Book Interview | Elizabeth Graver Tells the Family Story Behind ‘Kantika’
In Kantika, Rebecca—who is both a dressmaker and a beauty—is interested in manipulating surfaces and self-fashioning.
25
May
05
May
Film Review | Jerusalem Balagan
Paris Boutique
2022
81 minutes
Director: Marco Carmel
Mayane Films, United Channel Movies, United King Film Distribution
Hebrew, English, French with English Subtitles
Romantic Comedy
When sophisticated Parisian-Jewish lawyer Louise, played by Joséphine Draï (Belle Belle Belle, Man Up!) is asked by her father to take a temporary respite from planning her extravagant wedding and fly to Jerusalem to close on a multi-million euro deal, little could she have imagined the dramas that would ensue on her three-day trip.
This zany romantic comedy admirably illustrates how Israeli cinema and Jewish culture is so much wider and richer than the sturm und drang in which it is so often portrayed. That the film has already garnered six nominations for Ophir Awards (aka the Israeli Oscars) is a testament to director Marco Carmel (Noble Savage, Almost Famous). Unlike so many films of the genre—with clichéd...
18
Apr
Poem | Fruit of the Land
The fig tree’s fruit falls to the ground, Its purpled flesh still burning.
17
Apr
Visual Moment | Israeli Artist Sigalit Landau’s Immersion in the Dead Sea
The art Landau has created in this primal moonscape, the lowest land-based elevation on earth, explores the dualities of life and death, injury and healing, destruction and hope—a central theme of the current exhibition and a motivating force behind Landau’s art.
03
Apr
Book Review | America, Jews and Israel— It’s Complicated
The story of the interactions between Jews in Israel and the Jewish and gentile supporters of Israel in the United States is complex and colored by the unique conditions that led to Israel’s birth.
03
Apr
Literary Moment | Traveling the Land, Book in Hand
It is very difficult to come up with a catalog of books for a literary tour of Israel. No matter how long the list, there will always be disagreements and arguments about the canon, what is included and what is left out.
03
Apr
Book Review | A Writer Whose Stories Bite Deep
Her books have earned Reich a reputation for deep knowledge of Jewish subjects, among them ritual, history, culture and texts; experiences of Jewish women; varieties of religious (particularly Orthodox) observance; the Holocaust and its repercussions; and Israel.
21
Mar
Jarring, but Funny: History of the World Part II is a Fitting Sequel
Like many of Moment’s readers, I have been a diehard Mel Brooks fan since before my bar mitzvah. As a youth I loved the satire of Spaceballs, the absurdity of The Producers, and even the fourth-wall-breaking surrealism of the yet-to-be-cancelled Blazing Saddles. But of all of Mel’s movies, my absolute favorite was History of the World Part I. Perhaps it’s the zaniness, the sardonic humor, or just the way the film pokes fun at history: In any case, the song from the film’s famed segment on the Spanish Inquisition—featuring Brooks as Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada and a synchronized swimming dance routine—has been and forever will be stuck in my head.
For the uninitiated, History of the World Part I is a 1981 film composed of comedic segments satirizing history, including the Paleolithic Era, ancient Rome,...
15
Mar
Bookstagram Backlash for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a 2006 novel about the son of a fictional commandant of Auschwitz who befriends a Jewish inmate his own age, has been made into a film, a ballet and an opera. The hugely successful novel was described by its author, John Boyne, as a Holocaust “fable,” or morality tale, but it has faced sharp criticism by Holocaust educators and others in the Jewish community for distorting history and putting a feel-good overlay on a tragedy.
The book has been denounced by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum for its inaccuracies and unrealistic imaginings of what Auschwitz would have been like both for Bruno, the Nazi commandant’s son, and Shmuel, the Jewish boy who Bruno befriends. The main gripe shared by many readers and reviewers is that the pathos of the novel...
23
Feb
Memoir | Grief and the Lemon Tree
Artist and writer Mindy Weisel reflects on grief, healing and legacy after the death of her father, Amram Deutsch.