Inside Llewyn Davis – (movie review)
“In Ways Normal To His Place”

“Folk song calls the native back to his roots and prepares him emotionally to dance, worship, work, fight, or make love in ways normal to his place.” Alan Lomax, Folk Songs of North America. Over sushi in Brooklyn the other night, I was asked to justify why we made the kids see Inside Llewyn Davis, the […]

Begrudging or Bust – Cinema Jews from Rosh Hashanah to New Year’s Eve

Jack and Jill There’s no denying that Adam Sandler has a talent for playing rather awkward and puerile Jewish men who are surprisingly likable, even appealing. Yet when Sandler applies this formula to portraying a Jewish woman, the result is the awkwardness without the appeal and likability factors. This is all too clear all too […]

Shlemiel the First resurfaces and a new Porgy and Bess

“Shlemiel the First,” the joyous 1994 Klezmer musical, reappeared this past month on the New York stage for, alas, too brief a visit. This revival was the joint production of the National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene and the Theatre for a New Audience, staged at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. And […]

Updates on the current situation in Israel