(JTA) — In her recent book, “The Object of Jewish Literature,” Jewish Theological Seminary professor Barbara A. Mann writes about how “literature deploys physical objects as emblems of ideas, emotions, and psychological dramas about the self.” In other words, “things” matter: Furnishings, clothing, food and, in the case of Mann’s study, the glued or sewn-together bundles of paper we call books tell the stories of the people...
(JTA) — The reviews are in: “You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah” is the best-reviewed movie of Adam Sandler’s blockbuster-filled career. It’s a hit with streaming audiences, too.
The Netflix movie about teen drama and the hallowed Jewish coming of age ceremony co-stars his real-life wife and daughters. That casting decision has generated some criticism in the era of the “nepo baby” debate about...
BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — Gal Gadot revealed in an interview that went viral in Argentine media that she would like to collaborate with Damian Szifron, an acclaimed Argentine-Jewish director who often weaves Jewish characters into his work.
A snippet of the Israeli “Wonder Woman” star talking to Argentine journalist Agustin Eme about Szifron was viewed millions of times on social media earlier this month. She said that...
A local screening of “Golda,” the film by director Guy Nattiv that stars Academy Award winning actress Helen Mirren as Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, has sold out. The screening is being held days prior to the film’s scheduled release at a local theater chain and was moved to a larger screen in order to accommodate the huge initial response.
“Golda,” which recounts the events leading up to the 1973...
(JTA) — From “Schindler’s List” to “The Red Sea Diving Resort,” the non-Jewish, award-winning actor Ben Kingsley has starred in a number of Holocaust and other Jewish-themed movies.
The recurring theme in his career wasn’t an accident, he said in a recent interview. Instead, he said, he picked the roles because his “vigorously antisemitic” grandmother motivated him to want to speak out on the issue of antisemitism.
(JTA) — Like many parents, Mickey and Linda Rubin indulged their only child Ricky’s various hobbies — magic, photography, music — while he was growing up in the 1970s on Long Island. Ultimately, they hoped he would set his artistic interests aside and choose the sensible career of an attorney.
Ricky famously stuck with music.
In 1983, when he was a junior at New York University, he...
(JTA) — Since the birth of hip-hop 50 years ago, plenty of Jewish rappers have picked up a microphone and rocked a crowd. They’ve spit rhymes in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, even Aramaic. Collectively, they’ve shattered stereotypes about what Jews look and sound like.
But hip-hop is hypercompetitive, so the question must be asked: Who are the Jewish artists who have made the biggest impact on the culture?
(JTA) — Anyone who has visited an Israeli beach is likely familiar with the popular beach paddle game known as matkot.
For millions of TV viewers and a live audience of 1,400 at NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” a trio of Israeli performers who go by Bomba, or bomb in Hebrew, offered an intimate introduction to the sport on Tuesday’s episode.
(JTA) — I was just out of college when I got a freelance assignment from a small entertainment magazine to interview a rising comic named Pee-wee Herman.
Of course that wasn’t his real name, but the man-child persona — one part Howdy Doody, one part third-grade nerd, who spoke as if he just took a hit off a helium balloon — created by a comic and actor...
(JNS.org) – “So shines a good deed in a weary world,” Gene Wilder whispered at the climax of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” the first of many film adaptations in a book collection that has now become canonical for generations of young readers.
The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Buckinghamshire, England, where the author lived and wrote for 36 years, has now erected a notice at its entrance...
