder' and HBO series creator, does Israel
Writer Jonathan Ames, creator of the HBO television series “Bored to Death,” is known for his fearless and exhibitionistic persona. One can find YouTube videos of him eating herring and boxing at the...
Sid Kaplan's 'darkroom magc'
The first time that Sid Kaplan saw a photograph being developed he was 10 years old. In a makeshift darkroom in the corner of a bedroom in a friend’s Bronx apartment, he watched the image emerge onto the paper in a bath of chemicals. “I just got hyp...
Peter Max's art still pops
If Peter Max’s life had turned out the way he originally planned, he wouldn’t be an artist. “I always thought I was going to become an astronomer because I loved astronomy so much,” Max says. “I thou...
From church choir to Jerusalem, a couple's interfaith journey
EFRAT, West Bank (JTA)—One Christmas eve, as Jews across the country headed for Chinese restaurants, I found myself in a church choir. The church, on the outskirts of Boston and straight out of a N...
Catching up with comedian David Steinberg
If you’re ever having trouble finding common ground among the generations at a family event, here’s a tip: Bring up David Steinberg. The 70-year-old Steinberg has been making people laugh ever sin...
Unpeeling the life of Jewish 'banana king'
There might not have been a State of Israel if a Jewish Russian immigrant boy hadn’t found a banana in a back alley by his uncle’s dry goods store in Selma, Ala. That young boy, Sam Zemurray, “fe...
As European soccer racism festers, British pros coach Israelis in tolerance
(JTA)—Itzik Shanan and Abbas Suan watched last week as 100,000 English soccer fans sang along to a live performance by a multiracial quartet at London’s Wembley Stadium. Shanan, who started a cam...
