January 07, 2013
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli documentary “The Gatekeepers” was named the best nonfiction film of 2012 by the National Society of Film Critics in the United States. The film, which features interviews with six former directors of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, received the award on Saturday.
The film critics’ society is made up of 60 newspaper critics from across the country.
Directed by Dror Moreh, “The Gatekeepers” also was...
December 30, 2012
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Reviewer, WYES-TV’s “Steppin’ Out”
The history of the Broadway musical and the influence of Jews in its development is examined extensively in a PBS “Great Performances” special that bowed New Year’s Day on WYES-TV. “Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy” is a 90-minute documentary by award-winning producer and director Michael Kantor and will be rebroadcast this Saturday night, January 5, at 10 p.m. and also on January...
December 25, 2012
Jack Klugman, an actor who found fame as the star of two different and long-running TV series – “The Odd Couple” and “Quincy, M.E.” – died December 24, according to his son Adam. He was 90. Klugman, was visiting his family during the holiday period when he suddenly took ill. His wife and other son David and other family members were reportedly by his side when he passed away.
When...
December 13, 2012
By SIX DEGREES (NO BACON) STAFF
NEW YORK (6NoBacon) — Are Israel’s recent publicity problems finally over? Or did they just get worse? In the wake of the vote granting the Palestinians upgraded status at the United Nations, and just days after “Sesame Street” actress Sonia Manzano called Israelis “bullies,” Honey Boo Boo of TLC reality show fame offered a respite.
Adi Segal, an Israeli fan of the “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” star, sent her...
December 05, 2012
By CHAVIE LIEBER
FALLS VILLAGE, CT. (JTA) — As a gentle snow fell on the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center last Friday evening, some 85 people gathered inside a wooden lodge to welcome Shabbat — half in a meditation circle in which Grateful Dead lyrics served as a kind of mantra, the other in a more “traditional” service where the Lecha Dodi prayer was sung to the tune of the...
November 28, 2012
By SIX DEGREES (NO BACON) STAFF
NEW YORK (6NoBacon) — On Thanksgiving, a day that Americans celebrate with family, and friends Big Bang Theory” star Mayim Bialik took to her Kveller blog to say she’s divorcing her husband, Michael Stone, after nine years of marriage.
“After much consideration and soul-searching, Michael and I have arrived at the decision to divorce due to ‘Irreconcilable Differences,’ ” Bialik wrote last week. “Divorce...
November 13, 2012
A program of acoustic and electronics works by New Orleans native Morris Rosenzweig, will be presented as this Sunday’s entry in the Trinity Artists Performance series at Trinity Church, 1329 Jackson Avenue. Rosenzweig, a distinguished professor of composition at the University of Utah, has enjoyed a celebrated career with many of his catalog of over 75 works presented throughout the United States and across the globe in countries such as...
October 30, 2012
NEW YORK (JTA) — Alex Clare is really just a nice Jewish boy. Sure, his hit “Too Close” is currently the seventh most popular song in the United States, his music video has garnered more than 18 million hits on YouTube and he has mobs of teenage girls chasing him around Europe. But at the end of the day, he still likes to sit down with a nice challenging page of Talmud.
“I...
October 29, 2012
By ALAN SMASON
Anna Gil is an extraordinary artist whose works on canvas can absolutely be called divinely inspired and mystical. A striking brunette with piercing eyes and a Mona Lisa smile that beguiles her talent with a paintbrush, she is both at home in front of a canvas and in her newfound home of New Orleans. Perhaps, not surprisingly, this native of San Diego first heard the call of...
October 25, 2012
By TOM TUGEND
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Few can chronicle the changes in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra better than Gabriel Vole, a veteran double bass player. Vole represents the third generation of his family to perform with the orchestra. His maternal grandfather, the Polish-born violinist Jacob Surowicz, was a co-founder and was followed by Gabriel’s father, Leopold, whose son inherited his love for the double bass. In addition, Gabriel’s mother, Sarah,...