Новости за 24.01.2018

A renowned Holocaust survivor from Italy was appointed last week as senator for life, a great honor granted only to citizens who have made outstanding contributions to society.

On Monday, Vice President Mike Pence addressed the Israeli Knesset. In typical Israeli fashion, he was met with protests. As he began, Arab members of the Joint List party whipped out signs declaring “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine” and proceeded to heckle the American speaker. Having broken the Knesset’s rules of order, they were quickly ushered out. Some foreign journalists, unfamiliar with both Israel’s rambunctious politics and parliamentary procedure, breathlessly reported the incident as a singular and shocking event. Читать дальше...

The following is a story that has been written in one form or another for the last 1,000 years of Jews living in European cities.

On my last trip to Israel, I spent a few days at Uri Buri’s Efendi Hotel, renovated from two Pasha’s palaces in the old city of Akko. I had heard of the legendary Uri Buri, a larger-than-life presence whose name is synonymous with seafood and fish; in the hotel’s restaurant, of course also called Uri Buri, we tasted his creations such as mackerel with eggplant and salmon with wasabi ice cream. While we ate, he came to join us, sharing stories about the comings and goings from the port of Akko, from the Bible to modern times. Читать дальше...

I’ve wanted to be like Anna Shternshis pretty much since we met, back in the last century. Anna, barely a year or two year older than I, was teaching at the Oxford Yiddish Summer Institute. And I, a farbrente 22-year-old Yiddishist, was a student in the program. With her big dark eyes and pixie cut, Anna looked like a younger, Yiddish-er Liza Minelli and was working towards her D.Phil in Yiddish at Oxford. Why wouldn’t I want to be like her?

Glenn Simpson, founder of the D.C.-based news-for-hire firm Fusion GPS, is a conspiracy theorist. He says so himself. On page 126 of a transcript released last week from Simpson’s Nov. 14 testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, here’s how the ex-reporter describes his own state of mind: “As sort of cynical and conspiracy-minded as I am,” Simpson told committee members and staff investigating issues related to Russia and the 2016 elections, “I am still shocked by... Читать дальше...

Nonfiction filmmaking comes in many forms. Among the hottest documentaries each year are films that expose a hidden story about a cover-up or other wrongdoing, seeking to inspire change by gaining publicity and exposure. They are important and worthwhile, and very often controversial. Equally valid are documentaries that dramatize events in a way meant purely to tell a story rather than to achieve an objective, presenting as clear-cut and straightforward examination using archive footage and interviews. Читать дальше...