Directors and Dictators: Jewish Films at the Chicago International Film Festival
A preview of some of the films from this year’s Chicago International Film Festival.
‘Transparent’ Leaves This World a Stranger to Itself
The show has always played with its central family’s Jewish identity and customs in offbeat, transgressive ways, allowing the gender politics and arrested development of its central characters to twist their relationship to their own faith.
‘Heavyweight’ Is a Podcast About Reconnecting With Your Past
In one episode, Goldstein explores his long-lost dream of becoming a rabbi; in another, he interviews his first girlfriend, trying to figure out where their relationship went wrong.
Five Jewish TV Shows to Stream Today
A handy guide to some of the most popular Jewish shows to stream today.
Netflix’s ‘The Spy’ Sneaks a Serious Actor out of Sacha Baron Cohen
There is, now and forever, only one character who comes to mind whenever Sacha Baron Cohen grows a mustache and sports a vaguely non-Western accent.
Fiction | The Eleventh Happiest Country
Roi’s old friend from the army, Tal, had been an actor before he got religious, and now he wanted to make another film and wanted Roi to do it. An action flick.
‘Chernobyl’: The One Show You Must Binge Before the Emmys
HBO’s historical miniseries about the largest nuclear disaster in human history, created by Jewish writer-producer Craig Mazin, is absolutely gripping.
The Magic of Alice Hoffman
The best-selling writer infuses her new novel on the Holocaust with Jewish legend—in the form of a rare female golem. “For me,” she says, “literature and magic are kind of melded together.”
The Best Jewish Movies of the Year—so Far
It’s a big tent, and the world of Jewish film should reflect that, which means exploring beyond the shtetl and the Upper East Side.
Why Do We Fall for the High Holiday Season?
Upcoming Jewish landmarks, such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, are particularly conducive to this mindset of renewal. As the season approaches and the High Holidays near, we are prompted to consider our actions and outline steps to fix what needs amending.
Five Books to Be an Educated Jew: Part II
Jewish thinkers and doers—including Noah Feldman, Angela Buchdahl, Fania Oz-Salzberger and Joan Nathan—share five recommendations.
Book Review | Steely Veneer, Private Struggle
I met Susan Sontag only once; it was after a dramatic reading of a translation of Witold Gombrowicz’s Trans-Atlantyk, which I went to hear with a group of friends in 1994.